Martin Eilers Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Congress 2016

Martin Eilers

Martin Eilers is professor for biochemistry and molecular biology at the university of Würzburg in Germany. His primary research interest is on the function of human MYC proteins. Martin obtained his PhD from the university of Basel, where he worked on mitochondria and then moved to the UCSF to join the laboratory of nobel laureate Mike Bishop. There he started to work on MYC proteins by establishing conditional MycER proteins as tools to study MYC function. He then moved to start his own group in Heidelberg, was first associate and then full professor at the university of Marburg and since 2008 heads the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in Würzburg. He is a member of EMBO and of the German National Academy and currently is research director of the Würzburg comprehensive cancer center. His most recent work has demonstrated that MYC proteins have transcriptional roles unrelated to changes in gene expression, since they are critical for double-strand break repair at promoters and for resolving transcription-replication conflicts. He has also demonstrated how these functions can be targeted with small molecules for therapy of MYC-driven tumors. His recent work has also uncovered mechanism that can explain why many solid tumors depend on high MYC levels for escape from recognition by the immune system.