Lab Members
Some profiles are still under construction and will be updated soon.
Dr. Bilal Sheikh
Group Leader
Dr. Bilal Sheikh
Group Leader
Florian Geier
Technician
Florian Geier
Technician
Longsheng Liao
Doctoral Researcher
Longsheng Liao
Doctoral Researcher
Hugo Martin
PostDoc
Hugo Martin
PostDoc
Contact
hugo.martin@helmholtz-munich.de
Project
Hugo Martin is a pre-doctoral researcher at the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity, and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) with over seven years of research experience and training in biochemistry (B.Sc.) and bioinformatics (M.Sc.). Being part of the Sheikh’s Lab, he is focusing on the epigenetic regulation of metabolic and vascular disorders. Experienced in the analysis and integration of high-throughput genomic datasets, including single-cell RNA-seq, Xenium spatial transcriptomics, and Cut&RUN (ChIP-seq). His research interests center on understanding how epigenetic mechanisms regulate immunometabolism and immune cell function to inform new therapeutic strategies for metabolic and vascular diseases.
Career
2019 - 2021 M.Sc. Bioinformatics: Software Development and Data Analysis, Aix-Marseille University, France, Rank 4/13
2020 First-year internship: Routine analyses for the ReMap database INSERM/TAGC, Marseille, Supervisor: Dr. Benoit Ballester
2021 Second-year internship: Machine learning models to identify SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, IHU Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, Supervisors: Dr. Lionel Almeras; Dr. Samuel Granjeaud
2016 - 2019 B.Sc. Biochemistry, Aix-Marseille University, France
Additional Qualifications
- Bioinformatics analysis of Single-cell RNA-Seq
- RNA-Seq
- Spatial Transcriptomics
- ATAC-Seq
- ChIP-Seq
- Protein docking (AlphaFold, Vina)
- Mass spectrometry
- OLink
- Exome Sequencing
- Training and testing Random Forest, SVM, and KNN-classifiers using R and python
Nishta Malhotra
Doctoral Researcher
Nishta Malhotra
Doctoral Researcher
He Yao
Doctoral Researcher
He Yao
Doctoral Researcher
Christina Papa
Doctoral Researcher
Christina Papa
Doctoral Researcher
Contact
christina.papa@helmholtz-munich.de
Project
Christina's research focuses on cholesterol-lowering therapies, aiming to elucidate their mechanisms of action and differences between them. She also investigates the biological basis of therapy-associated side effects. By comparing metabolic effects and underlying pathways, she seeks to improve understanding of how cholesterol-lowering therapies influence lipid and glucose metabolism. Her research may inform treatment selection based on patient characteristics and supports the development of personalized lipid-lowering strategies, particularly for individuals at elevated risk of diabetes.
Career
2021-2023 M.Sc. Biomedical Sciences, University of Cyprus
2017-2021 B.Sc. Biological Sciences, University of Cyprus
Prizes & Awards
2023 Excellence award from the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, for being the master student with the. 2nd highest overall grade
2021-2023 Praxandros Scholarship - Department of Biological Sciences
2022-2023 A.G Leventis Foundation Scholarship
2021 Excellence award from the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, for being among the top 5 students. who graduated with the highest overall grade
Additional Qualifications
- FELASA certificate (June 2024)
