Dr Constanze Zeller

Constanze Zeller received her PhD in 2007 at the Humboldt University Berlin in Cell Biology. In 2008, she joined Imperial College and is currently working as a Research Associate with Professor Bob Brown in the Epigenetics Section.

Her present research focuses on the implication of DNA methylation changes in the acquisition of drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Since altered DNA methylation can switch off important genes and can be reversed using demethylating agents she is interested in the identification of novel DNA methylation changes which may help in predicting how well different patients will respond to chemotherapy and which could be targets for epigenetic therapies.

Her current projects include genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of ovarian cell lines and tumours pre and post chemotherapy using microarray approaches to identify aberrantly methylated loci involved in the process of acquired chemoresistance. In parallel with this, she pursuits the identification of new diagnostic methylation markers to allow discrimination between disease-related subgroups which could aid in clinical management.