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PLEASE NOTE: If a candidate gives a layman's talk, the livestream will start fifteen minutes earlier

Every cell in our body contains the same genetic material, yet cells differ drastically in function. This variety arises because each cell reads and organizes its DNA uniquely. Understanding how this happens at the level of individual cells is crucial, especially when things go wrong, like in cancer.

My research focuses on developing cutting-edge methods to investigate how DNA is packaged and regulated in single cells. I created tools that can track which parts of DNA interact with specific proteins inside a cell, including proteins that control gene activity and repair DNA damage. Unlike previous techniques, these tools work at the single-cell level, revealing details hidden by traditional methods that look at large groups of cells.

Using these new technologies, I showed that cells differ widely in how they respond to DNA damage, a key factor in cancer and aging. My findings highlight that DNA repair is not uniform—different cells handle DNA damage in distinct ways depending on their internal organization. I also found that broken DNA regions can physically cluster together, potentially allowing cells to efficiently repair multiple damages simultaneously.

These discoveries provide valuable insights into the fundamental processes that maintain our genetic health. Ultimately, these methods could help improve cancer treatments by identifying how individual cancer cells respond to therapies, paving the way for personalized medicine based on single-cell analysis.