During my time in the Merkel lab in Vienna, I investigated lipid metabolism in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL).

Working in Professor Lena Illert’s laboratory and closely alongside Magdalena, I worked with clinical ALK+ ALCL patient samples using the PhenoCycler-Fusion 2.0 system (Akoya Biosciences).

This experience has been incredibly valuable both scientifically and professionally. During my time at Suzanne Turner’s Lab in the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, I had the opportunity to work closely

Thanks to Professor Lena Illert and my FANTOM colleague Magdalena Kršic, I implemented 2 multiplex immunostaining (6 panel staining) to my ongoing research.

In January 2026, I had the opportunity to begin the new year in a different academic environment through a one-month secondment at the Medical University of Vienna (MUW).

During my stay at MLL, I had the opportunity to attend the MLL MVZ Innovation Summit 2025, where I gained insights into the latest NGS technologies and single-cell sequencing applications

As part of the FANTOM Doctoral Network, I completed my three-month secondment at the Medical University of Vienna in the lab of Prof. Gerda Egger, an internationally recognized group with strong expertise in cancer epigenetics.

From June to September 2025, I completed a secondment at the Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

During my time in the Egger Lab at the “Medizinische Universität Wien”, I had the pleasure of working with Kristina Draganić to isolate primary macrophages from the whole blood of healthy donors.

Julia Montague, Enrique Abarca Ríos, and Rebekka Salzmann had the opportunity to represent the FANTOM network at the 30th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Milan.