Two researchers have been awarded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Fellowships for the Tate group.

Dr. Sebastian Andrei studied Chemical Engineering (BSc) and Biomedical Engineering (MSc) at the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. He remained at the same institute to pursue his PhD and worked on the development of small-molecule stabilisers of protein-protein interactions under the guidance of Prof. Luc Brunsveld and Prof. Christian Ottmann. He investigated the fusicoccin class of natural products as stabilisers of 14-3-3 protein-protein interactions and developed methodology to characterise the efficacy of such compounds. During these studies, he collaborated with the lab of Prof. Kato Nobuo and successfully applied for a JASSO scholarship for short term studies in Japan, in order to join his lab for a secondment in Osaka, Japan. After his PhD Dr Andrei joined the group of Prof. Ed Tate as a postdoctoral research associate working on the folding of CD59 proteins and applied for a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship under his guidance. With this funding now obtained, Dr Andrei will work on unravelling the regulatory mechanisms of HHAT, a palmitoylating enzyme in the Hedgehog pathway, and investigating its druggability to fight cancer.

Dr Patrycja Dziama completed her PhD studies in Pharmacology under the supervision of Dr. Rafael León  (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) developing new drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases. As a postdoctoral researcher, Dr Dziama has grown skills in the drug discovery field using high content imaging screenings at the group of Dr Oskar-Fernández Capetillo (Karolinska Institutet). Thanks to the MSCA funding, Patrycja will develop chemical probes and use proteomic-based approaches for drug discovery applications in the context of cancer. Dr Dziama will be joining the Tate group later this year to begin this research.

Congratulations to both on being awarded the prestigious Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Action fellowships!