Contact information
florian.groelly@oncology.ox.ac.uk
Department of Oncology, ORCRB
Roosevelt Drive – Oxford (UK) OX3 7DQ
Research group
Genome Stability and Tumourigenesis
Collaborators
Thanos Halazonetis – Université de Genève
Funding
Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 722729.
Florian Groelly
DPhil student
Research
Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 are found in familial and sporadic cancers. BRCA1/2 play key role in DNA damage response (DDR) by promoting homologous recombination (HR) and protecting stalled replication forks. My research projects aim to identify causes of DNA damage in cells lacking BRCA1/2 and to understand their consequences. Indeed, S phase DNA damage can be carried over and transmitted to daughter cells. As an example, we recently showed that BRCA2 loss causes micronuclei formation and activates a type I immune response (Reisländer et al., 2019). A current aspect of my research is to understand how BRCA2 protects from mitotic DNA breaks, and thus prevents micronuclei formation in healthy tissues. Ultimately, this would bring a better understanding of the role of BRCA1/2 and inform on new biomarkers or treatment strategies.
©
F. Groelly
teaching and outreach
There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in teaching or outreach whilst studying in Oxford. Even occasional volunteering to engage in outreach activities is gratifying and enriching. On a more regular basis, I am happy support and work closely to a MRes student in our lab. Yanti De Visser's exciting project focuses on immune response activation upon targeting of G-quadruplexes.
Publication(s)
Reisländer, T., Lombardi, E.P.#, Groelly, F.J.# et al. BRCA2 abrogation triggers innate immune responses potentiated by treatment with PARP inhibitors. Nat Commun 10, 3143 (2019).
©
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Biography
After completing high school in France, I studied biology at the university of Basel (Switzerland) and obtain a BSc degree in 2016. Next, I pursued my master thesis within Sebastian Hiller's laboratory. There, I used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and other biophysical techniques to characterize chaperone-client interactions, and graduated with a MSc in 2018. Before leaving Basel, I joined Radek Skoda's team and contributed in the understanding of mechanisms underlying familial erythrocytosis (Zmajkovic et al., 2018). In spring 2018, I started my DPhil journey as a Marie-Curie student in Madalena Tarsounas' research group.
Oncology student network
As student representative, and together with Ashwin Nandakumar, we provide feedback and suggestions to the Graduate Studies and the Athena SWAN committees, in order to improve the course program and promote equality at workplace and in career progression. We also organize scientific and social events:
- Lunchtime Seminar&Pizza
- Pub or BBQ gatherings
- Career chats and events