Short presentation

Prof. Anja Groth leads a research group at the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Anja Groth received her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen in 2004 for her research in the laboratory of Drs. Lukas and Bartek. She did her postdoctoral training from 2005 to 2007 with Dr. Almouzni at Institut Curie, Paris, focusing on histone dynamics during DNA replication. In 2008 Dr. Groth started as a junior group leader at BRIC, supported by a Junior Group Leader Fellowship from the Lundbeck Foundation. She was tenured in 2013 and promoted to professor in 2016. Prof. Anja Groth has received several prestigious awards, including the Danish Research Council Young Elite Researcher Prize (2009), the Danish Cancer Society Junior Research Prize (2011), the Heirloom Award for Women Scientist Leaders (2014) and the Elite Research Prize by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science (2018). She was elected as a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2016 and EMBO in 2017. The scientific focus of Anja Groth is epigenetic cell memory, chromatin replication and the interplay between genome and epigenome stability. Her research group has contributed with seminal discoveries on histone chaperone function, chromatin replication mechanisms, inheritance of histone post-translational modifications and functions of new/old histones in DNA repair. The Groth group has a strong record track in collaborative interdisciplinary research and developing new tailored technologies to address epigenetic cell memory (Nascent Chromatin Capture, ChOR-seq and SCAR-seq). In 2018, Dr. Groth founded Ankrin Therapeutics, a drug discovery company with the aim to develop new targeted cancer therapy based on her discovery of a new chromatin-linked DNA repair mechanism.

Fields of interest

• Epigenetics
• Genome maintenance
• Cancer biology

Primary fields of research

• Histone metabolism
• Chromatin replication
• Epigenetic cell memory
• Genome stability and cancer

CV

Appointments

Current

2016 - 

Professor, Biotech and Research Innovation Centre (BRIC), Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen

2017 -

Co-affiliation, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (CPR) at University of Copenhagen

2018 -

Co-founder and CSO of the biotech company Ankrin Therapeutics

Previous

2013 - 2016

Tenured group leader, Biotech Research and Innovation Centre

2008 - 2013             
Associate Professor and group leader, Biotech Research and Innovation Centre

2005 - 2008     
Postdoc, Laboratory of Dr. G. Almouzni, Chromatin Dynamics, Institut Curie, Paris, France

2004 - 2005     
Postdoc, Laboratory of Drs. J. Bartek & J. Lukas, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen

Awards and selected grants

2018        Elite Research Prize, the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, 2018

2017        Elected EMBO member

2017        ERC Consolidator Grant (no. 724436)

2016        Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters (Natural Sciences)

2014        Heirloom Award for Women Scientist Leaders, UK

2012        Junior Research Prize, Danish Cancer Society

2012        World Cultural Council Special Recognition

2011        ERC Starting Grant (no. 281765)

2011        EMBO Young Investigator program (YIP)

2009        Young Elite Researcher prize, Danish Research Council

2009        Award for Young Researchers, Danish Biotechnology Society

2007        Junior Group Leader Fellowship, The Lundbeck Foundation

Education

2004   PhD, Molecular Biology, University of Copenhagen. Laboratory of Drs. J. Bartek & J. Lukas, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen

2000   M.Sc., Biochemistry, University of Copenhagen. Laboratory of Dr. B. M. Willumsen, University of Copenhagen, and Drs. C. J. Sherr & M. F. Roussel, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA