Associate Prof. Dr. Carsten Hansen

Professor Hansen carried out his MSc in Molecular Biology at Aarhus University, Denmark and his PhD, under the supervision by Dr Ben Nichols in the Cell Biology department, at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. His Post Doctoral studies, funded by a fellowship from the Danish Science Ministry, was carried out in Professor Kun-Liang Guan's laboratory at UCSD in La Jolla, California. He was in 2015 recruited to the University of Edinburgh on a Chancellor's Fellowship to set up his own laboratory at the Center for Inflammation Research. His teams research uses various interdisciplinary approaches aiming to solve still outstanding fundamental aspects of the Hippo pathway: https://gramhansenlab.com/

Prof. Dr. Toshiro Moroishi

Dr. Moroishi is a Professor of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Kumamoto University, Japan. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in medical sciences from Kyushu University, Japan, and pursued his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego, USA. Since 2017, Dr. Moroishi has been leading a research team studying cell signaling and cellular metabolism. His long-term research interests involve physiological mechanisms regulating tissue homeostasis and integrity in multicellular organisms, with a special focus on the interplay between metabolic and signal transduction pathways. His work spans from basic science to drug discovery, aiming to provide scientific basis for future clinical applications.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Gernot Walko

Gernot Walko (Magister rer. nat., Doctor rer. nat) received his undergraduate and postgraduate training in microbiology and molecular biology from the University of Vienna, Austria. He did his PhD in molecular cell biology in the lab of Prof Gerhard Wiche, where his research project focused on the roles of cytoskeletal linker proteins in the context of human skin blistering diseases. In 2013, Dr Walko moved to London on a prestigious Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship to join the world-leading stem cell lab of Prof Fiona Watt at the newly opened Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London. There, his research focused on the molecular mechanisms controlling self-renewal of human epidermal stem cells. Since 2018, Dr Walko is Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, UK, where his research group studies epidermal stem cells in healthy and diseased skin, with a special focus on the Hippo signalling pathway and its role in skin cancer.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Hyun Woo Park

Hyun Woo Park, PhD, Assistant Professor at Yonsei University, Department of Biochemistry since 2016. Trained at Yonsei University and University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Specialist in Cell Biology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry, with research focus on oncology, cell signaling, metabolism, and precision medicine. Published over 30 peer-reviewed papers, including recent articles in Cell, Nature Cell Biology, and PNAS. Current research in the Translational Cancer Research Laboratory includes Hippo pathway and drug development, elucidate novel paradigm in cancer metastasis, generate mouse models for tumor microenvironment research, and dietary intervention as anticancer therapy.

Dr. Zach Brandt

Dr. Zach Brandt is a recent graduate of Brian Link’s lab, located at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran College in 2014, and immediately went on to join the Interdisciplinary Program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Medical College of Wisconsin where he joined Brian Link’s lab in June of 2015. His graduate school research focused primarily on the core components of the Hippo pathway. During his career, he studied this pathway and its regulation across multiple tissues and in various contexts, including sensory neuron development and arborization, biliary system development and maintenance, peripheral nerve sheath tumor biology, and most recently emmetropization. He defended his dissertation virtually at the end of March and is currently exploring new opportunities for his postdoctoral research.

Prof. Dr. Moroishi

"Hippo Pathway in Cancer and Immunity"

Assist. Prof. Dr. Walko

"YAP/WBP2/TEAD Interplay Controls Proliferation and Differentiation in Normal and Neoplastic Human Epidermis"

Assist. Prof. Dr. Park

"Regulation of Hippo Pathway in Cancer Metabolism"

Dr. Zach Brandt

"Hippo-Yap Signaling in Hepatobiliary Development: Insights from Zebrafish"