Published: 23-08-2018 16:02 | Updated: 04-09-2018 08:35

Nicola Crosetto receives nearly 300,000 EUR for establishing a Marie-Curie PhD program on genome instability

Nicola Crosetto has been funded within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie action “Innovative Training Networks”. The project aims to establish a European research network within the field of DNA repair mechanisms with the ultimate goal of identifying new targets for cancer therapy. The funding for the project is part of Horizon 2020.

“The grant will support one PhD student in my lab, and several ancillary activities with education and dissemination purposes, including workshops, summer schools and open lab days”, says Nicola Crosetto, Assistant Professor at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Training of early-stage researchers within DNA repair mechanisms

The network will be dedicated to high-quality training of early-stage researchers (ESRs) from basic mechanisms to translational research applications, aiming to foster their independent careers, their own scientific goals, and their future employment prospects.

In the Crosetto lab, one of the newly recruited ESRs will be applying genome-wide methods to study the susceptibility of cancer genomes to DNA breaks, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel targets for cancer therapy.

“Within the network, we will be responsible for training students from other network members in the BLISS method, which we have developed for genome-wide profiling of DNA double-strand breaks. Similarly, the student that will be recruited in my lab under this framework will have the opportunity to visit other network labs to learn a variety of techniques used in the field of genome integrity and DNA repair”, says Nicola Crosetto.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie action “Innovative Training Networks”

ITNs support competitively selected joint research training and/or doctoral programmes, implemented by European partnerships of universities, research institutions, and non-academic organisations.

The research training programmes provide experience outside academia, hence developing innovation and employability skills. ITNs include industrial doctorates, in which non-academic organisations have an equal role to universities in respect of the researcher's time and supervision, and joint doctoral degrees delivered by several universities. Furthermore, non-European organisations can participate as additional partners in ITNs, enabling doctoral-level candidates to gain experience outside Europe during their training.