Supervisors
Meet the top researchers and industry leaders responsible for guiding Adaptmet’s Doctoral Candidates
Adaptmet brings together a unique group of scientists that not only excel in the quality and impact of their research but also have a long track record of supervision of researchers (>180 PhD supervised among them, many of which have subsequently pursued successful research and innovation-related careers of their own in the most prestigious research institutions and/or companies worldwide). The supervisory team is well balanced in terms of gender (40% women), geographical distribution (9 different countries including northern, central and southern EU member states, HE associated and third countries) and also combines consolidated researchers in the field with junior principal investigators. The supervisory team includes, in addition to leading academic researchers, 2 industry scientists, 3 scientists with entrepreneurship experience and 2 physician scientists who will jointly bring the required holistic approach to training and supervision of Adaptmet’s DCs.
DC1 & DC10 SUPERVISOR
Sakari Vanharanta
Associate Professor
University of Helsinki (UH)
Sakari Vanharanta (SV) is a “Sigrid Jusélius” endowed professor in basic medicine (associate professor) at the Faculty of Medicine (UH) and Clinical Instructor of the Department of Physiology. Supervisor Experience: 7 postdoctoral fellows, 9 PhD students and 4 Master’s students. Select honours: Member of the MRC Cancer Unit PhD Selection Committee 2014-2020, Training Director of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Urology Programme 2017-2022.
DC2 & DC9 SUPERVISOR
Cédric Blanpain
Full Professor and Director
Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Cancer State Therapeutics (CST)
Cédric Blanpain (CB) is full professor, WELBIO investigator and Director of the Laboratory of Stem Cells and Cancer at the ULB. Supervisor Experience: 15 of his PhD students have successfully defended their theses. Select honours: EMBO Young investigator, ERC StG, CoG, AdGs, Outstanding Young Investigator Award of the International Society of Stem Cell Research 2012, Liliane Bettencourt Award 2012, the EACR Mike Price gold medal 2022, momentum award ISSCR 2023.
DC3 & DC7 SUPERVISOR
Roger Gomis
Group Leader
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
Roger Gomis (RG) is ICREA Research Professor and Group Leader at IRB. 1 product from his lab´s research is in the market, 2 more licensed and in development. Supervisor Experience: 14 PhD students, 10 postdoctoral fellows, 4 technicians, and 3 MDs. Select honours: Member and Chair of the Spanish Government Cancer Study Section since 2017, Chair of the IRB PhD Advisory Committee since 2018, Chair of 1 MSCA- ITN. Involved in building up IRB’s PhD Programme & training initiatives since its inception in 2008.
DC 4 SUPERVISOR
Kristian Pietras
Professor
Lund University (LU)
Kristian Pietras (KP) is the Grosskopf Professor of Molecular Medicine at Lund University, Sweden. Supervisor Experience: 15 Postdoctoral fellows / 9 PhD Students as main supervisor, 12 as co-supervisor / 22 Master Students. Select honours: founding director – Lund University Cancer Centre, chairperson of the Young Academy of Sweden, Anders Jahre’s Medical Prize, Göran Gustafsson award by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
DC5 SUPERVISOR
Anna Christina Obenauf
Group leader
Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)
Anna Christina Obenauf (ACO) is an expert in cancer biology, tumour immunology and translational research using mouse models of cancer and a versatile and innovative toolbox. Supervisor Experience: >10 PhD students. Select honours: ERC StG (“CombaTcancer”), ERC CoG (“UnlockIT”). ACO led the development of a functional lineage tracing technology “CaTCH” and a new iteration “CaTCHseq” utilised in this proposal.
DC 6 SUPERVISOR
Karin de Visser
Senior group leader
The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI)
Karin de Visser (KDV) is senior group leader at the Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology at the NKI, group leader at Oncode Institute and full professor of Experimental Immunobiology of Cancer at Leiden University Medical Center. Supervisor Experience: 12 PhD students, over 30 master students and several postdocs. Select honours: Metastasis Research Prize of the Beug Foundation, VICI grant of the Dutch Research Council in 2019, EMBO member 2021, Elected member of Academia Europaea 2017.
DC8 SUPERVISOR
Mariona Graupera
Senior group leader
Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC)
Mariona Graupera (MG) is a Senior Group Leader devoted to understanding the mechanisms that regulate blood vessels in development, homeostasis, and disease. Supervisor Experience: 13 MSc, 23 PhD students, amongst them 8 were ITN MSCA students, and 10 postdoctoral fellows. Select honours: approx. 25 competitive grants, amongst which there are 4 European ITN actions (1 FP7 and 3 H2020), 2 as coordinator, 4 La Caixa Health, president of the European Vascular Biology Organization.
DC11 SUPERVISOR
Aleix Prat
Group Leader
Fundació de Recerca Clinic Barcelona – Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS)
Aleix Prat (AP) is a medical oncologist, Director of the Cancer Institute and Blood Diseases at Hospital Clínic Barcelona. Supervisor Experience: 7 completed and 8 ongoing PhD theses, supervisor of numerous early career postdoctoral and physician scientist researchers. Select honours: Professor at UB, director of the Master’s in Senology and Precision Oncology, Co-founder of Reveal Genomics.
DC12 SUPERVISOR
Sebastian Carotta
Scientific Director
Boehringer Ingelheim RCV GMBH & CO KG (BI)
Sebastian Carotta (SC) is a group leader at Boehringer Ingelheim RCV in Vienna, Austria. Supervisor Experience: 2 PhD students, 4 Post Docs and several master students. SC is the regional Boehringer Ingelheim Post Doc programme leader and is supervising 2 Post Docs. Select honours: research programme leader of Boehringer Ingelheim’s novel “STING Agonist” cancer immunotherapy drug programme.
DC13 SUPERVISOR
Federico de Masi
Director Bioinformatics
ZS Associates
Federico de Masi (FDM) is Director of Bioinformatics at ZS Associates. Supervisor Experience: 1 PhD student, 8 MSc theses, has co-supervised 2 PhD students and acted as main opponent for 2 PhD Defences. Select honours: DTU Bioinformatics representative at DTU Life Sciences PhD Committee, IPR and innovation expert at the Copenhagen Business School’s BBIP Masters.
DC 14 SUPERVISOR
Victoria Sanz-Moreno
Team Leader
Institute of Cancer Research: The Royal Cancer Hospital LBG (ICR)
Victoria Sanz-Moreno (VSM) is a Team Leader at ICR working on understanding how cytoskeletal dynamics in cancer cells control local invasion, dissemination, survival and outgrowth at the secondary site. Supervisor Experience: 13 PhD students as first supervisor and 16 students as second supervisor, 11 postdoctoral researchers and over 30 master students. Select honours: BSCB Women in Cell Biology Early Career Award Medal 2017, Estela Medrano Memorial Award, VP Award for Research Excellence from Queen Mary’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and the Research Impact Award at Barts Cancer Institute
DC15 SUPERVISOR
Johanna Joyce
Full Professor
University of Lausanne (UNIL)
Johanna Joyce (JJ) is a Full Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Full Member of the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Supervisor Experience: ~80 scientists over the past ~18 years, including 14 PhD students. Select honours: EACR-Pezcoller Award for Women in Cancer Research, Metastasis Research Society Award in Innovation, Robert Bing Prize, Cloetta Prize, American Cancer Society Scholar Award.
DC16 SUPERVISOR
Momo Bentires-Alj
Full Professor
University of Basel (UNIBAS)
Mohamed Bentires-Alj (MB) is Professor of Experimental Surgical Oncology at the Department for Biomedicine, University of Basel (Switzerland), chair of the Basel personalised health/cancer cluster, and of the Swiss Personalized Oncology Scientific board. Supervisor Experience: 21 PhD students, 26 postdocs, 5 medical residents and 8 undergraduates. Select honours: ERC StG, AdG, founder and president of the European Network for Breast Development and Cancer, co-founder of the Basel Breast Consortium.
