Curriculum Vitae

Research Appointments

Since 07/2025

Sidney Farber Scholar, Instructor

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School/Broad Institute, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Boston, MA, Kadoch Laboratory

  • Investigating the connectivity between cellular signaling and chromatin regulation.

09/2020-06/2025

Postdoctoral Fellow in Cancer and Chromatin Biology 

Princeton University, Department of Chemistry, Princeton, NJ and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Boston, MA

— Joint appointment in groups of Prof. Tom Muir and Prof. Cigall Kadoch

  • Studied the effects of kinase-mediated temporal post-translational modifications of the mammalian SWI/SNF chromatin remodeler

  • Strong proficiency in genomics, in vitro cell-based assays (incl. generation of stable cell lines, immunoprecipitation, proximity labelling, functional assays), proteomics and chemical biology techniques (incl. protein purification, PTM Mass Spec, TMT-MS, SILAC-based MS, peptide synthesis, kinase-substrate assays, HPLC and LC/MS)

08/2018–08/2020

Co-Founder and Research lead

Evictas – start-up pilot project, Incubator Laboratory at Biozentrum/FMI, Basel, Switzerland

  • Evictas developed a technology to enhance CRISPR-Cas9 efficiency for ex vivo applications via small molecule modulation of chromatin structure

  • As a team of three we secured pre-seed funding by Gebert Rüf Foundation, BRIDGE, VentureKick and SNSF

  • Led research efforts, incl. high-throughput small molecule screening and efficacy assessment in mammalian cell lines, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, live-cell imaging, and flow cytometry

10/2011–06/2017

Ph.D. student and Researcher in Cancer Biology

Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research and Biozentrum/University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland.

— Group of Prof. Mohamed Bentires-Alj

  • Research on PI-3-kinase (PIK3CA)-mutant breast cancers, uncovering novel mechanisms underlying breast cancer heterogeneity and malignancy

  • Strong proficiency in in vivo cancer models, ex vivo primary cell culture, 2D and 3D in vitro cell-phenotyping assays, flow cytometry, microscopy and molecular biology techniques

11/2009 – 03/2010

Research Undergraduate Trainee

Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Department of Developmental Biology, Boston, MA

— Group of Prof. Beate Lanske

  • Contributed to study on the interplay between Sfrp4, fibroblast growth factor 23, and Klotho hormones in regulating serum phosphate levels and renal phosphate absorption in vivo

Education

12/2015

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Cell Biology

Faculty of Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland

summa cum laude

07/2011

Diploma in Molecular Medicine

Faculty of Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

excellent, ‘with distinction’ , Graduated in top 1%

Honors, Awards & Fellowships

  • Sidney Farber Scholar Award

    Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston MA

    2025

  • Long-term Postdoctoral Fellowship

    Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), France

    2021 - 2024

  • Invitation to Participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on Chemistry 

    2022

  • Postdoc mobility Fellowship

    Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Switzerland

    2020 - 2021

  • Spark Grant

    Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Switzerland

    2020

  • Venture Kick

    Start-up and entrepreneurial accelerator program winner (2 rounds), Switzerland

    2018-2019

  • Women in Science Award

    Ingrid zu Solms-Foundation, Germany

    2017

  • Cord Michael Becker Prize

    Outstanding Ph.D. thesis, Germany

    2017

  • Edmond H. Fischer Prize

    Best Ph.D. thesis of the year, Switzerland

    2016

  • Bruno-Speck Award

    for best publication Koren et al., 2015, Foundation of Hematological Research, Switzerland

    2016

  • SystemsX Talk Award

    for best talk at LMB-FMI Graduate Student Symposium, MRC-LMB, Cambridge, UK

    2015

  • Ilse und Alexander Mayer Stiftung scholarship

    Germany

    2009 - 2010

  • Dr. Ernst and Anita Bauer Stiftung scholarship

    Germany

    2009

Research Outreach

Selected Press Releases

<Evictas wins for More-Efficient CRISPR Gene-Editing> by Venture Kick

2019, Switzerland

<4 startup projects challenging the status quo of their industries win Venture Kick stage 1> by Venture Kick

2018, Switzerland

<Award ceremony Ingrid-zu-Solms Award> by Ingrid-zu-Solms Foundation, (German)

2017, Germany

<Cord-Michael Becker-Prize> by Friedrich-Alexander University

2017, Germany

<Double honors for the Bentires-Alj lab> by Friedrich Miescher Institute

2016, Switzerland

<Meet Shany Koren> by Friedrich Miescher Institute

2015, Switzerland

<Common breast cancer mutation induces multipotency and tumor heterogeneity> by Friedrich Miescher Institute

2015, Switzerland