PhD-student in the research group of Karl Lohner: I am engaged in the FWF Project "Host defense peptides as novel agents against cancer", lead by Dagmar Zweytick. The objective of my work is to develop novel anticancer therapeutics derived from human peptides. These therapeutics are membrane-active peptides which target the phosphatidylserine exposed to the surface of plasma membranes of certain cancer types. The aim is to optimize peptides in their interaction with cancer cell mimetic models. In parallel, in vitro studies with cancer cell lines will be performed to verify the success of the screening.