Silvia von Karstedt, PhD, is a cell biologist who has worked in cancer research since 2006. After starting her career at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, she moved on to work at Imperial College London and University College London (UCL), UK. She now holds a post as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Francis Crick Institute in London. Her research interests include mechanisms of cancer cell apoptosis evasion in KRAS-mutated pancreatic and Non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC) as well as the influence of this signalling on the tumour immune environment. In particular, her research aims to understand the role of the molecule tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) in cancer biology in order to develop novel biotherapeutic concepts. Her latest research has uncovered that whilst constitutive TRAIL signalling in tumour cells promotes KRAS-driven cancers, this signal can be reverted to induce their selective apoptosis.
She has published in internationally renowned scientific journals, received several poster and presentation prizes (F1000, EACR, Gordon Conference etc.), is an independent reviewer for Oncogene and a member of the European Association of Cancer Research (EACR).