PROJECT
SUPERVISORS
Project Supervisor
Marina Farkas
Background
Marina earned her Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2012, and subsequently pursued her doctoral studies in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA (2014–2021). Her Ph.D. research focused on dissecting the molecular mechanisms governing p53 genomic selectivity and its role in cell fate regulation.
Since 2021, she has been a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Marcus Buschbeck at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, where she leads two independent and interdisciplinary projects, investigating the role of the histone variant macroH2A in acute myeloid leukemia.
Research
Buschbeck group at IJC is focused on uncovering the physiological and pathophysiological function and regulation of the multi-domain macroH2A1 histone variant in the context of blood cancers, particularly, acute myeloid leukemia. Whitin the group, Marina is currently dedicated to exploring macroH2A1 as exploitable vulnerability in erythroleukemia (FAB M6), a rare and highly aggressive form of AML, and is leading a project to develop compounds for targeted degradation of macroH2A1 in leukemia cells.
Individual research projects
M. Farkas, H. Hashimoto, Y. Bi, RV. Davuluri, L. Resnick-Silverman, JJ. Manfredi, EW. Debler, SB. McMahon (2021) "Distinct mechanisms control genome recognition by p53 at its target genes linked to different cell fates", Nature Communications, Jan 20;12(1):484. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20783-z
I. Guberovic, M. Farkas*, D. Corujo, M. Buschbeck (2023) "Evolution, structure and function of divergentmacroH2A1 splice isoforms", Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, Feb 15:135:43-49. doi:10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.03.036
TH. Lee, CX. Qiao, V. Kuzin, Y. Shi, M. Farkas*, Z. Zhao, V. Ramanarayanan, T. Wu, T. Guan, X. Zhou, D. Corujo, M. Buschbeck, L. Baranello, P. Oberdoerffer (2025) "Epigenetic control of topoisomerase 1 activity presents a cancer vulnerability", Nature Communications. Aug 12;16(1):7458. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-62598-w