Distinguished Lecturer Seminar Series

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Upcoming Speakers

Dr. Mallika Singh - Revolution Medicine

Date: 31.08.2026

Time: 13:00

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: A. Trumpp

Titel: Targeting the Oncogenic State of RAS with Tri-Complex Inhibitors

About:

Dr. Mallika Singh is currently the “ Rock Star” of Solid Cancer Research and targeting RAS, which is currently transforming the treatment schemes of pancreatic cancer and several other cancer entities. As Senior Vice President for Translational Research, she has been instrumental in developing the new generation of RAS inhibitors at Revolution Medicine (Redwood City/San Francisco), one of the currently most successful Biotechs worldwide. Mallika has driven the preclinical development of RAS(ON) inhibitors like Daraxonrasib, a new class of therapeutics that directly target the active, GTP-bound state of RAS proteins, mutated in many solid cancers. This compound has demonstrated unheard clinical efficacy against pancreatic cancer in a recently reported Phase III trial (NEJM, 2026), doubling the overall survival of patients as monotherapy with little side effects. Results have been presented at last ASCO and obtained standing ovations!  Several combination trials are in phase II and she will report about these on top of spectacular preclinical data on various cancer entities.

Itai Yanai - NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Date: 01.10.2026

Time: 11:00

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: C. Plass

Titel: to be announced

About:

Itai Yanai is a Founding Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is also a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU. Yanai has published extensively in bioinformatics and theory.  He has also done seminal experimental research in cell biology.

In 2016 Yanai co-authored a popular book; “The Society of Genes”, for the general public.
Together with Martin J. Lercher, Yanai has written a series of editorials on the creative side of the scientific process, which he called "Night Science" in reference to François Jacob. He also co-hosts a popular podcast with the same name.

 

Prof. Benjamin Tu  - UT Southwestern Medical Center

Date: 09.10.2026

Time: 11:00

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: A. Teleman, J. Cleland

Titel: to be announced

About

Dr. Benjamin P. Tu is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He received his A.B. and A.M. degrees in Chemistry from Harvard College in 1998, where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. James C. Wang. He then received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco in 2003 under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan S. Weissman. He pursued postdoctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Steven L. McKnight in the Department of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern. He started his own lab at UT Southwestern in 2007. He currently holds the titles of UT Southwestern Presidential Scholar, Martha Steiner Professorship in Medical Research, and W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research. He was appointed as an HHMI Investigator in Nov 2021.

 

Prof. Janne Lethioe - Karolinska Institutet

Date: 12.11.2026

Time: 11:00

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: D. Odom

Titel: tbd

2027

Jamie Blundell - University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Date: 14.01.2027

Time: tbd

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: Epigenetics@DKFZ workshop

Titel: tbd

 

Dr. Claire Rougeulle - Institute Curie

Date: 01.03.2027

Time: 11:00

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: D. Odom

Titel: “X chromosome activity in mammals: when dose matters”

About:

Claire Rougeulle is the Director of the Institut Curie Research Center. She was until 2024 the Deputy Director of the Epigenetics and Cell Fate center at Université Paris Cité, France and Professor at Ecole Polytechnique. She established her independent research group from 2007 and joined the Epigenetics and Cell Fate Center in Paris in 2009, of which she was one of the seven founding members. She has been working in the field of epigenetics for her entire career, with a strong focus on X chromosome inactivation in mammals, as a paradigm of epigenetic regulation. The work of her group contributed to decipher the role played by non-coding RNAs in X-inactivation and in the plasticity of epigenetic regulations in evolution. She also pioneered functional studies of X-inactivation in human, and her group is currently studying the control of X chromosome activity in relation to cell fate in human and non-human primates. She has been supported by numerous national and international funding schemes, including the INSERM Avenir program (Young Investigator funding) in 2007, an ERC Starting Grant in 2008 and ERC Adv Grant in 2021. She was awarded the Bronze and Silver Medals CNRS Awards in 2007 and 2019. She was elected EMBO member in 2016.

 

 

Prof. Jason Carroll - Cancer Research UK

Date: 07.04.2027

Time: 11:00

Location: Main Auditorium

Hosts: D. Odom

Titel: tbd

Past Speakers

DDLSS Committee Members

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    Dr. Michael Milsom

    Head of DDLSS Committee

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    Prof. Dr. Aurelio Teleman

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    Prof. Dr. Klaus Maier-Hein

    Head of Division

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    Prof. Dr. Darjus Felix Tschaharganeh

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    Prof. Dr. Hedda Wardemann

    Division Head

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    Prof. Dr. Mathias Heikenwälder

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    Prof. Dr. Volker Arndt

    Head

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    Prof. Dr. Claudia Scholl

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    Prof. Dr. Christoph Plass

    Division Head

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    Prof. Dr. Christiane Opitz

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    Prof. Dr. Leif Schröder

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    Priv. Doz. Dr. Titus Brinker

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