DKTK Tech Talk: Forward genetics approaches to two problems of gastric cancer (Dr. Jovan Mircetic)

DKTK School of Oncology Tech Talk „Forward genetics approaches to two problems of gastric cancer" 
with Dr. Jovan Mircetic (Junior group leader DKTK Dresden)

Wednesday 20.09.23 | 17:00 - 18:00 via Zoom

Join our second DKTK School of Oncology Tech Talk in 2023 with Dr. Jovan Mircetic who will talk about „Forward genetics approaches to two problems of gastric cancer“. After his presentation there will be the opportunity for all participants to ask questions to the speaker and to engage in a lively discussion on the topic.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most diagnosed malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. The primary reason for the dismal prognosis is the fact that three quarters of patients present with an advanced disease. The tumors at the time of diagnosis exhibit high heterogeneity, proving refractory to many targeted therapies. Therefore, chemotherapeutics are still the treatment bedrock and all new therapies, including immunotherapies, are administered in combination with chemotherapy. Two problems arise from such a natural history: a.) designing new therapeutics on the basis of targeting one-by-one driver mutations is unlikely to succeed, and b.) the majority of patients develop resistance to chemotherapy. By modeling the disease in patient-derived organoids (PDOs), and leveraging large-scale forward genetics screens, we try to tackle both of these problems. The tech talk will specifically delve into the use of CRISPR screens in delineating cancer vulnerabilities, but also ways of designing new synergistic therapies.  

Please register here to receive the login information.

Speaker: 
Jovan Mircetic is an expert for synthetic biology und genomic engineering. During his PhD in the lab of Prof. Frank Buchholz, he developed a genetic sensor able to recognize the concentration of the cellular tumor supressor gene p53 and when needed, it can be used to trigger cell death. In that way he could show for the first time that it is possible to influence the destiny of a cell with an artificially added molecular switch. 

From 2019 to 2022 Jovan Mircetic was collegiate at the Mildred Scheel Early Career center in Dresden and since 2022 he is Junior group leader at the German Cancer Consortium partner site Dresden, working on the design of new synergistic therapies for radio- and chemotherapy- resistant tumors.