Sebastian Martin Waszak

Sebastian Martin Waszak is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Life Sciences at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and an Associate Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He serves as the Director of the Laboratory of Computational Neuro-Oncology at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC). Dr. Waszak is actively involved in multiple research consortia including the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC), the UCSF Pediatric DMG Tumor Board, and the DIPG/DMG National Brain Tumor Board.

Dr. Waszak's educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Biotechnology/Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (2014)
• Diplom-Ingenieur (FH) in Bioinformatics, Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf, Germany (2010)
• Diplom Thesis in Population genomics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (2009)

Dr. Waszak's research focuses on biomedical data science for children and young adults with brain tumours. His work centers on studying the genetic architecture and evolutionary history of brain tumours, developing novel technologies for minimally invasive and longitudinal molecular diagnostics in pediatric neuro-oncology, and investigating cancer genomes in precision medicine clinical trials. His laboratory is particularly interested in diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a fatal brain tumor and leading cause of cancer-related death in children, adolescents, and young adults. Through his research, Dr. Waszak has contributed to the discovery of novel genetic brain tumor syndromes (ELP1, GPR161, TRAF2), novel disease mechanisms, and molecular subtypes of pediatric gliomas.

Dr. Waszak's scientific contributions have been recognized with numerous awards including the Poster Award from the Society for Neuro-Oncology (2023), the Global Inclusion Award from Children's Brain Tumor Network (2022), and the Early Career Award from the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (2017). His work has significantly impacted clinical practice, leading to revised national and international clinical guidelines from organizations including AWMF, EANO-EURACAN, NCCN, NSW eviQ, NCI PDQ, AACR CPWG, ESCP MB, and SIOPE.

As a mentor, Dr. Waszak advises several doctoral students and serves on PhD program committees for both the Computational and Quantitative Biology and Molecular Life Sciences programs at EPFL. His laboratory is actively involved in genomic research within early-phase clinical trials focused on targeted therapies for pediatric glioma patients, including PNOC001 and PNOC003. The Laboratory of Computational Neuro-Oncology maintains collaborations with multiple international institutions and participates in large-scale genomic initiatives including the ICGC Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Project.