Cells in rebellion: cancer, control and the code of life

Have you ever wondered why you were born with five fingers? You were once just one cell that kept dividing to two, then four, and ultimately to trillions that now make up your body. These cells specialized into an eye, brain, liver or a finger. Each cell contains the same DNA with the same genes, so to specialize correctly, it must switch on precise genes at precise time. In this talk we’ll explore enhancers – DNA elements that regulate this process – and discover what can happen if the regulation goes wrong. Finally, you’ll uncover the true reason behind Mickey’s four fingers.

Blood clots are meant to stop the bleeding when we get injured. But what if cancer finds a way to use this system for its own benefit? People with cancer are at higher risk of dangerous blood clots, and we still can’t always predict who will be affected. In this talk, we explore the hidden link between cancer and blood clotting, how clotting factors may help tumours grow and spread, and how we’re trying to stop this process without affecting normal clotting in the body.

What if we can kill cancer with lightning or a plasma ball? Plasma can be used to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells undamaged. Add new drugs to the mix, we come up with a new effective cancer therapy

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers, driven by an aggressive tumour microenvironment that shields cancer cells and limits treatment response. My project recreates this microenvironment using biomaterial‑based 3D models that can serve as a tumoural model outside the body and testing new therapies. Then this platform is loaded with therapeutic RNA fragments that silence key genes and suppress tumour growth. This model will be accepted by the tumour cells and will allow us to study tumour behaviour in realistic conditions while testing RNA‑based strategies.