Dr Joanna Achinger-Kawecka is a Group Leader of the 3D Epigenome in Cancer group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Conjoint Senior Lecturer at St Vincent's Clinical School, UNSW Sydney. Joanna completed her PhD in 2014 at the University of Tuebingen, Germany supported by prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship, studying epigenetic biomarkers in breast cancer.

Following her PhD, Joanna joined the Epigenetics Research laboratory of Prof Susan Clark at the Garvan Institute, where she established cutting-edge experimental and computational approaches to study the 3D genome organization. Dr Achinger-Kawecka has made significant contributions to the field, publishing in high-impact journals such as Nature Communications, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and Genome Research. She has been awarded competitive research funding from NHMRC, CCNSW and NBCF and established her own research group at the Garvan Institute in 2023.

The main goal of the group’s research is to understand the role of 3D genome architecture in cancer, including its cell-to-cell and temporal variability. For that, they combine and integrate cutting-edge genomics technology, single-cell epigenome profiling, genome editing and pre-clinical models to study the interplay of the 3D genome and epigenome in cancer and how these 3D epigenome changes can be targeted with epigenetic therapy. Beyond fundamental discoveries, their main goal is to uncover new therapeutic targets and biomarkers for the treatment of metastatic disease.