Julia Schäfer

Research interests

My research lies at the intersection of cancer immunology, placental biology and computational genomics. I study immune regulation in gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD), a rare group of pregnancy-related conditions that includes premalignant molar lesions and malignant gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. Because trophoblasts regulate local maternal immune responses during placental development, GTD provides a distinctive setting for investigating how trophoblast identity and differentiation relate to immune regulation in neoplastic disease.

Using computational methods, I characterise immune-related transcriptomic and epigenomic features across GTD, placenta and endometrium. My aim is to determine how trophoblast lineage, tissue composition and disease subtype contribute to the immune variation observed across these tissues. This work also provides biological context for future studies of treatment-resistant gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, in which immune-checkpoint inhibitors have shown activity as salvage treatment, but the determinants of response remain poorly understood.

Background

I am a medical student at the Technical University of Munich, having completed my preclinical studies at Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich in 2024. My clinical training has included oncology electives at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and The Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

Before joining the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford to conduct research towards my medical doctorate (Dr. med.), I gained research experience spanning cancer biology, neuroimmunology, medical AI and translational research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, LMU Munich, Helmholtz Munich and Boehringer Ingelheim. These experiences shaped my interest in applying computational approaches to investigate immune regulation in cancer, particularly where understanding the underlying biology may help address cases of treatment failure.