Faustus Tuschmann

The human brain never ceases to amaze. The way in­di­vi­du­al neurons are con­nec­ted with one another is simply in­credi­ble. We often don’t even un­der­stand what’s hap­pe­ning there exactly. Take Pur­kin­je cells, for in­stan­ce. On average, each one forms around one hundred thousand con­nec­tions to other neurons, which means having to process all those signals – in a cell body that mea­su­res just 40 mi­cro­me­ters. I find facts like these about the brain’s com­ple­xi­ty fa­sci­na­ting. But I’m even more excited about how our brains make us human and to what extent this com­ple­xi­ty sets us apart from other animals. Pa­ra­do­xi­cal­ly, it’s also our brains’ com­ple­xi­ty that makes us sus­cep­ti­ble to neu­ro­de­ge­ne­ra­ti­ve di­sea­ses like Alz­hei­mer’s and Par­kin­son’s. I would like to un­der­stand this re­la­ti­ons­hip at the mole­cu­lar level.

As part of my master’s program, I con­duc­ted re­se­arch on prion di­sea­ses at the Scripps Re­se­arch In­sti­tu­te in San Diego. In these di­sea­ses, pro­te­ins fold ab­nor­mal­ly, trig­ge­ring a chain re­ac­tion that kills off huge numbers of neurons in the brain. We studied small organic mole­cu­les that promote the break­down of these mis­fold­ed pro­te­ins. It is hoped that this re­se­arch will lead to a tre­at­ment. First-in-human cli­ni­cal trials could start early in 2027.

I would like to make fun­da­men­tal dis­co­ve­ries that will help hu­man­kind one day. For my master’s thesis I am re­se­ar­ching glio­blas­to­ma, an ag­gres­si­ve brain tumor common in child­ren, at the German Cancer Re­se­arch Center (DKFZ) in Hei­del­berg. Our re­se­arch group is in­ves­ti­ga­ting how gene-re­gu­lato­ry me­cha­nisms control DNA in po­ten­ti­al cancer cells and how these re­gu­lato­ry me­cha­nisms are dis­rup­ted at the onset of cancer. This re­se­arch is es­sen­ti­al for un­der­stan­ding the pa­tho­lo­gy of the disease, even if an ef­fec­tive tre­at­ment is still a long way in the future.

When I first heard about DNA at high school, I was fa­sci­na­ted by the fact that every living thing carries this type of genetic ma­te­ri­al and yet dif­fe­rent or­ga­nisms develop in such dif­fe­rent ways. That’s why I decided to study mole­cu­lar biology. Today, cutting-edge lab tech­no­lo­gies and bio­in­for­ma­tic methods can help us gain a sys­te­ma­tic un­der­stan­ding of how life in all its di­ver­si­ty is formed at the mole­cu­lar level.

For my PhD, I would like to focus on epi­ge­ne­tics and its role in the de­ve­lop­ment of neu­ro­de­ge­ne­ra­ti­ve di­sea­ses. This re­se­arch field, which is still in its infancy, in­ves­ti­ga­tes che­mi­cal changes to DNA that don’t change its basic struc­tu­re, but make slight mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons that in­flu­ence how the cell reads it. These epi­ge­ne­tic mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons can occur as a re­spon­se to changes in the en­vi­ron­ment.

With epi­ge­ne­tic editing methods, it is pos­si­ble to make precise mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons to people’s genetic ma­te­ri­al that are con­fi­ned to one ge­nera­ti­on and not passed on. If, for in­stan­ce, an air­bor­ne pol­lutant con­tri­bu­tes to neu­ro­de­ge­ne­ra­ti­on, one could decode the un­der­ly­ing epi­ge­ne­tic me­cha­nisms and use epi­ge­ne­tic editing to return the af­fec­ted neurons to their normal state. This opens up com­ple­te­ly new options for therapy de­ve­lop­ment, which is so­me­thing I would like to be in­vol­ved in.

I get the energy I need for all this from my social circle and from playing lots of sport. When I’m ment­al­ly ex­hausted from thin­king about science, it does me good to tire myself out phy­si­cal­ly at the gym or with the running club. And I enjoy singing. Last se­mes­ter, I sang Verdi’s Requiem with the Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty choir.