Ana Kutschat selected for training program by EHA and EMBL-EBI
(Vienna, 21.12.2022) The European Hematology Association (EHA) and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) selected Ana Kutschat, postdoc in Davide Seruggia´s research group at St. Anna Children´s Cancer Research Institute (St. Anna CCRI) as one of only 20 favored young scientists to participate in the 2023 Computational Biology Training in Hematology (CBTH) Program.
CBTH is a rigorous postdoctoral program that supports the development of computational biology skills for early career scientists in hematology research. Under the guidance of international leaders, participants work to improve their skills in computational biology, including transcriptomics, genomics, epigenomics, and many others.
During two workshops, Ana Kutschat and 19 other scholars, 18 faculty and EHA and EMBL-EBI staff will spend ten days together at the EMBL-EBI Campus in rural Cambridgeshire, UK. The program comprises interactive talks and practical sessions covering many central aspects of computational biology, combined with breakout sessions in which scholars and faculty members work intensively on the scholars’ individual projects and their career development plans.
As such, Ana Kutschat applied to CBTH with her own project to specifically address those research tasks that require in-depth knowledge of computational biology and state-of-the-art computer-based approaches like single cell RNA sequencing or proteomics.
The research question to solve
While the impact of mutations at genes can be directly predicted, sequence variants at non-genic parts of our genome are much more difficult to identify and to understand. Yet, large genetic studies in the human population identified several mutations in the intergenic space that are associated with disease. Ana Kutschat focusses on intergenic mutations that are associated with high risk of developing childhood leukemia.
“In our project, we want to employ cutting-edge multi-omics approaches to identify the target genes, localization, and interaction partners of transcription factors dysregulated in leukemia, in order to uncover potential targetable vulnerabilities. CBTH gives me the opportunity to discuss with experts in the field the appropriate procedures to characterize the impact of non-coding variants in B cell development. With the support of experienced mentors, I aim to elucidate which developmental stages are affected by non-coding variants, and how this may contribute to leukemia initiation and progression.” explains the awardee.
EHA President, Prof Elizabeth Macintyre MD, PhD, says “CBTH is a very exciting addition to our clinical (CRTH) and translational (TRTH) Training in Hematology mentoring programs and I’m sure it will be of great interest to tomorrow’s hematologists throughout Europe.”
Link: Winners of CBTH 2023 (ehaweb.org)
About Ana Kutschat (PhD)
Ana Kutschat studied Biochemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, before moving to Göttingen, Germany to continue her education. She did her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Steven Johnsen at the University Medical Center Göttingen, where she investigated acquired chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer and how it elicits a calcium-dependent epigenetic reprogramming. In July 2021, Ana joined the Seruggia lab as a Postdoc, and obtained a MSCA fellowship in 2022. Her project focuses on the role of non-coding sequence variations associated with childhood B-ALL and the molecular mechanisms of their target genes.
Davide Seruggia Group: https://ccri.at/research-group/davide-seruggia-group/
About EHA and EMBL-EBI
The European Hematology Association (EHA) promotes excellence in patient care, research and education in hematology. EHA envisions a world without blood disorders by connecting hematologists worldwide, supporting their career development and research, harmonizing hematology education and advocating the interests of hematology and hematologists in the European arena.
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is a global leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. We help scientists to realize the potential of big data by enhancing their ability to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit humankind. We are at the forefront of computational biology research, with work spanning sequence analysis methods, multi-dimensional statistical analysis and data-driven biological discovery, from plant biology to mammalian development and disease. We are part of EMBL and are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus, one of the world’s largest concentrations of scientific and technical expertise in genomics. Website: www.ebi.ac.uk