معرفی
Dr. Kristina Kirschner is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK, and is affiliated with the CRUK Beatson Institute. She leads the Single Cell Advanced Technologies facility at the School of Cancer Sciences and has established herself as a leading researcher in hematopoietic stem cell ageing and its relationship to cancer development.
Dr. Kirschner obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she characterized one of the first DNA damage-dependent premature ageing mouse models. She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, where she revealed previously unanticipated levels of complexity in p53's response to stress. She later joined Professor Anthony Green's lab at the University of Cambridge to combine her expertise in ageing and cancer research.
Dr. Kirschner's research focuses on the interplay between stem cell ageing and cancer, with particular emphasis on hematopoietic stem cell ageing, consequences on immune cell composition and senescence, and age-associated clonal haemopoiesis. Her laboratory uses single cell omics and metabolomics approaches to interrogate properties of haematopoietic stem cells in vitro and in vivo, particularly in the context of myeloproliferative diseases. Current research themes include:
- Elucidating metabolic vulnerabilities in HSCs from myeloproliferative disease
- Age-related clonal haemopoiesis in the Lothian Birth Cohorts
- Tumour microenvironment in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
- Pathways to senescence heterogeneity
- Senescence heterogeneity in liver cancer
Analysis of Dr. Kirschner's recent publications reveals a strong focus on cellular senescence, clonal hematopoiesis, and single cell approaches to understanding cancer biology. Her work spans multiple disciplines including stem cell biology, cancer metabolism, immunology, and genomic instability. A significant portion of her research investigates the molecular mechanisms of cellular senescence and its role in cancer development and progression, with particular attention to primary versus secondary senescence pathways.
Dr. Kirschner has secured numerous research grants from prestigious funding bodies including the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. She currently supervises PhD and MSc students in her lab and teaches on the M.Sc. Cancer Research & Precision Oncology programme at the University of Glasgow.
Her laboratory is part of the Single Cell Advanced Technologies facility at the School of Cancer Sciences, which provides state-of-the-art single cell analysis capabilities to support cancer research across the institution.
