Prof. dr. Pernette Verschure
Professor Functional Epigenome Dynamics, principal investigator/group leader
Pernette Verschure obtained her MSc in Medical Biology at the University of Amsterdam and her PhD at the Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Nijmegen. She received several prestigious personal career -fellowships and -scholarships (NWO-PULS, -VIDI, -Meervoud, KNAW). She worked as junior researcher at Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, USA and as visiting scientist at the Department of Cell and Structural Biology, University of Illinois, USA. She initiated and coordinated 'EpiPredict' EU H2020 Marie Slodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (http://www.epipredict.eu/) focusing on epigenetic regulation of breast cancer progression (15 academic institutes and private companies - from eight different countries, training 11 PhD students of which 3 at UvA). She is currently workgroup leader of the International Nucleome (INC) (https://inc-cost.eu/) COST Action network, and associate editor of the newly founded Springer Nature journal 'Epigenetic Communications'. With her chair 'Functional dynamics of the epigenome', Verschure connects fundamental research at the Science Faculty with clinical applications at the Medical Faculty, AUMC.
Diewertje Piebes, PhD
Technician
Diewertje received her BSc degree in Biological and Medical Laboratory research in 2006 after completing an internship and appointment as technician at the University of Amsterdam, she performed her PhD training in the Verschure group at UvA and received her PhD in 2016. She joined the group as technician in 2017. She uses advanced and time-resolved microscopy in combination with biochemical epigenetic assays and molecular cloning to design epigenetic editing constructs and engineered cell lines.
Ilona Vuist, MSc
PhD student
Ilona received her BSc in Biomedical Chemistry from at the Saxion Univeristy of Applied Sciences in 2009 and MSc in Biomolecular Sciences at VU in 2013. She joined the group in 2013 to work on the role of transcription dynamics and epigenetic regulation in repair upon UV-induced DNA damage.
William Beckman, MSc
PhD student
William received his BSc in Biology in 2014 and MSc Synthetic Biology 2015 both at Imperial College. He joined the group in 2015 as MSCA fellow on the EU H2020 EpiPredict project working on the role of transcription cell-to-cell variability in the development of resistance to hormonal treatment in ER+ breast cancer.
Stefania Astrologo, MSc
PhD student
Stefania received her BSc in Biological Science from the University of L’Aquila in 2013 and MSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Pavia in 2015. She joined the group in 2016 as MSCA fellow of the EU H2020 EpiPredict project setting up computational modeling tools to elucidate epigenetic mechanisms of the development of resistance development to hormonal treatment in ER+ breast cancer. The project is carried out in close collaboration with prof. Hans Westerhoff.
Maryam Soleimani Dodaran, MSc
PhD student
Maryam received her BSc in Software Engineering in Tehran Azd University Central Branch in 2002 and MSc in Bioinformatics at the University of Leicester in 2012. She worked as Software Developer and Chief executive officer in Sanjesh Afzar Asia and later as Bioinformatician at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. She joined the group in 2015 as MSCA fellow of the EU H2020 EpiPredict project in close collaboration with prof. Antoine van Kampen (AMC). Maryam is working on the development of an integrative analysis of epigenetic regulation in endocrine resistance development in ER+ breast cancer.
Anchal Nigam, MSc
PhD student
Anchal received her BSc in Zoology at the Banaras Hindu University in 2011 and MSc in Biochemical Technology at the Madurai Kamaraj University in 2013. She started in 2015 as MSCA fellow of the EU H2020 EpiPredict project at Epiontis GmbH. In 2019 she joined the group to continue working on development of epigenetic analyses to interpret immune infiltration in ER+ breast cancer tumour evolution upon endocrine treatment. This project is carried out in close collaboration with Dr. Sven Olek, Epiontis GmbH, Berlin, Germany.
PhD student
Miguel received his BSc in Biology and MSc in Advanced Biotechnology. He joined the group in 2018 as fellow of the Bio4-Med project. Miguel is working on transcription setting up multiplexed single molecule RNA FISH combined with chromatin organization to study transcription dynamics and epigenetic plasticity.
Misa Koncz, MSc
PhD student
Misa received his BSc in industrial biotechnology in 2012 and MSc in environmental engineering in 2014 and he was appointed as PhD student in Chemical engineering at the University of Politehnica in 2014. He started in 2015 as MSCA fellow of the EU H2020 EpiPredict project developing tools for targeted epigenetic DNA methylation interference in the Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary. He joined the group in 2019 to continue developing his epigenetic editing tools. The project is carried out in close collaboration with Dr. Antal Kiss, Szeged, Hungary.
Luca Magnani, PhD
Visiting scientist
The Magnani lab focuses on the causes of resistance to endocrine therapies and the epigenetic basis of breast cancer. Genomics techniques such as ChIPseq/MNaseI-seq and DHS-seq are used to study chromatin-transcription factors interactions. Luca is one of the PIs of the EU H2020 EpiPredict project. Luca is since 2018 visiting scientist in the Verschure group.