The Team

She obtained a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh in 2019 and has extensive experience in molecular biology, biochemistry and microscopy. Her previous work involved generation and computational analysis of omic data and she joined Martin’s team in July 2020 after gaining valuable professional experience at a precision diagnostics company in Glasgow. She is now working on computational and statistical analysis of epigenetic data and coordinating a key clinical study assessing the impact of lifestyle factors on cancer risk and ageing.

After successfully completing a master’s degree in Biology at the University of Amsterdam, she received a PhD degree in 2020 on the topic of Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Meta-omics Analyses at the same university. Charlotte is a postdoctoral scientist in the EUTOPS team whose core work is the high-throughput detection of DNA methylation patterns in biological specimens using sequencing and real-time PCR data.

He joined Martin's group in 2018 and leads the bioinformatics and statistics team. His work focuses on statistical and computational techniques for analysing epigenetic data, the development of new epigenetic cancer tests, and the translation of epigenetic testing to the clinic. His research interests also include the impact of hormones on women's cancer risk and the relationship between aging and epigenetics.

After her school education in Innsbruck, she moved to Vienna to study Molecular Biology. She has a strong background in cancer research and epigenetics, especially DNA methylation, with a Master's degree in Molecular Medicine from the University of Vienna and a PhD in Malignant disease, studying the role of DNA methylation for epigenetic reprogramming in NPM-ALK driven lymphomagenesis at the Medical University of Vienna. Elisa started working with Martin in February 2021 and her main contribution to the overall vision is the establishment and maintenance of the new translational epigenetics laboratory in Zams, where we are establishing DNA methylation-based high-throughput analysis pipelines to identify and validate epigenetic signatures for individualised prevention, risk prediction, and early detection of cancer.

She began working with EUTOPS in June 2022, and her primary role is in the “wet laboratory” area of the high-throughput laboratory.  Before this, she worked as a research laboratory assistant at "Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI)" for five years.

During her Master's degree she worked at the Institute of Microbiology at the University of Innsbruck. After her internship at AGES, she joined EUTOPS in November 2022. Her primary role is in the "wet laboratory" area of the high-throughput laboratory.

After working on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and JAK-STAT signaling at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, during her Master’s, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Martin Widschwendter at the University of Innsbruck in June 2021. So far, she has been able to obtain thorough knowledge in the field of molecular medicine, mainly covering oncogenic cell transformation, and to focus on state-of-the-art techniques, such as CRISPR/Cas9-dependent gene-editing, mouse experiments or histological analyses. At EUTOPS, however, her PhD studies particularly explore the establishment of epigenetic assays which will potentially help to better understand, diagnose and treat highly aggressive, gynecological malignancies in clinical settings.

She graduated from the Medical University of Innsbruck in 2018 with a degree in human medicine and decided against a clinical career. Instead, she did a Master's degree in Food Technology & Nutrition at the Management Center Innsbruck. She is pleased to be working with the EUTOPS team since 2022 and is currently responsible for the coordination of the LIFE Tirol and SUN Tirol studies.

She has authored regulatory submissions documents for new medicines in the pharmaceutical industry, has experience of grant proposal authoring for a wide range of funders including the European Commission, UK Research and Innovation and major charities, and has written extensively for business information publishers on topics of interest to the life science and healthcare industries. She has been working with Professor Widschwendter since 2012, initially as project manager for the FP7-funded EpiFemCare project and subsequently in support of the H2020 FORECEE and European Research Council Advanced Grant (BRCA-ERC). She continues to support new funding applications for all aspects of Professor Widschwendter’s research portfolio.

Before this, she worked as the assistant to the director of the Training Centre for Physiotherapy at UMIT (Private University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology) since 2004, after completing an apprenticeship as office and wholesale clerk and chief assistant training and working at various other places and companies for a few years.

Nora studied Biology and completed an MD at the American University of Beirut. She then completed a Masters in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a Masters in Public Health at the University of Cambridge, and a PhD at the University of Cambridge on modelling the natural history of prostate cancer and the role of genetic predisposition in cancer progression. She has received a Cancer Research UK Training Fellowship and Clinician Scientist Fellowship. 

Nora’s research is in cancer early detection, investigating biology informed risk-stratified screening strategies to improve the benefit-harm balance and cost-the effectiveness of screening programmes, and ways of implementing such programmes.

Since her degree, she has accrued almost 20 years’ experience working in cancer research. She began working with Martin in 2006 and ever since has specialised in the role of epigenetics in the development of women specific cancer. During these productive years she lead the UCL laboratory and established the laboratory logistics for two of our major research programmes: EpiFemCare (an FP7 funded programme of research aiming to develop epigenetic based tests for the early detection of breast and ovarian cancers), and, FORECEE (a Horizon 2020 programme of research aiming to develop clinical tests to risk predict future development of women specific cancer). Currently, she is working with our pan-European team on refining numerous early detection and risk prediction tests developed during our research programmes for eventual clinical implementation, with the aim to ultimately progress towards our 2040 vision i.e. 50% reduction of women specific cancer incidence and mortality by 2040.

She has been working with Martin as part of his UCL team since December 2013, working on various EU funded projects including EPIFEMCARE and FORECEE. Her main role within the team is laboratory-based and involves sample processing and methylation assay design and analysis.

After completing his graduate medical training at University College London (UCL), he joined Prof Widschwendter’s group as a full-time post-doctoral fellow. In 2016, Dan was awarded a three-year NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship, during which he supported the research activities in Prof Widschwendter’s group and also completed an MSc in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College. Dan has an interest in the effect of hormones on cancer and establishing new prediction and prevention strategies for female cancers, including epigenetic, metabonomic or other omics-based tools. He also has an interest in implementation-related themes, such as risk communication, genomic testing and informed consent in the genomic/post-genomic era. He combines research with clinical training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

He has taken time out of his clinical training to undertake research in gynaecological cancer prevention, firstly through the Margaret Spittle Clinical Research fellowship followed by a PhD, both at UCL. His research interests are in endometrial cancer surveillance and prediction in women with an increased inherited risk as a result of Lynch Syndrome.

His PhD is looking at endometrial surveillance for women with Lynch Syndrome. Assessing current surveillance practice, investigating epigenetic and immunohistochemistry markers and evaluating the acceptability of self-smears for endometrial surveillance.