The Rubicon programme of The Dutch Research Council NWO allows scientist and academicians who recently obtained their PhD to gain experience at a foreign knowledge institute. This is an important step towards a career in academia. In the recent round, NWO awarded a 2 year Rubicon grant to Dr. Yannick Kok for his project DNA repair: wrong place, wrong time at the University of Zurich in the lab of Prof. Mathias Altmeyer.
Yannick will study how cells deal with replication stress during mitosis. DNA replication stress induces DNA lesions which, on the one hand, fuels tumorigenesis and on the other hand negatively impact cell viability. Post-MiDAS is a recently discovered DNA-repair mechanism that may mitigate detrimental effects of replication stress. With the Rubicon grant, Yannick can continue his work performed in the van Vugt lab, elucidating the role of post-MiDAS in coping with replication stress.
