Joana Faria da Silva works in William Faller's research group, which is interested in understanding the role that RNA translation plays in colorectal cancer. Despite the significant improvement in prognosis, colorectal cancer still remains highly fatal, stressing the importance of a deeper knowledge of this disease. It has been previously suggested that intestinal stem cells are at the basis of colorectal cancer development. In her EMBO-project Joana aims to understand the interplay between RNA translation and intestinal stem cell dynamics and its relation to colorectal cancer.
Abdelghani Mazouzi is a postdoctoral fellow in the research group of Thijn Brummelkamp, which is interested in developing and using genetic approaches to study processes related to human disease. Abdel obtained his EMBO-fellowship to study the genetic interplay between novel factors associated with nucleic acid modifications in the context of epigenetics and the DNA damage response. "I am so excited to having received the EMBO-fellowship, which will help me in using haploid genetics to gain novel insights into complex biological systems", Abdel says.