Celebrating the Recent Achievements of Our PhD Students
We’re proud to share the recent accomplishments of several outstanding members of the SyPhy Lab. These successes show just how much dedication, curiosity, and passion our PhD students pour into their research.
Costanza Borrelli Receives ETH Medal for Excellent Doctoral Research
We warmly congratulate Dr. Costanza Borrelli, who defended her PhD thesis in January 2024 and was recently awarded the ETH Medal for her outstanding doctoral work, "Systems biology approaches to decipher cell-cell interactions."
Costanza’s research exemplified an integrative approach to understanding cellular communication using systems biology tools. Her work has not only advanced our scientific understanding but has also set a benchmark for excellence in interdisciplinary research.
Costanza is now continuing her academic journey as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Dynamics, led by Prof. Gabriel Victora at The Rockefeller University in New York. We wish her all the best in this new chapter!
Jan Michler Secures Continuation of Swiss Life Jubiläumsstiftung Grant
We are delighted to announce that PhD student Jan Michler has secured follow up funding to his grant from the SwissLife Jubiläumsstiftung, recognizing the significant progress and promise of his ongoing research.
Congratulations to Jan for this well-deserved support—and we keep our fingers crossed for a continuation of this successful path!
Marcel Pohly Publishes His First First-Author Paper in Blood
We are proud to announce that Marcel Pohly has published his author paper, “external page IAP dependency of T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia identified by high-throughput drug screening,” in Blood, a leading journal in the field of hematology.
This publication concludes Marcel’s MD thesis, conducted in the lab of Prof. Thorsten Zenz at the University of Zurich, and provides critical insights into therapeutic vulnerabilities in T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL) and related lymphomas.
In this study, Marcel and collaborators used high-throughput drug screening to uncover that T-PLL and other T-cell lymphomas are particularly sensitive to compounds targeting autophagy, nuclear export, and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). We found that IAP inhibition activates the NF-κB pathway in T-PLL cells, triggering a specific type of programmed cell death known as necroptosis.
These findings not only shed light on the molecular underpinnings of T-PLL but also suggest new therapeutic strategies for targeting this aggressive and rare form of leukemia.
Congratulations to Marcel on this important milestone and impactful contribution to translational cancer research!