Part 1 of our ‘Beyond the Award’ series
The EACR-AstraZeneca, EACR-Boehringer Ingelheim and EACR-Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Fellowships fund postdoctoral researchers at a pivotal stage – often the years in which they start building the case for their own lab. We went back through our records to see where past and current fellows are now, and what the fellowship meant for their research.
Building toward independence
Magdalena Sznurkowska (2023): Magdalena has pursued her EACR-AstraZeneca Fellowship in Nicola Aceto’s lab at ETH Zürich, working on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of metastasis. She has recently secured an ERC Starting Grant of her own and moved into a new role as Assistant Professor and research group leader at the University of Basel, where her lab now studies how cancer cells and site-specific metastatic niches interact to drive secondary spread.
“Receiving this prestigious fellowship has also been an important recognition of my scientific trajectory and has strengthened my career prospects as I had been moving towards establishing my independent research programme. The opportunity to present my work at the EACR Annual Congress was particularly valuable, both scientifically and professionally. In addition, being part of the EACR Fellows Network, and EACR in general, is inspiring and provides a meaningful platform for exchange with other early-career cancer researchers.”
Colin Ratcliffe (2023): Colin held an EACR-AstraZeneca Fellowship in Erik Sahai’s lab at the Francis Crick Institute and spent his fellowship studying why some triple-negative breast cancers resist PI3K-pathway-targeted therapy. Using organoid models, lineage tracing and oblique plane microscopy, his group identified a breast-tissue-linked cell state associated with resistance – work that has already generated seven publications and is currently under review after being posted to bioRxiv.
“Being an EACR-AstraZeneca Fellow has been a catalyst towards developing my research identity and independence. First and foremost, it provided the financial support to pursue meaningful research questions. Additionally, and uniquely to this Fellowship, we routinely discussed data and research directions with AstraZeneca scientists. This helped frame research questions in ways that could also inform ongoing clinical work and, over time, it became clear that we could both benefit from formally collaborating.”
Sebastian Pohl (2023): As an EACR-Boehringer Ingelheim Fellow in the Colorectal Stem Cell Transformation Lab at the CRUK Scotland Centre, Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC), Sebastian’s work focuses on RNA splicing in colorectal cancer. Sebastian has said the experience has been as much about collaboration as it has about data. His plan is to stay at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer to build on the fellowship’s findings and “establish a more independent research direction.”
“This fellowship has been beneficial in allowing me to pursue an area of research which I intend to continue in the future, as well as giving me the opportunity to collaborate with an excellent group of scientists in both academia and industry. This will hopefully be beneficial for future progression as an independent researcher.”
Irene Casanova Salas (2024): Irene was awarded an EACR-AstraZeneca Fellowship in 2024 to develop a liquid biopsy assay for monitoring prostate cancer, and she was named Senior Investigator of the Prostate Cancer Translational Research Group at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in the same year. Irene is now co-directing two PhD students, and in early 2026 she shared with us that she had been awarded a Ramón y Cajal fellowship and an ERC Starting Grant, key recognitions that support her transition toward research independence.
“This fellowship is playing a pivotal role in consolidating my transition toward independence as a junior group leader. The dedicated funding has significantly increased the productivity and continuity of my projects, enabling me to manage larger and more complex translational studies. It also provides the stability needed to generate high-quality data that will underpin future grant applications and long-term research directions. Beyond financial support, the fellowship strengthens my integration within an international scientific network, expanding collaborative opportunities and enhancing the visibility and impact of my work in the field.”
Nicole Kiweler (2024): Nicole describes her EACR-Boehringer Ingelheim Fellowship at the Luxembourg Institute of Health as a chance to go deeper into a question she wants to build a career around – the interplay between cancer metabolism and metastasis. In her first year, the fellowship allowed her to “extend my previous research findings in a broader in vitro background using therapy-relevant chemotherapeutics,” in a research area she says she would like to pursue further in the future.
“One highlight [of being an EACR-Boehringer Ingelheim Fellow] has certainly been the wonderful opportunity to join the EACR 2025 Congress conference in Lisbon and to present and discuss the concepts of my fellowship there. It was a great event to gain a broad overview on the research activities in the field and to connect and exchange with other scientists.”
The 2025 and 2026 fellows (Antoinette van Weverwijk, Julie Mazet, Martha Zarou, Christina Metoikidou, Rafael Blanco, and Alberto Hernandez Barranco) are all still early in their fellowships. We’ll be checking in on their progress soon for an update!
Next up in the ‘Beyond the Award’ series: the Rising Star Award winners and the exciting projects they have taken on since its launch in 2023.
Think you could be one of our next fellows or award winners? Keep an eye on our funding portal for available opportunities (available to EACR members). Also make sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky for funding announcements.
