In the poster session of the Young Scientist Retreat 2021, the three best presenters were selected by an independent jury and awarded with 300 €, 200 € and 100 €.
Stefanie Bärthel (P06) received the first prize for her poster titled “Characterization of the tumor microenvironment and dissection of cell-cell communication in molecular pancreatic cancer subtypes“. Stefanie Bärthel is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Translational Cancer Research and Experimental Cancer Therapy (Prof. Dieter Saur) at TUM. She investigation the tumor microenvironment composition and tumor-immune crosstalk in molecular pancreatic cancer subtypes through integration of scRNA-seq with histopathological analysis and flow cytometry immunophenotyping. Her findings contribute to the understanding of PDAC subtype-specific biology and aid identificatiom potential immunotherapeutic vulnerabilities.
The second prize was awarded to Stefanie Höfer (P18) for her poster titled “Proteomic basis for understanding the combination of gemcitabine and kinase inhibitors to kill pancreatic cancer cells”.
Stefanie Höfer is a PhD student at the Chair of Proteomics and Bioanalytiks (Prof. Bernhard Kuster) at TUM. In her research, she investigates the combination of Gemcitabine and clinically relevant kinase inhibitors in human PDAC cells. By using chemoproteomic tools such as the Kinobeads technology and through (phospho-)proteomic profiling of cell lines, her work contributes to the understanding of molecular mechanisms of drug combinations.
Katja Peschke (P12) won the third prize for her poster titled “Label-free high-throughput digital holographic microscopy to characterize pancreatic cancer heterogeneity on a single-cell level”. Katja Peschke is a PhD student at Klinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin II (Prof. Max Reichert) at TUM. In her project, she is elucidating treatment-induced resistance as well as vulnerabilities in the murine and human setting of pancreatic cancer. Therefore, she has established digital holographic microscopy as a scalable and cost-efficient tool to characterize PDAC heterogeneity on a single cell level. Ultimately, she is trying to translate her findings into clinical routine in order to improve treatment response and make a difference for patients.
Photo: Stefanie Höfer, Stefanie Bärthel, Katja Peschke