Sebastian Other-Gee Pohl has now completed two years of his EACR-Boehringer Ingelheim Postdoctoral Fellowship, funding that is awarded for a period of up to three years to support excellent postdoctoral researchers in laboratories throughout Europe.
Sebastian is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Colorectal Stem Cell Transformation Lab (Kevin Myant Lab) at the CRUK Scotland Centre, Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC), within the University of Edinburgh. We recently caught up with him to hear about the progress he has made in his research during these first two years.
Can you tell us about the topic of the research you are undertaking during your fellowship?
My current research involves investigating whether the disruption of RNA splicing can switch immune-cold colorectal cancers (CRC) into immune-hot tumours. For this, I am generating models in which conditional degron tags (CDTs) are fused to a specific splicing factor in tumour organoids and in a genetically engineered mouse model of CRC. The overall goal is to test whether we can increase the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade in CRC by modulating RNA splicing and to determine the mechanisms which allow this switch in therapy-response to occur.
At this stage, how do you think the fellowship will be beneficial to your research and your career?
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.
What have been the highlights from the first year of your fellowship?
The highlights of my second year were simply being able to progress this research further with some promising results and having the ability to enjoy the science at the same time. The continued support from both my supervisors at the IGC and Boehringer-Ingelheim has been incredible throughout this fellowship.
EACR Postdoctoral Fellowships
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