Tanja is planning to use her grant money to investigate DNA damage in her thesis entitled “PARP1 and cohesin: Keeping DNA together after double-strand breaks”. More in detail, she is looking into how the polymerase PARP1 and the protein complex cohesin interact to keep DNA together after it has been damaged. Tanja started her PhD in Dea Slade’s lab in 2017, after successfully obtaining a Master’s degree and working for five years as a research assistant in Dea’s lab. 

The DOC Fellowship is financed by the Ministry for Science, Research and Economy, with additional funds coming from the City of Vienna and the Province of Styria. The DOC initiative supports excellent PhD projects from all disciplines. Applicants must be enrolled at an Austrian university for their PhD studies, and must have received their degree (Diplom/Master) no longer than two years before the 1st of January of the year of application. For more information and open calls, visit the official homepage of the OEAW.