Our team

Dr. Sylvain Peuget’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of tumor suppression and on how to use them for anticancer therapy. He defended his PhD in Prof. Juan Iovanna’s lab at the Cancer Research Center of Marseille (France) in 2012, working on the molecular characterization of TP53INP1 in pancreatic cancer. He then moved to Sweden for a postdoc in Prof. Galina Selivanova’s lab at the Karolinska Institute, where he focused his research on p53 biology and on the molecular mechanism of action of p53 reactivating small molecules. He became Assistant Professor and Team Leader at the Karolinska Institute in 2019.

Dr. Marie-Stéphanie Aschtgen’s research focuses on the bacterial molecular mechanisms underlying host-bacteria interactions. She defended her PhD in Microbiology on bacterial Type VI secretion systems in the Prof Eric Cascales lab (Marseille, France). She went for a post-doc with Prof. Edward Ruby and Prof. Margaret McFall-Ngai (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) studying host-symbiont interactions in the elegant model of the Euprymna scolopes-Vibrio fischeri symbiosis. She then joined Prof. Birgitta Henriques-Normark’s lab at the Karolinska Institutet for a second post-doc focusing on host-pathogens mechanisms of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae and became Assistant Professor in 2019.

Dr. Barbara Łasut-Szyszka’s research focuses on the molecular functions of p53, particularly in the regulation of inflammation. Dr. Łasut-Szyszka defended her PhD on the identification of novel p53 targets in 2022 at the Center for Translational Research and Molecular Biology of Cancer at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Gliwice Branch (Poland), where she currently holds a position as Assistant Professor. She also completed several international research internships, including at the University of Pittsburgh (USA), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg (Germany), and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague (Czech Republic).

Dr. Anna Kirk completed her undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. She defended her PhD in 2024 at the University of Glasgow on a potential new therapy for HPV associated lesions. This involved examining host-pathogen interactions, including the disruption of cell cycle checkpoints and the immune response by the virus, and how these aspects could be impacted by treatment. Dr. Kirk is now continuing her work on p53 as a postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institute, where she focuses on the role p53 plays in immune signalling and on how mutant p53 participates in tumour immune evasion.

Konstantinos Fragkoulis completed his undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at the Democritus University of Thrace (Greece), before pursuing a master’s degree in applied biotechnology at Uppsala University (Sweden). Driven by a strong interest in host–microbe interactions and in understanding how bacteria contribute to diseases, he started his PhD under Dr. Peuget’s supervision in 2021 at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet. In addition to his research, Konstantinos is actively engaged in science communication and collaboration, and helped to organize events such as SRBW and participating as a member of the Uppsala team in the SensUs competition.

Yongbao Zhuang is a Ph.D. student studying with Dr. Marie-Stephanie Aschtgen on enterobacterial genotoxins and their impact on host inflammatory response in the gut. He is interested in mucosal immunity and its interactions with the gut microbiota, especially tolerance in homeostasis.

Martina Pasino is PhD student in prevention of cancer and chronic-degenerative diseases at the University of Genova (Italy) and visiting student at the Karolinska Institute. Her PhD project is focused on the role of the p53/Glutathione axis in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia. She obtained her master’s degree in medical biotechnology and has always been interested in the molecular mechanisms involved in cancer development and treatment resistance.