Poetsch Group
The Poetsch group employs computational techniques and machine learning approaches to assess and model DNA damage and repair processes, mutagenesis and genome editing to develop clinical applications. The group established a novel technique for genome-wide measurements of oxidative DNA damage and contributed to the understanding of genome editing precision. Work is underway to understand this in the context of different cancer types and as a consequence to different treatment regimens tissue specifically.
Our research
Understanding the link between genetics and the development of cancer has long been a focus of cancer research. With newest sequencing techniques, it is now possible to assess the genetic and epigenetic status as well as genome instability of individual patient’s and their individual cells at a massive scale. This can pave the way for personalized cancer therapy and may allow strategies to reduce treatment side effects on healthy cells. In individual patients, the distribution of DNA damage and mutations across the genome is highly heterogeneous. To date the mechanisms leading to individual patterns of DNA damage and somatic mutations are poorly explored. Therefore, this information is rarely used for clinical treatment decisions.
