Eleni Tomazou takes up tenure-track assistant professorship at Medical University Vienna

(Vienna, 03.05.24) At the beginning of May, Eleni Tomazou took up a §99.5 assistant professorship in sarcoma biology at the Medical University of Vienna. The scientist has been leading a research group on pediatric sarcomas at St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI) with great success since 2018.  Just last year, she was awarded the highly competitive ERC Consolidator Grant.

Tomazou’s field of research is of great importance for pediatric cancer research: sarcomas are malignant tumors that affect bone and soft tissue. They form an extremely heterogeneous group and are among the least understood types of cancer, with little therapeutic progress. Twenty percent of childhood cancers are sarcomas. They have few mutations but carry epigenetic changes that reflect their embryonic origin. This underscores the potential role of epigenetics and developmental biology in the study of these cancers and the development of precision therapies.

Driven by her expertise, Eleni Tomazou is working towards a future where pediatric sarcomas can be diagnosed and treated based on a comprehensive molecular understanding.  

Tomazou studied at the University of Glasgow. She completed her doctorate at the Wellcome-Sanger Institute in Cambridge (England) and then worked as a postdoc at the Broad Institute and the Harvard Department for Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA).

More about the research group: Tomazou Group – St. Anna CCRI