My science
Even though I'm no longer actively pursuing a career as a research scientist, I have fond memories of my time in academia. I did my doctoral work at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (Anisimova lab) and the University of Zurich (Baudis lab). My research focused on investating the role of short tandem repeat mutations in colorectal cancer. To do this, I analysed large amounts whole genetic sequencing information from cancer patients, wrote software to handle the unique challenges this work brings with it, and presented my work at international scientific conferences.
First author publications
Genotyping short tandem repeats across copy number alterations, aneuploidies, and polyploid organisms
2025Verbiest, M., Grassi, E., Bertotti, A., Anisimova, M.
Short tandem repeat mutations regulate gene expression in colorectal cancer
2024Verbiest, M., Lundström, O., Xia, F., Baudis, M., Bilgin Sonay, T., Anisimova, M.
Mutation and selection processes regulating short tandem repeats give rise to genetic and phenotypic diversity across species
2023Verbiest, M., Maksimov, M., Jin, Y., Anisimova, M., Gymrek, M., Bilgin Sonay, T.
Beyond Microsatellite Instability: Intrinsic Disorder as a Potential Link Between Protein Short Tandem Repeats and Cancer
2021Verbiest, M., Delucchi, M., Bilgin Sonay, T., Anisimova, M.
Contributing publications
Multicancer analyses of short tandem repeat variations reveal shared gene regulatory mechanisms
2025Xia, F., Verbiest, M., Lundström, O., Sonay, T., Baudis, M., Anisimova, M.
WebSTR: A Population-wide Database of Short Tandem Repeat Variation in Humans
2023Lundström, O., Verbiest, M., Xia, F., Jam, H., Zlobec, I., Anisimova, M., Gymrek, M.
A novel hypervariable variable number tandem repeat in the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3)
2023Apsley, A., Domico, E., Verbiest, M., Brogan, C., Buck, E., Burich, A., Cardone, K., Stone, W., Anisimova, M., Vandenbergh, D.