Colorectal cancer research: inflammation in oncogene-induced intestinal tumourigenesis
I did my Bachelor’s degree in Biology (2010) and my Master’s study in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology (2011) at the Leopold-Franzens-University (LFU) of Innsbruck (Austria). During my Master’s, I went for a free-mover semester and research stay at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (Switzerland). After I completed my Master’s degree, I started a PhD at the Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI) and continued my PhD in 2013 at the University of Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College; United Kingdom) in the lab of Prof. Arthur Kaser, where I graduated in 2016 as PhD in Medicine. After graduation, I accepted the kind offer of Prof. Saur to join his lab as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Technical University of Munich (TUM, Klinikum rechts der Isar). Since January 2019 I occupy the position of a Junior Group Leader in the lab of Prof. Saur.
Multi-omics characterisation of the PDAC tumour microenvironment
I did my first Master’s degree in medical Biotechnology (2019) at the university of Perugia (Italy) and my second Master’s study in Bioinformatics (2021) at the University of Bologna (Italy). During my second Master’s, I went for an Erasmus internship at Theis Lab at the institute of computational biology (ICB Helmholtz centre Munich) where I worked on my master thesis. As a PhD student in the Saur Lab, I am currently analysing multi-omics data with a focus on single cell technologies to decipher the tumour micro environment composition in PDAC and the complex communication network between cancer cells and the immune system.
Dieter Saur studied medicine in Munich and obtained his doctorate in gastroenterology at TUM’s university hospital, graduating summa cum laude and winning TUM’s doctoral award. His doctoral thesis and postdoctoral qualification (2006) investigated neuronal control of the intestine, i.e. “brain-gut” function. A clinician and a researcher in one person, Saur established a new focus on tumor diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in 2002. The use of new endoscopic imaging procedures for early detection of gastrointestinal tumors and the development of novel therapeutic strategies for tumor subtypes are key topics of his research. A consultant of internal medicine specializing in gastroenterology since 2007 and a professor since 2013, Saur has accumulated a range of awards and grants along the way – most recently the prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his work in pancreatic cancer.
