I am a Postdoc in the labs of Maxime Tarabichi (IRIBHM-ULB) and Jonas Demeulemeester (VIB-KU Leuven) investigating the formation and consequences of intra-tumour heterogeneity using computational methods. Previously, I did my PhD under supervision of Benjamin Werner and Kateřina Staňková, where I studied the evolution of treatment resistance through mathematical modelling.
As cancers grow, they accumulate genetic changes subject to genetic drift and selection. While most mutations have no impact on the cancer cell's phenotype, some mutations drive progression and treatment resistance . I am interested in understanding how single cells give rise to (sub-)population of cells that expand or go extinct as well as the footprints that those dynamics leave in sequencing data.
Evolutionary game theory (EGT) provides a framework to study the interactions between multiple entities. As such, EGT is used to study interactions of cancer cells with other cancer cells, the tumor-microenvironment or treatment. The latter has led to development of Stackelberg evolutionary game (SEG) theory. In SEG theory, a rational leader (the clinician) optimizes an objective (quality of life of the patient) under consideration of the eco-evolutionary dynamics of the followers (the cancer cell population).
On the patterns of genetic intra-tumour heterogeneity before and after treatment
Alexander Stein, Benjamin Werner
Genetics, 2025
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf101
Selective sweep probabilites in spatially expanding populations
Alexander Stein, Ramanarayanan Kizhuttil, Maciej Bak, Robert Noble
bioRxiv, 2023 (accepted by Nature Communications 2026)
Link: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.27.568915
Stackelberg evolutionary game theory: how to manage evolving systems
Alexander Stein*, Monica Salvioli*, Hasti Garjani*, Johan Dubbeldam, Yannick Viossat, Joel Brown, Kateřina Staňková
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2023
Public Goods Games in Disease Evolution and Spread
Christo Morison, Małgorzata Fic, Thomas Marcou, Javad Mohamadichamgavi, Javier Redondo Antón, Golsa Sayyar, Alexander Stein, Frank Bastian, Hana Krakovská, Nandakishor Krishnan, Diogo L. Pires, Mohammadreza Satouri, Frederik J. Thomsen, Kausutua Tjikundi, Wajid Ali
Dynamic Games and Applications, 2025
Poster at the conference Tumor heterogeneity, Plasticity and Therapy (3rd edition) 12/2025 with the project Spatial evolution and plasticity of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors
Poster at the conference EMBL Cancer Genomics 11/2025 Heidelberg (Geramany) with the project Selective sweep probabilities in spatially expanding populations.
Talk at the Conference Cancer Cell Plasticity in Cancer Evolution 05/2025 Plon (Germany) with the project Exploring the role of phenotypic switching in adaptive therapy
Poster at the conference London Mathematical Biology Conference 09/2024, London (United Kingdom) of the project On the patterns of genetic heterogeneity in cancers before and after treatment.
Talk at the Conference for Mathematical Models in Ecology and Evolution 07/2024, Vienna (Austria) with the title On the properties of genetic intra-tumour heterogeneity before and after treatment
Talk at the seminar Modeling and Theory in Population Biology 05/2024, online with the title A mathematical analysis of the mutational landscape in cancer before and after treatment.
Poster at the conference Mutations in time and space 04/2024, Edinburgh (Scotland) of the project The ubiquity of clonal interference in cancer and other range expansions.
Talk at the seminar for the special issue of Royal Society Publishing Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions 05/2023, Online presenting the paper Stackelberg evolutionary game theory: how to manage evolcving systems
Poster at the Conference Mathematical and Computational Methods in Cancer and Biology 03/2023, New York (USA) with the title Understanding the relationship between genetic intra-tumour heterogeneity and evolutionary therapies
Talk at the seminar for Integrated Mathematical Oncology 02/2023, Tampa (USA) with the title Exploring the relationship between genetic intra-tumour heterogeneity and evolutionary therapies
Talk at the Conference for Mathematical Models in Ecology and Evolution 07/2022, Reading (UK) with the title Intra-tumour heterogeneity during evolutionary therapies
October 2024 - September 2025: Ella Jones, (Australian) undergraduate project resulting in a joint publication that is in preparation (joint supervision with Maria Kleshnina)
July-September 2023: Ramanarayanan Kizhuttil, undergraduate project resulting in a co-authored publication (joint supervision with Rob Noble)
Spring semester 2021: Private tutoring in (i) Data analysis for Biologists (ii) Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (iii) Statistics for Political Science
Autumn semster 2020: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Department of Physics, ETH Zurich
Spring semester 2020: Modelling of pedestrian flows (Modellieren von Fuss und Veloverkehr), Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zurich
If you are a student and would like to work with me, reach out to me! I have some exciting project ideas suited for Bachelor and Master students with quantitative background (i.e. Bioinformatics, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or similar). Contact information at the bottom of this website.
Norman Bailey, The elements of stochastic processes (great introduction to branching processes)
Rick Durrett, Branching processes in cancer (summary of theory and applications of birth-death processes to cancer)
Martin Nowak, Evolutionary dynamics (motivated me to study evolution using maths)
Nicolas Bacaër, A short history of mathematical population dynamics (fun read introducing famous equations and a bit of their history)
Michael Hochberg, Editor's Guide to Writing and Publishing Science (recommended for beginning PhDs to learn about science culture)
Email: alexandersteinresearch@gmail.com
BlueSky: alexsteinresearch.bsky.social
Google scholar: Alexander Stein