During the annual meeting of the Schleswig-Holstein University Society (SHUG) on 29.04.2023, the Faculty Awards 2023 were presented. Dr. Lina Welz of the Medical Faculty (CAU Kiel) received one of the two awards for her outstanding dissertation that has led to new insights in the work fiel of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Colitis Associated Colorectal Cancer.

In her doctoral thesis "The role of the stress-induced transcription factor X-box binding protein I in the coordination of DNA damage-dependent intestinal inflammation and tumorigenesis." which she performed at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB Kiel), Dr. Welz unravelled a novel pathophysiologic mechanism of intestinal tumor development. She showed that coinciding ER stress and DNA damage upon intestinal inflammation disrupt epithelial homeostasis by initiating uncontrolled cell proliferation,  differentiation and cell death, which eventually drives malignant transformation. 

CAU President Professor Simone Fulda, Dr. Martin Skaruppe, President of SHUG, and Professor Wolfgang J. Duschl, Scientific Director of SHUG, congratulated the two award winners.