Sven Beyes was born in Ludwigsburg, Germany, in 1987. He studied Technical Biology (Diploma) at the University of Stuttgart, with stays at the University Hospital of Würzburg, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain and at the Eötvös Lorànd University in Budapest, Hungary. For his PhD he joined 2014 the group of Andreas Hecht at the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Cell Research in Freiburg. His research focus was on SNAIL1-mediated transcriptional control of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. After obtaining his PhD in 2019, he moved to CIBIO at the University of Trento, Italy, to join the group of Alessio Zippo and focus on enhancer reprogramming during breast cancer progression. In 2020, Sven received a Walter-Benjamin-Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) to study tumor-dependent changes in mitotic bookmarking of triple-negative breast cancer cells. In 2023, he returned to Germany with a Return Fellowship of the DFG. In October 2024, he started as a junior research group leader at the RBCT to investigate cancer therapy-induced alterations of mitotic bookmarking and their contribution to therapy resistance development.
Relevant Own Publications
- Beyes S, Michelatti D, Negri ML, Morelli L, Frigoli E, Fagnocchi L, Zippo A. Metastatic cell plasticity is maintained by SOX9 function during mitosis in breast cancer. bioRxiv (2025). doi: 10.1101/2025.01.24.633933.
- Zippo A, Beyes S. Molecular mechanisms altering cell identity in cancer. Oncogene (2025). doi: 10.1038/s41388-025-03314-2.
- Michelatti D, Beyes S, Bernardis C, Negri ML, Morelli L, Bediaga NG, Poli V, Fagnocchi L, Lago S, D’Annunzio S, Cona N, Gaspardo I, Bianchi A, Jovetic J, Gianesello M, Turdo A, D’Accardo C, Gaggianesi M, Dori M, Forcato M, Crispatzu G, Rada-Iglesias A, Sosa MS, Timmers HTM, Bicciato S, Todaro M, Tiberi L, Zippo A. Oncogenic enhancers prime quiescent metastatic cells to escape NK immune surveillance by eliciting transcriptional memory. Nature Communications 15(1), 2198-2198 (2024). doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46524-0.
- Turdo A, Gaggianesi M, Di Franco S, Veschi V, D’Accardo C, Porcelli G, Lo Iacono M, Pillitteri I, Verona F, Militello G, Zippo A, Poli V, Fagnocchi L, Beyes S, Stella S, Lattanzio R, Faldetta N, Lentini VL, Porcasi R, Pistone G, Bongiorno MR, Stassi G, De Maria R, Todaro M. Effective targeting of breast cancer stem cells by combined inhibition of Sam68 and Rad51. Oncogene 41(15), 2196-2209 (2022). doi: 10.1038/s41388-022-02239-4.
- Beyes S, Bediaga NG, Zippo A. An Epigenetic Perspective on Intra-Tumour Heterogeneity: Novel Insights and New Challenges from Multiple Fields. Cancers 13(19), 4969-4969 (2021). doi: 10.3390/cancers13194969.
- Mangiapane LR, Nicotra A, Turdo A, Gaggianesi M, Bianca P, Di Franco S, Sardina DS, Veschi V, Signore M, Beyes S, Fagnocchi L, Fiori ME, Bongiorno MR, Lo Iacono M, Pillitteri I, Ganduscio G, Gulotta G, Medema JP, Zippo A, Todaro M, De Maria R, Stassi G. PI3K-driven HER2 expression is a potential therapeutic target in colorectal cancer stem cells. Gut 71(1), 119-128 (2022). doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323553.
- Fasciani A, D’Annunzio S, Poli V, Fagnocchi L, Beyes S, Michelatti D, Corazza F, Antonelli L, Gregoretti F, Oliva G, Belli R, Peroni D, Domenici E, Zambrano S, Intartaglia D, Settembre C, Conte I, Testi C, Vergyris P, Ruocco G, Zippo A. MLL4-associated condensates counterbalance Polycomb-mediated nuclear mechanical stress in Kabuki syndrome. Nature Genetics 52(12), 1397-1411 (2020). doi: 10.1038/s41588-020-00724-8.
- Beyes S, Andrieux G, Schrempp M, Aicher D, Wenzel J, Antón-García P, Boerries M, Hecht A. Genome-wide mapping of DNA-binding sites identifies stemness-related genes as directly repressed targets of SNAIL1 in colorectal cancer cells. Oncogene 38(40), 6647-6661 (2019). doi: 10.1038/s41388-019-0905-4.
- Jägle S, Busch H, Freihen V, Beyes S, Schrempp M, Boerries M, Hecht A. SNAIL1-mediated downregulation of FOXA proteins facilitates the inactivation of transcriptional enhancer elements at key epithelial genes in colorectal cancer cells. PLOS Genetics 13(11), e1007109-e1007109 (2017). doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007109.
- Schnappauf O, Beyes S, Dertmann A, Freihen V, Frey P, Jägle S, Rose K, Michoel T, Grosschedl R, Hecht A. Enhancer decommissioning by Snail1-induced competitive displacement of TCF7L2 and down-regulation of transcriptional activators results in EPHB2 silencing. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms 1859(11), 1353-1367 (2016). doi: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2016.08.002.
- Möller Y, Morkel M, Schmid J, Beyes S, Hendrick J, Strotbek M, Riemer P, Schmid S, Schmitt LC, Kontermann R, Mürdter T, Schwab M, Sers C, Olayioye MA. Oncogenic Ras triggers hyperproliferation and impairs polarized colonic morphogenesis by autocrine ErbB3 signaling. Oncotarget 7(33), 53526-53539 (2016). doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.10658.
- Möller Y, Siegemund M, Beyes S, Herr R, Lecis D, Delia D, Kontermann R, Brummer T, Pfizenmaier K, Olayioye MA. EGFR-Targeted TRAIL and a Smac Mimetic Synergize to Overcome Apoptosis Resistance in KRAS Mutant Colorectal Cancer Cells. PLoS ONE 9(9), e107165-e107165 (2014). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107165.