Dr. Katharina Urban
I did my Bacherlor’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology at the Technical University Dresden and my Master’s degree in Tumorbiology at the Philipps University Marburg. In summer 2013 I joined the department of Applied Tumor Biology for my Master thesis. Here I analysed the overexpression of p16INK4a independent of an infection with high risk human papilloma viruses (HR-HPV) in various cancer cohorts. The high expression of the protein p16INK4a is an established diagnostic marker for HR-HPV infections in cervical, head-and-neck as well as other anogenital cancers.
Fascinated about p16INK4a as an aberrantly expressed tumor-associated antigen and the idea to vaccinate against it, I decided to stay for my PhD. Therefore I joined the Helmholtz International Graduate School for Cancer Research at the German Cancer Research Center as a PhD student. Since end of 2014 I am working on the development of a therapeutic cancer vaccine based on p16INK4a.
