Ronja Anugwom, PhD

Dr. Ronja Anugwom is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She works on increasing life expectancy for ovarian cancer patients by identifying mechanisms of drug resistance to drugs that target the DNA damage response network. Her focus is on resistance mechanisms to ATR inhibitors.

Dr. Anugwom graduated from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany with a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her PhD in the Department of Radiation Oncology and DNA Repair at the Technical University in Darmstadt. Her doctoral studies focused on DNA repair, more specifically genome rearrangement in human cells. Her findings led to the discovery of a novel DNA double-strand break repair pathway. She received several awards during this time, including a Young Investigator Award from the European Radiation Research Society.

In 2018, Dr. Anugwom joined Dr. Junjie Chen’s laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a postdoctoral fellow to further expand her studies in the field of DNA damage response. She received the CPRIT-funded TRIUMPH fellowship and subsequently the MD Anderson Odyssey fellowship. The additional training at MD Anderson Cancer Center provided her with the foundation to conduct translational research. The OCRA Ann and Sol Schreiber Mentored Investigator Award provides Dr. Anugwom with the opportunity to work on identifying key ovarian cancer-specific biomarkers and ATR inhibitor resistance mechanisms that will increase the success rate of ATR inhibitor-based therapy.