Dr. Orsolya Leidecker - Curriculum Vitae
Education and Professional Career
From 01/2024: Emmy Noether Research Group Leader at the Institute for Genetics, Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MNF), University of Cologne (UoC), Germany
01/2020- 12/2023: Mildred Scheel School of Oncology (MSSO) Postgraduate Fellow, Jachimowicz Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing and Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne | Work focus: “Functional dissection of DNA repair defects in novel genome instability syndromes.” I mastered sophisticated assays for the quantitative analysis of DNA damage and repair activities and combined them with my proteomics expertise to identify the role of the proteasome shuttle factor UBQLN1 in genome instability and cancer. I showed that UBQLN1 represses homologous recombination repair and drives cancer aggressiveness in an in vivo lung adenocarcinoma model.
07/2019 – 01/2020: Postdoctoral Fellow, Jachimowicz/Reinhardt Laboratory, CECAD Research Center, University of Cologne- (this project has been continued as an MSSO Postgraduate Fellow since then)
01/2015 - 06/2019: Postdoctoral Fellow, Matic Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne | Work focus: “Identification of novel histone marks in DNA damage response by mass spectrometry-based proteomics and characterization of Serine ADP-ribosylation with proteomics and novel site-specific antibodies.”
02/2013 - 11/2013: “Bridging” postdoctoral Fellow, Hay Laboratory, Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, University of Dundee, Scotland | Work focus:” SUMO chain recognition by RNF4.” After my Ph.D., I stayed in Ron Hay’s lab for a short time and contributed with sophisticated biochemical experiments to elucidate how RNF4 recognizes SUMO chains.
07/2011 - 12/2012: PhD supervised by Dr. Dimitris Xirodimas and co-supervised by Prof. Ron Hay: “Investigating the response of the NEDD8 ubiquitin-like molecule to diverse stress conditions.”
2009 - 2013: PhD (awarded on the 6th February 2013); University of Dundee, Scotland (July 2009-July 2011) and CRBM, Montpellier, France (Macromolecular Biochemistry Research Center)
2004 - 2009:Degree (5-years program: B.Sc + M.Sc) in Applied Biotechnology and Bioengineering from the University of Technology, Budapest, Hungary; Grade of Diploma: excellent. Thesis title: “Study of the expression of alternative variants of afp mRNA in tumor samples from different tissues by PCR”
Awards, distinctions and scientific activities
since 2024: CAP (Career Advancement Program) Funding from the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC)
since 2024: Reviewer of DFG Grants, Germany
01/2024: Emmy Noether Programme Grant, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics: “ADP-Ribosylation at the Nuclear Pore Complex”; LE 5327/1-1; 15/01/24-14/01/30
since 2023: Board Member and external reviewer of Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) research grants (Cell Biology Panel, since 2023); Hungary
01/2020 - 05/2023: Deutsche Krebshilfe; Mildred Scheel School of Oncology Postdoctoral Grant, University Hospital Cologne: Functional dissection of DNA repair defects in novel genome instability syndromes
2018: CECAD Travel Grant to attend the meeting “The PARP Family and ADP-ribosylation” at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA
2013: Postdoctoral Fellowship from Leverhulme Trust Grant; To perform ubiquitin and SUMO proteomics in S. pombe (not taken due to my move to Cologne for family reasons, but remained a collaborator on the project, which has resulted in a co-authored manuscript in the Journal of Cell Biology).
07/2009 - 07/2012: Ph.D. Scholarship from AICR (Association for International Cancer Research), in the laboratory of Dr. Dimitris Xirodimas: “Investigating the response of the NEDD8 ubiquitin-like molecule to diverse stress conditions”