Dr Waszak received his PhD in systems genetics from the laboratory of Professor Bart Deplancke at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, after which he became a postdoctoral fellow at the EMBL in Heidelberg. Here, he worked in the group of Dr Jan Korbel, with a research focus on rare disease genetics & cancer genomics.
During his time at the EMBL, Dr Waszak led several innovative studies in cancer research that were published in The Lancet Oncology (2018), the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2019), and Nature (2020), among others.
At NCMM, his group will focus on large patient populations, multi-modal data integration, and computational methods to study rare cancers.
One specific focus of the group will be to work towards the development of precision medicine strategies for pediatric brain cancer patients. Here, he will develop novel computational and experimental approaches to investigate mechanisms of translational deregulation in cancer and potential opportunities for novel therapeutic interventions.
His research will further aim to identify the genetic basis of rare cancers and to develop prognostic biomarkers for clinical-decision making based on integrative analyses of patient genomes, cancer genomes, and cancer proteomes.
Discussing his appointment as a group leader at NCMM, Dr Waszak says:
“NCMM provides a fantastic environment to establish a research program in computational oncology. The dual affiliation with Oslo University Hospital will facilitate translation and clinical collaborations.”
Sebastian is the first new group leader recruited to NCMM by our current Director Janna Saarela. Discussing the appointment, Janna says:
“We are extremely happy to welcome Dr Waszak as a new member of the NCMM team. His impressive expertise in cancer genomics will perfectly complement the new focus area of NCMM research - precision medicine - by integrating the rare disease, genome medicine and cancer research themes.”
NCMM looks forward to working with Sebastian and to more exciting research discoveries in the next stage of his career.