Stefan Oberlin, PhD

Postdoc

Michael McManus, University of California, San Francisco

Pronouns: he/him

Most of our genome is of repetitive or non-coding nature. I’m interested how these regions, often concealed from analyses, shape gene expression landscapes.

During my PhD at ETH Zurich, my work centered around the destructive effects of repetitive elements to their host and the counteraction defense mechanisms. These studies identified a novel way to recognize exogenous elements at the level of translation. This also highlighted how little deviation from ordinary gene expression pattern is needed to be recognized as a potential threat to genome integrity.

My interest in CRISPR technology and high throughput approaches prompted me to join the McManus lab in 2019. I now work on the development of novel screening platforms to help us better understand the impact of repeats and non-coding RNAs on gene expression networks. I try to shed led onto their effect on drug tolerance of cancer cells and in particular cancer persister cells, a small subpopulation of cancer cell surviving drug treatments through non-genetic changes in cell identity. I’m fascinated by the development of novel molecular biology techniques and am intrigued by how novel technology often shape our understanding of biology and hope to contribute my own puzzle pieces to this development.