Kathrin
Bernt
and Tobias Neff are two of the most recent newcomers to the Gates Center. Born in Munich, Germany, they did not meet
until almost 30 years later as residents on the Pediatric Bone Marrow
Transplantation ward at the Charite in
Berlin. Having both spent time in the US working in basic science labs as
medical students in Seattle (Fred Huchinson
Cancer Research Center) and Boston (Massachusetts General Hospital), they were
interested in establishing a career as physician scientists and eventually
decided to move back to the US to do so.
Kathrin
knew from the time she was little that she wanted to be a doctor and a
scientist. She was intrigued by the
thought of clinical work and also wanted to push the boundaries of science.
Tobias, on the other hand, wanted to be a rock star and practice his electric
guitar all day long. By virtue of the
mandatory army/civil service requirement in Germany, he spent 20 months in the
urology department of the university hospital of his hometown Tuebingen. Working as a media assistant, he discovered
medicine from the sidelines. He found it
fascinating and imagined how technology and medicine could dovetail and
progress.
After
residency and fellowship training in Seattle (University of Washington/Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), Houston (Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor
College of Medicine) and Boston (Boston Children’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer
Institute/Harvard University), Kathrin and Tobias were looking for a great
place to raise their family and launch their independent research careers. The
University of Colorado AMC/Children’s Hospital Colorado was a perfect fit. They joined the division of Pediatric
Hematology/Oncology at UC-Denver because of its national leadership role in the
treatment of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and other pediatric
cancers, and because of its very active phase 1 program, combined with a strong
basic science community at the Anschutz Campus. This setting seems ideal to
build a research enterprise with a basic-to-translational focus. They are also impressed by the collaborative
spirit of potential fellow faculty members, the outstanding facilities and the
very warm welcome and help they received during their interviews and first few
weeks here.
They
explain their research emphasis as follows:
Thematically,
we are interested in exploring the contribution of aspects of "stemness"
to the development of leukemia and possibly other cancers. Irrespective of the
semantic battles about the existence of a "cancer stem cell”, it is clear
that there are genetic programs that are active in normal stem cells, that are
also active in cancer cells. Failure to shut down these programs during
development or aberrant re-activation of such programs in cancer cells
contributes to the development of cancer. Intriguingly, the failure to
inactivate or re-activation of such programs may be controlled through
epigenetic mechanisms, i.e. enzymatic modification of DNA and DNA associated
proteins that can be modulated through
pharmacologic intervention. We are interested in understanding how the genetic
programs that govern the development of cancers are similar to genetic programs
that define stem cell identity, and where they differ. In addition, we are
trying to learn how we can specifically modulate these programs using drug-like
compounds in an attempt to develop better therapies for childhood cancer.
Kathrin
and Tobias plan to develop their own program while at the same time identifying
opportunities for collaborations in the stem cell/cancer/epigenetics community
at UC Denver. After July 2013 they will also attend for 20% of their time in
pediatric oncology at Children’s.
Off
campus, they love Denver, were thrilled at the early snow in October and can
barely wait for the first skiing. In the
meantime, their two children are enrolled in the Montclair Mandarin Program,
and the family enjoys play dates, swimming and hiking together. And there’s always music; Kathrin plays the
piano, and Tobias still strums the electric guitar—but alas, not as much as in
the old days…
Their
webpages are:
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/pediatrics/subs/hemonc/research/labs/NeffLab/Pages/Neff%20Lab.aspx
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/pediatrics/subs/hemonc/research/labs/BerntLab/Pages/berntlab.aspx