Academic Career & Research Areas
Yurong Cheng completed her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology at Wuhan University of Technology, China. She pursued a Master’s degree in Biological Engineering at Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). From 2017-2023, she conducted her doctoral research at the Genetic Epidemiology Institute, University of Freiburg, Germany, focusing on integrating biomarkers and genomics to understand kidney function in health and disease. In 2024, she joined the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases (IDM) at Helmholtz Munich as a postdoctoral researcher (bioinformatician), focusing on (pre)diabetes cohorts under Prof. Andreas Birkenfeld.  

Yurong’s research specializes in integrating clinical cohort multi-omics and genetic data to uncover phenotype-pathway mechanisms underlying metabolic diseases, especially in prediabetes. Her scientific interest lies in identifying genetic and biomarkers that influence disease susceptibility, progression, lifestyle intervention outcomes and prevention. By bridging computational biology and clinical translation, emphasizing collaborative, data-driven approaches, she aims to transform multi-omics data into actionable insights, advancing precision medicine for chronic metabolic diseases.

LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar

Academic Career & Research Areas
Joana Veríssimo Ferreira is a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in cell biology and metabolism. Originally from Portugal, she completed her undergraduate studies in Applied Biology at the University of Minho. During her master's in Molecular Genetics, she undertook an Erasmus placement at the University of Oxford, UK. In 2024, Joana earned her DPhil in Molecular Cell Biology in Health and Disease at the University of Oxford (Lincoln College), which was supported by a Research Studentship (including the Saven European Scholarship and the Oxford-EP Abraham Research Fund Graduate Scholarship). Her DPhil research focused on membrane organization, organelle biogenesis, and membrane contact site formation. She continued her work at Oxford with a short postdoctoral fellowship before moving to Germany.
Currently, Joana is a postdoctoral researcher at Helmholtz Munich, where she investigates the role of interorganelle communication in metabolism regulation and disease progression.

Joana’s research focuses on how membrane contact sites coordinate organelle function. She is particularly interested in understanding how contact sites between lipid droplets and mitochondria give rise to distinct mitochondrial subpopulations with specialized proteomic and functional profiles. Her work explores the role of major protein complexes and how their remodeling influences contact site formation and organelle function. By integrating omics approaches with functional studies, Joana aims to uncover how lipid droplet-mitochondria interactions regulate cellular metabolism under physiological conditions and in metabolic disorders, such as liver disease. Through this research, she seeks to define how interorganelle communication drives metabolic adaptation at the molecular level.

LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar | X 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Jessica Jin obtained her medical license at the University of Heidelberg. As part of her medical doctorate, she studied the characteristics of experimental cerebral malaria using correlative light and electron microscopy as well as animal MRI. In October 2020, Jessica started her residency in pediatrics at the Dr. von Hauner’s children hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and worked as a study doctor to set up a pediatric cohort biobank and implement the necessary digital systems.
In April 2024, she joined the Kim-Hellmuth Lab as a clinician scientist to investigate immune response variability and its genetic regulation.

Jessica is particularly interested in understanding plasmacytoid dendritic cell heterogeneity and sex differences. To this end she has implemented a modified single-cell short-read and long-read RNA sequencing approach that enables unparalleled full-length transcript discovery, allele-specific expression and transcript usage analysis at single-cell resolution. In addition, she investigates the transcriptional sex differences in a population-based yellow fever vaccination cohort of 250 individuals. Ultimately, her projects will deepen our knowledge in immune response variability leveraging both in vitro and in vivo models which could offer promising avenues for developing targeted therapies to enhance antiviral immunity and treatment of autoimmune disorders.

LinkedIn | ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Georgia Katsoula completed her studies in Biology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens before pursuing a Master’s degree with focus on Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). She then joined Helmholtz Munich to start a Ph.D. with Eleftheria Zeggini, focusing on the functional genomics of osteoarthritis. Currently, she is advancing her research career at Helmholtz Munich in translational genomics, exploring how cell-type-specific molecular mechanisms inform osteoarthritis risk.

Georgia’s research focuses on understanding osteoarthritis biology and which molecular pathways are involved. She uses single-cell multi-omics and genetics to uncover cell-type-specific molecular mechanisms and gene regulatory changes during disease progression. In parallel, she has been leading analysis to identify spatial expression patterns in disease primary tissue. Her highly collaborative work employs computational approaches to determine which genes—and in which cell types—are putative drivers of osteoarthritis phenotypes, with the ultimate goal of advancing data-driven therapeutic strategies and patient stratification.

LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar

Academic Career & Research Areas
Hasna Maachi completed her M.Sc. in Pharmacology and Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Integrative Pharmacology at Université de Montréal. During her doctoral studies, she worked under the supervision of Dr. Vincent Poitout at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). Her research focused on advancing the understanding of islet biology, specifically the regulation of pancreatic beta-cell function and its dysregulation in type 2 diabetes. Her work was particularly dedicated to identifying novel pathways that promote beta-cell replication and restore beta-cell mass in the context of diabetes. Driven by a desire to deepen her knowledge of islet biology and exploring alternative therapies for diabetes, Hasna joined the esteemed laboratory of Prof. Dr. Matthias Hebrok at UCSF and later continued her journey under his guidance at Helmholtz Munich.
Throughout her academic career, Hasna has received numerous prestigious awards in recognition of her research excellence, including the 2024 Helmholtz Munich Best Paper Award. She has also been honored with several top presentation awards at national and international conferences. Her outstanding academic achievements have earned her over $75,000 in competitive scholarships, including the prestigious FRQS postgraduate scholarship and Université de Montréal recruitment grants at both the master's and doctoral levels.

At Helmholtz Munich, Hasna’s research focuses on advancing stem cell-based therapies for diabetes mellitus. Her work explores the underappreciated yet critical role of alternative splicing (AS) in regulating key aspects of beta cell biology, including differentiation, function, and dysfunction. Although emerging evidence links AS to diabetes, the precise mechanisms remain poorly understood. Hasna investigates how specific splicing enhancers, particularly members of the serine/arginine-rich splicing factor (SRSF) family, impact these processes in stem cell-derived beta cells. In her recent publication in Nature Communications, she identified SRSF5 as a novel regulator of beta cell function and has since expanded her research to explore the roles of SRSF9 in beta cell development and SRSF3 in type 2 diabetes. In addition to her work on splicing regulation, Hasna is addressing one of the most significant challenges in stem cell therapy: immune rejection. In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Wendell Lim’s team at UCSF, she contributed to groundbreaking research published in Science, which demonstrated a strategy for engineering synthetic suppressor cells that protect transplanted beta cells from immune-mediated destruction in Type 1 Diabetes.

Academic Career & Research Areas
Gizem Mansour completed her Bachelor's and Master's studies in Pharmacy at Ege University, with part of her Master's research conducted at the University of Turin. She obtained her PhD in Experimental Neuroscience from the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2023, as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded NanoCarb program. Following a short postdoctoral stay at the Mario Negri Institute in Italy, she joined Helmholtz Munich in 2023, where she currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus. 

Gizem's research explores how membraneless organelles (MLOs) influence early human stem cell differentiation, using advanced multiplex imaging and AI-driven analysis. She is particularly interested in the interplay between cell state transitions and the dynamic formation of subcellular structures. Her work aims to uncover fundamental mechanisms that could drive innovations in regenerative medicine and reshape our understanding of early human development.

LinkedIn | ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Agathe Marcelot conducted her Bachelor's studies in Biochemistry at the University Paris-Saclay and her Master's in Structural Biology at the University Paris-Diderot. She then returned to the University Paris-Saclay with a fellowship to conduct a PhD in the field of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, with a strong focus on protein Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. During her 2-year postdoctoral position in Paris, she continued to utilized NMR spectroscopy to investigate RNA. Subsequently, she was awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship in 2024 to further her research at the Institute of Structural Biology at Helmholtz Munich.

Agathe’s research focuses on long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and their post-transcriptional modifications. lncRNA expression is altered in numerous cancers but their large size limits their investigation. She uses Nuclear Magnetic Resonnance spectroscopy together with other biophysical tools to study the molecular determinants of their conformations, interactions, and dynamics. The goal of her highly collaborative research is to broaden the understanding of how large, structured but highly dynamic RNAs interact specifically with proteins.

ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Maria Camila Melo completed her undergraduate studies in Microbiology at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, where she conducted her bachelor's thesis on the role of pathogen virulence factors in gastric pathologies. In 2017, she moved to Germany to earn a master’s in biology from the Ludwig-Maximilian’s University Munich (LMU), focusing on siRNA-based silencing of genes linked to Epstein-Barr virus infection. Building on her expertise in molecular biology and disease mechanisms, in 2020, she continued at the LMU for her Ph.D. in Medical Research under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mareike Lehmann at the Institute of Lung Health and Immunity (LHI), part of the Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC) at Helmholtz Munich, developing a clinically relevant model of lung fibrosis using human precision-cut lung slices.
Since 2024, she is a joint postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Lung Research at the Philipps University of Marburg and the LHI/CPC at Helmholtz Center Munich, where she continues her work in respiratory health and disease. Her academic excellence has been recognized through multiple awards and fellowships, including the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Scholarship for International Students (2017), the ERS NEXT (Networking EXcellence Training) Program (2024), and research funding from the AtemWeg Stiftung (2024) and the CPC Research School (2021).

Maria Camila´s research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms driving lung aging and the progression of pulmonary diseases. She is particularly interested in cellular senescence, fibrosis, and host-pathogen interactions. Her expertise spans molecular biology and disease modelling, with a strong emphasis on translational research. Utilizing advanced 3D human models like precision-cut lung slices, along with state-of-the-art technologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial proteomics, she seeks to identify key drivers of aging-associated susceptibility to lung diseases and potential therapeutic targets to develop more effective interventions for respiratory diseases.

ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Currently a Postdoc at the Scialdone lab, Martin Miranda is working on integrating modeling and data science to understand cell fate decisions in the olfactory system. Martin completed his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Frank Jülicher, where he studied the spontaneous oscillations of eukaryotic flagella. Martin studied physics at Sorbonne Université in Paris, where he obtained his master and bachelor degrees.

Martin’s current research focuses on how olfactory sensory neurons choose which odorant receptor to express. There are more than a thousand different possible receptors, each expressed in a mutually exclusive manner. His approach employs mechanistic modeling in conjunction with data analysis and machine learning at every step of the decision process, with the aim of predicting and understanding how these decisions are made.

Academic Career & Research Areas
Mariana Ponce de Leon is a postdoctoral researcher in the Childhood Obesity and Metabolic Research group, which she joined in September 2024. She obtained her doctoral degree in Human Biology from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 2023 and subsequently worked as a postdoc in the Computational Research group at the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity at Helmholtz Munich. She completed her undergraduate studies in her home country, Mexico, and was awarded an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to pursue a Master of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.

The goal of Mariana's research is to improve the understanding of obesity and of related metabolic disorders by using genomic and phenotypic data from large human cohorts. At HI-MAG, she has access to unique and richly characterized childhood cohorts, including LIFE child, the Leipzig Obesity Childhood cohort, and the Adipose Tissue Childhood Bank at the University Leipzig. She employs bioinformatic and data science tools to derive meaningful insights from multi-omic datasets.

LinkedIn | ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Paula Rothämel earned her medical degree from LMU Munich and completed her MD thesis on "Blast-T cell interaction in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia" in the lab of Tobias Feuchtinger at CCRC Hauner (Comprehensive Childhood Research Center at Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital). In March 2022, she began her pediatrics residency at Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital. Building on her clinical and research expertise, Paula transitioned to full-time research in July 2024 in the lab of Dr. Sarah Kim-Hellmuth, with Prof. Claudia Nußbaum as her Co-Mentor. She is currently supported by a GEROK position within the DFG-funded TRR 359 "Perinatal Development of Immune Cell Topology" (PILOT). Paula is affiliated with both Helmholtz Munich and LMU University Hospital.

Paula’s research focuses on uncovering the molecular and genetic mechanisms that shape immune development in both preterm and term neonates. To do so, she utilizes single-cell multiomics techniques, such as CITE-seq, to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of neonatal immune cells in human.

Academic Career & Research Areas
Kartikeya Singh holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India, where he built a strong foundation in analytical thinking and problem-solving. His growing interest in biological systems led him to transition into immunology, joining the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), India, where he studied host-pathogen interactions. In 2018, recognizing the pivotal role of cell communication in multicellular systems and a key research gap in the field, he pursued a PhD at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine. His research focused on understanding immune cell interactions in health and disease.
In 2024, he began working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Munich, at the intersection of computational biology and machine learning to study cell communication. Additionally, he serves as the core bioinformatician for the TRR355 consortium, collaborating with researchers investigating Treg cell (Regulatory T cell) biology and its role in disease.

Kartikeya’s research revolves around the role of communication as a fundamental pillar of biological function. He specializes in developing computational tools that leverage Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data to study how cell communication is altered in disease, with the aim of contributing to future therapeutic advancements. His current work seeks to expand the understanding of cell communication beyond traditional frameworks, incorporating paradigms like metabolism and abstract concepts such as synergy and competition. These advancements help refine computational models, making them more comprehensive and predictive. Beyond his research, Kartikeya is deeply committed to science communication. He has actively developed and presented scientific exhibitions in Luxembourg and Munich, making complex scientific concepts more accessible and fostering a deeper appreciation for research among diverse audiences.

LinkedIn | ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Juliane Tschuck obtained her master’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology at the Technical University of Munich. In her doctoral research, which she completed in 2024, Juliane focused on identifying regulators of ferroptosis, a novel type of cell death. Currently she is continuing her work as a postdoc at the Research Unit Signaling and Translation at Helmholtz Munich. Juliane has published several publications as a first author, has been co-awarded the m4 Award in 2023 and has secured a patent on ferroptosis inhibitors. 

Juliane's research has been focusing on ferroptosis regulators and targeting them with small molecules to improve cell death-related diseases, such as neurodegeneration or ischemia reperfusion injury. By collaborating with clinicians, she aims to develop a first-in-class, clinically effective ferroptosis inhibitor. Additionally, she is working at the intersection of the ubiquitin system and ferroptosis, investigating if deubiquitinating enzymes can be targeted as a method of tumor treatment, e.g. in multiple myeloma. 

LinkedIn | ORCID | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
After obtaining her Master's degree in Genetics from the Université Paris Cité, Marie Bourdon embarked on her doctoral journey by joining the lab of Xavier Montagutelli at the Institut Pasteur. Investigating the genetic underpinnings of Zika virus susceptibility using mouse models became the focal point of her doctoral thesis. Her research during this period earned her the esteemed Verne Chapman Award from the International Mammalian Genome Society. She completed her PhD in November 2023 and joined Sarah Kim-Hellmuth's team at Helmholtz Munich in January 2024 as a postdoctoral researcher.

At Helmholtz Munich, Marie shifted her focus from murine to human genetic studies. She is delving into the biology regulation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and exploring the genetic determinants influencing their functions. To this aim, she is using single-cell multi-omics approaches on pDCs from healthy donors. Thus, she works at the intersection of experimental approaches and bioinformatics analyses. Her results will deepen our understanding of the role of pDCs in antiviral and inflammatory responses.

ORCID iD | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Ozvan Bocher completed her undergraduate studies in Biology and Mathematics at Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris, with an Erasmus year in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. She pursued a Master's degree in Statistical Genetics at Paris Saclay University. In 2018, she started her doctorate on the same topic at the University of Brest, France. Ozvan completed her doctorate in September 2021 which was awarded the best PhD in the Biology and Health field by the university. She joined the Institute of Translational Genomics at Helmholtz Munich as a post-doctoral fellow in January 2022. In 2024, she accepted a Junior Professorship at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in France.

Ozvan integrates her expertise in statistics and biology now as part of her research in the OPTOMICS project which aims at predicting type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its complications based on genetics, proteomics, metabolomics, and imaging data. Ozvan is both conducting analyses in large biobanks and supervising PhD students in this project. She is also part of the largest T2D genetics consortium and is leading a working group on identifying causal molecular pathways associated with T2D risk. In parallel, she has been driving analyses in the FastBio project characterizing the effects of specific dietary patterns on omics profiles, expanding her expertise on these molecular traits.

ORCID | LinkedIn | Twitter | Google Scholar |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Lena Cords is a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in both wet-lab and computational biology. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Medicine at the University of Tübingen in Germany including a year at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Afterwards, she obtained a Master’s degree in Integrated Immunology at the University of Oxford in 2018. For her PhD, she moved to Zürich, Switzerland, joining the Bodenmiller lab at both ETH and the University of Zurich in 2019. There, she studied cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity by analysing multi-omics spatial single-cell data and received a PhD distinction for her work from the University of Zurich in 2023.

Lena’s research interests include cell-to-cell communication and spatial single-cell biology. Her postdoctoral work at the Schiller lab focuses on the analysis of cell circuits in chronic lung diseases, including chronic-obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary fibrosis (PF). She is investigating the underlying signalling cues involved in disease progression and tissue regeneration, integrating multi-omics approaches with multiplexed imaging of patient samples. Through this, it is her goal to contribute to the understanding of COPD and PF pathophysiology to pave new ways for novel treatment strategies for chronic lung disease patients. 

ORCID iD | LinkedIn | Google Scholar |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Marjolein Heddes earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Nutrition and Health from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, with a specialization in Molecular Nutrition and Toxicology. She then pursued a doctorate at the Technical University of Munich, where she researched the intestinal circadian regulation of the microbiome and host metabolism. After completing her doctoral studies, she continued her passion for metabolism and chronobiology by joining the Institute for Diabetes and Endocrinology at Helmholtz Munich in 2023.

Marjolein is currently dedicated to exploring the intricacies of nuclear receptors in circadian hepatic metabolism. Her ongoing project involves the development of a novel mouse line, and the application of multi-omics approaches on the liver around the clock. The overarching goal of her research is to unveil novel pathways and identify target genes essential for a comprehensive understanding and enhancement of hepatic metabolism in the context of diseases.

LinkedIn | Twitter |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Florian Kofler is currently an AI Consultant in the team of Marie Pireaud and specializes in biomedical image analysis for health projects. Florian holds a doctoral degree in Informatics from the Technical University of Munich, with expertise in deep learning for MR, CT, and microscopy data. His interdisciplinary background unites industry experience, an honors degree in Technology Management, a Master's in Neuro-Cognitive Psychology and a Bachelor in Sociology / Psychology.

Florian’s research focuses on computer vision, pattern recognition and model evaluation in the biomedical domain. Specifically, Florian aims to build bridges between studying human perception and machine learning. His goal is to infuse machine learning models with human expert knowledge and to enhance clinical decision-making with machine support.

ORCID | LinkedIn | Twitter | Google Scholar | GitHub

Academic Career & Research Areas
Zeynep Ilgın Kolabaş completed her undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Bioengineering at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey. After completing her undergraduate studies, she moved to Nijmegen, the Netherlands, to study Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University. Granted a fellowship to conduct her thesis studies abroad, she completed her master's thesis at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research at the University of Munich Hospital. In 2019, she began her PhD at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences at the LMU Munich and Helmholtz Munich. Before concluding her PhD studies in January 2024, she pursued an internship at Genentech in San Francisco, where she contributed to the Cell and Tissue Genomics Department. Currently, she is advancing her research career at Helmholtz Munich, exploring systems biology through the utilization of cutting-edge technologies such as whole-body tissue clearing and imaging.

 Ilgın’s current research focuses on elucidating whole-body changes associated with systemic diseases, with a specific emphasis on the interplay between bones, nerves, and the immune system. Building on her earlier research, her trajectory revolves around developing a holistic understanding of the skull's intricate communication with the brain. She aims to advance personalized medicine, easing the effects of neurodegenerative diseases through tailored diagnostics and monitoring.

LinkedIn | Twitter | Google Scholar |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Christos Karampelias obtained his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. For his MSc degree, he studied Developmental and Reproductive Biology at Imperial College London, United Kingdom. In 2021, he was awarded his PhD degree in Medical Sciences from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, studying pancreatic beta-cell regeneration and drug development. Since 2022, he has been a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research headed by Prof. Heiko Lickert at Helmholtz Munich and currently funded by the Alexander von Humboldt and MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships.

At the Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research, Christos’ research focuses on understanding postnatal pancreas development and regeneration to identify new molecular targets for patients suffering from diabetes. To achieve that, he uses porcine and human pancreas models in combination with transcriptomics and chemical biology approaches to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of postnatal pancreas development and regeneration in homeostasis as well as models of diabetes.

Twitter | Google Scholar

Academic Career & Research Areas
Maxime Lalonde studied Biochemistry in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He obtained his PhD from the University of Montreal in 2020. During his doctoral research, he worked with the yeast S.cerevisiae, studying the expression and localization of the telomerase RNA TLC1 and the telomeric LNC RNA TERRA. After completing his doctorate, Maxime joined Stephan Hamperl's Lab at Helmholtz Munich as a post-doctoral researcher.

Maxime’s research focuses on Transcription-Replication Conflicts (TRCs) and cell fate maintenance perturbations in mouse embryonic stem cells. His research aims to understand how TRCs can interfere with cell fate maintenance and how the coordination between transcription and replication is affected by changes in cell fate states.

Academic Career & Research Areas
Daniel Lang is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Machine Learning in Biomedical Imaging. Furthermore, he holds the role of a principal investigator in the Helmholtz Imaging Project CLARITY, conducted in cooperation with the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Daniel joined Helmholtz Munich for his doctoral research and finished his PhD at the Department of Physics of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) with distinction (magna cum laude). He studied Physics at the University of Regensburg and completed his Master's thesis in cooperation with the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg.

Daniel's research is primarily focused on the development of machine learning applications in the field of medical imaging, with a specific focus on cancer diagnosis and treatment. He is particularly interested in the implementation of these applications in radiation oncology. To achieve his goals, Daniel develops innovative deep learning algorithms in the research domain of self- and unsupervised learning, domain adaptation, survival analysis, and anomaly detection. The aim of his research is to design algorithms that enable non-invasive determination of imaging biomarkers, improve patient stratification, and identify patients who may be at risk for overdosage.

ORCID | Google Scholar | GitHub |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Misako Nakayama completed her medical studies at Shiga University of Medical Science (SUMS) in 2006. Following a two-year clinical training period, she embarked on her career as a pathologist in Japan. Driven by her interest in immunology, she joined a lab focused on translational research using nonhuman primates. In this role, she explored the pathogenicities of both avian and human influenza viruses and assessed vaccine efficacies, culminating in her earning a doctorate in 2014. Between 2017 and 2019, Misako expanded her expertise at Helmholtz Munich, supported by fellowships from the Uehara Memorial Foundation and SUMS. During this time, she honed her skills in air-liquid interface culture techniques for infection research. In September 2023, she returned to Helmholtz Munich with a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship.

Misako's research interest lies in the host responses following respiratory virus infection. Currently, her main focus is to unravel the mechanisms behind viral-induced exacerbations (flare-ups) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by investigating the interactions between airway epithelium and fibroblasts in ex-vivo models.   

ORCID | LinkedIn | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Pamela Nono Nankam began her academic journey with a Bachelor and Master of Sciences in Animal Physiology at the University of Dschang in Cameroon. Subsequently, she was awarded the NRF-TWAS scholarship to pursue her PhD in the Department of Exercise Science and Sport Medicine at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She moved to Germany and joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leipzig towards the end of her PhD phase with a DAAD Research Grant to complete her doctorate. In 2021, she joined Matthias Blüher´s Research Group at the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) where she is currently a postdoc.

Pamela´s research focus is aiming for a better understanding of human disease mechanisms related to adipose tissue dysfunction. She currently works on adipose tissue function characterization in lipedema and identification of circulating disease biomarkers. Her work has been recognized by the first research award of the German Lipedema Association 2023 and is funded by a grant from the Lipedema Foundation in the USA (also awarded in 2023). She also leads the studies in single cell/nuclei investigations of adipose tissue in humans with a wide range of fat mass and fat distribution. In parallel, she plays an important role in developing a comprehensive meta-analysis of publicly available and newly generated single-cell, single-nucleus, and spatial transcriptomic results from human subcutaneous, omental, and perivascular white adipose tissue.

Academic Career & Research Areas
Viktoria Ocvirk completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in Nutritional Sciences at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). She holds a PhD in genomics of complex diseases. During her doctoral research, she worked on identifying molecular mechanisms of genomic risk variants for type 2 diabetes. Following this, she gained considerable experience in the pharmaceutical industry at the Research IT Group at Bayer, as well as a regional governmental organization, dedicating her efforts to promoting and advancing sustainable nutrition and farming practices. 

Combining her experience in complex diseases and environmental projects, Viktoria now pursue a postdoc in allergy research at the Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Munich. Her focus is on understanding the relationship between genetics and exposure to common environmental allergens in the development of conditions such as asthma, rhinitis, or atopic dermatitis. As the prevalence of allergic diseases continues to rise, this knowledge becomes imperative for formulating precise preventative measures and personalized treatment approaches.

Academic Career & Research Areas
Thomas O'Neill is a biologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Signaling and Translation at Helmholtz Munich. He earned his M.Sc. in Biochemistry from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and completed his Ph.D. at Helmholtz Munich, focusing on the signaling mechanisms regulating cellular homeostasis in T cells. Awarded the Helmholtz Best Paper Award for his doctoral research, Thomas has continued his research since obtaining his Ph.D. in 2021, leading several first-author publications and securing a patent.

His research interests lie in exploring immune signaling mechanisms in healthy and diseased cells. Thomas has expertise in designing, establishing, and analyzing sophisticated cellular and animal models of immune diseases. His current research interests include dissecting the mechanisms that promote chronic oncogenic signaling in B cells, and he hopes that these studies will enable the prediction of novel precision therapies for the treatment of lymphoma. 

ORCID | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | ResearchGate |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Anne-Sophie Pepin obtained her Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University. During her undergraduate studies, she worked on various projects investigating the role of DNA methylation in transcriptional regulation. Combining animal models, epigenomics and transcriptomics data, and bioinformatics approaches, her doctoral thesis aimed at exploring the consequences of paternal obesity on the sperm chromatin, embryonic and placental development, and offspring metabolic health. Her studies were supported by doctoral scholarships, and the quality of her work, publications, conference presentations, and leadership, have been recognized by multiple awards.

To further her interest in the crosstalk between metabolism and the epigenome, Anne-Sophie moved to Germany in 2022 and joined the Schneider group at Helmholtz Munich as a postdoctoral researcher. Her current research focuses on investigating the functional roles of the combinatorial occurrence of histone modifications on transcription in the context of a metabolic disorder. Her collaborative work involves the development of an experimental and computational framework for single-cell multi-omics profiling of clinically-relevant samples. In 2024, Anne-Sophie was awarded a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for her research.

ORCID iD | LinkedIn | Twitter |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Sebastian Schmidt completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). In 2017, he joined Helmholtz Munich to pursue his doctorate in neuroscience with a focus on sporadic Parkinson’s disease. After successfully completing his PhD in 2021, he decided to stay as a Postdoc at the Institute of Developmental Genetics. He also joined the Chair of Neurobiological Engineering at the Munich Institute of Biomedical Engineering at TU), where he is involved in the development of genetic tools and multi-electrode array systems.

Sebastian's research primarily focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that contribute to the neurodegeneration process in sporadic Parkinson’s disease. He is particularly interested in studying cell-cell communication and its influence on cellular metabolism. To achieve this, he utilizes patient-derived cells to identify potential interference points that can be used for drug screening purposes.

ORCID | LinkedIn | 

Academic Career & Research Areas
Chenglei Tian commenced his academic journey with a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the College of Marine Life Science at the Ocean University of China. Subsequently, he pursued a Ph.D. in Cell Biology at Nankai University's State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology. Chenglei then assumed the role of Postdoctoral Researcher in Human Stem Cell Biology at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology, University of Copenhagen, before transitioning to Henrik Semb's lab at Helmholtz Munich, the Institute of Translational Stem Cell Research. Chenglei has twice been awarded National Scholarships and honored with the Excellent Achievement Award for Scientific Research in China. 

Chenglei's research interest revolves around using PSCs to restore normal human endocrine functions, with a primary focus on two key areas: (1) Generation of developmentally competent oocytes and fertile mice from pluripotent stem cells; (2) Pioneering the creation of hPSC-derived islets of Langerhans-like clusters with functional attributes on par with human islets, with the ultimate goal of translating these experimental findings into clinical applications. Currently, he is actively involved in the EU Horizon 2020 "ISLET" project, focusing on innovating advanced cell therapy for diabetes.

ORCID iD | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | ResearchGate |

Academic Career & Research Areas
Alaa Bessadok obtained her master and bachelor degrees from the Higher Institute of Management of Gabes from the University of Gabes of Tunisia in 2018 and 2015, respectively. During this time, she studied informatics applied to management and business intelligence then she started her PhD at the Higher Institute of Computer Science and Communication Techniques (ISITCom), University of Sousse of Tunisia. During 3 years, she worked on brain connectome prediction for disorder diagnosis. In 2022, she started her postdoctoral position at Helmholtz AI where she focuses on cell-death mediated drug discovery. She was awarded Alexander von Humboldt Postdoc Fellowship and started working with two hosts from Helmholtz Munich.

Alaa’s research focuses on developing AI tools to predict cell death types of distinct drugs using high-content-screening (HCS) assays. Her main area of research is geometric deep learning with the aim of studying drug-induced cell death modalities (e.g., ferroptosis and apoptosis). The goal of her highly collaborative research is to employ computational techniques using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand how certain drugs may selectively induce a distinct form of cell death modality. This understanding will accelerate the use of such drugs in specific clinical settings.

Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
Olga Bondareva completed her Bachelor and Master studies in Applied Mathematics and Physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia. She moved to Germany in 2014 to undertake her PhD in Biology as a member of the CiM-IMPRS Joint Graduate Program of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and the University of Münster. During this time, Olga specialized in vascular biology, epigenetics and bioinformatics. In 2018, she joined the group of Lutz Hein at University of Freiburg for her postdoctoral studies. Here, she further pursued her interests in cardiovascular disease and epigenetics, and established a novel single-cell RNA-sequencing pipeline for the analysis of human cardiomyocytes. In 2020, Olga was recruited to the HI-MAG institute in Leipzig. She has been instrumental in establishing the single cell techniques at the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolism, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) and is focused on understanding how metabolic disease causes irreversible damage to blood vessels.

Olga's research focuses on vascular dysfunction in diseases associated with metabolic stress and obesity. She is fascinated by the intricate mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and epigenetic control in vascular cells and their implication in the response to various environmental changes and disease. She is interested in novel techniques and analyses to study transcriptional and epigenetic changes such as single cell multiomics and spatial transcriptomics. Her projects so far combined bench work and bioinformatic analyses of high-throughput data, utilizing both complementary approaches. Olga Bondareva’s work is aimed on identification of epigenetic regulators and potential mechanisms of prevention in vascular disease.

Google Scholar | ORCID ID | LinkedIn | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
After completing his undergraduate studies in Biomedical Research and Masters in Biochemical Sciences at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, Donovan Correa-Gallegos obtained in 2021 his doctorate in the field of medical research at the Faculty of Medicine of the Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU). He continued his research career at Helmholtz Munich in the Institute of Regenerative Biology and Medicine (IRBM) as a full-time postdoctoral researcher until December 2023 and joined the High Potentials Program. In January 2024, Donovan joined Dichgans Lab at the Institute of Stroke and Dementia of the LMU as a postdoctoral researcher and continues as a guest researcher at the IRBM.  

Donovan's research interest revolves around the unveiling of cellular processes that orchestrate tissue development and repair. Particularly, his research has focused on the role of cellular heterogeneity in tissue injury, repair, and disease. Donovan has specialized in advanced image analysis methods, single-cell transcriptomics, and animal models of tissue repair and disease.

ORCID iD | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
Laurens De Sadeleer is a pulmonologist and postdoctoral fellow in the Cell Circuits lab of Dr Herbert Schiller. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Medicine at KU Leuven and completed his PhD at the BREATHE Laboratory at KU Leuven, Belgium in 2020. Afterwards, he received his further clinical training in Respiratory Medicine at St Lucas Hospital in Brugge, ZOL Hospital in Genk and at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium In 2022, he was supported by a prestigious Marie Curie-Sklodowska Postdoctoral Fellowship and joined Helmholtz Munich.

Laurens research interests include the characterization of the morpho-molecular progression of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) throughout temporal evolution and spatial diversity within the lung, using innovative multi-omics systems biology approaches. Moreover he is fascinated by the clinical diversity in pulmonary fibrosis and his goals are to understand this heterogeneity from a molecular angle, to endotype pulmonary fibrosis (PF) based on molecular mechanisms and pursuing personalized treatment in PF.

Google Scholar | ORCID iD | LinkedIn | ResearchGate | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
After graduating from the University of Tübingen in Biochemistry, Mehmet Gökkaya started his PhD thesis at the Department of Environmental Medicine in the field of respiratory diseases. He has published six peer-reviewed articles and two additional articles in German. In 2022. he won a PI grant for his current research project on biomarkers predicting the course of COVID-19 infections. In 2021, Mehmet joined Helmholtz Munich to work for the projects CORAERO and PerForM-REACT. Additionally, he received the “Specific Immunotherapy Award” of DGAKI in 2021 and has filed a patent application.

For the last six years, Mehmet has worked in the field of allergy, studying biomarkers and their link to environmental factors. Early on in his work he realized the potential of combining bioinformatics expertise with immunological experimental work. By focusing on local immune responses in allergic patients and looking for nasal biomarkers he became a scientific game changer. His current aim is to identify early immune biomarkers that help to optimize the management of COVID-19 infections.

ORCID | LinkedIn | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
Monika Litvinukova has completed her undergraduate bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biological Chemistry, as part of an elite cross-border study between Linz, Austria and Budweis, Czechia. She focused on biophysics of calcium signaling, for which she has received the Dean Award for her Master thesis. In 2017, Monika moved to Berlin to work in cardiac biology at the Max Delbrück Center. As part of her project on mapping the cell states of healthy human heart she has spent three years as a visiting scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK. She has obtained her PhD in Biology at Humboldt University and has received the MDC 2020 publication prize for her PhD work. In 2021, she spent three months in Helmholtz Munich as part of the HiDA Program.

During her postdoc at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus (2022-2023), Monika focused on developing and establishing new in vitro protocols for hepatic organoids as a model for liver ploidy and aging. She has also used single cell technologies to better understand how hepatocytes accumulate lipids and what is the role of ploidy in the process. In November 2023, Monika moved to University Hospital Würzburg to start her own junior research group to study the role of vascular cells in the immune response in cardiac health and disease, while she continues to closely collaborate with her previous mentors at Helmholtz Munich.

Google Scholar | ORCID iD | LinkedIn | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
Mo Lotfollahi completed his studies in Artificial Intelligence at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran. After that, he moved to Germany to start a Ph.D. with Fabian Theis in computational biology. He has recently finished his Ph.D. at the School of Life Sciences at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) with distinction (summa cum laude). 

Mo's work lies in the intersection of machine learning (ML) and biology. He leverages machine learning to understand health and disease using single-cell biology for drug discovery and cell engineering. He has industry experience as a research intern and visitor, and consultant for both drug discovery companies and machine learning research (e.g., Cellarity,  Facebook AI ). He was won multiple awards, from best paper awards to fellowships and awards from quantitative biosciences Munich (QBM), Joachim Herz Stiftung, Bayer Foundation and EMBL.

Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Twitter | Website

Academic Career & Research Areas
Valeria Napolitano completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Naples “Federico II”. For her PhD, she joined the group of Prof Dubin at Jagiellonian University as MSCA-ITN fellow. In 2019, Valeria joined the group of Grzegorz Popowicz at Institute of Structural Biology at Helmholtz Munich. 

Valeria's research focuses on identifying novel therapeutic targets and design potential drug candidates making use of the structural information. She uses structural biology and biochemical techniques to elucidate the structure and the function of proteins critical for health and linked to disease (i.e. antibiotic resistance, COVID19 and Trypanosomiasis) providing support to the structure-based drug discovery.  Another aspect of her research focuses on developing macromolecules carriers to better treat diseases and illnesses like genetic disorders and cancers.  

LinkedIn

Academic Career & Research Areas
Aaron Novikoff is a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in both spatial and targeted molecular pharmacology for the treatment of diabetes and obesity. Originally from La Habra, California, he completed his undergraduate studies at the California Polytechnic University – San Luis Obispo. Following international experience in industry, in 2018 Aaron returned to academia completing his Master’s degree in Nutrition and Biomedicine at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), with a focus on time-series metabolomics analysis. Aaron then found interest in the field of drug discovery, and went on to achieve his doctorate in molecular pharmacology at Helmholtz Munich in 2022.

Aaron’s current research centers around customizing control over the traditional receptor response through co-targeted modifications of both drug structure and subcellular environment. Through this, his immediate goal is to achieve system-wide enhancements in peptide-based drug efficacy. Aaron’s long-term goal is to optimize therapeutics across multiple disease states by establishing a customizable interface connecting cellular microenvironment dynamics to the relevant optimizations needed for disease-specific receptor-based pharmacology.

Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
Marlies Oomen obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Molecular Life Sciences and Drug Innovation at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She then did her PhD in the laboratory of Job Dekker at UMass Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA, splitting her time 50/50 between bioinformatics and wet lab. During her PhD, she focused on chromosome organization and epigenetic bookmarking during mitosis, using genomics techniques such as Hi-C, ATAC-seq and Cut&Run, as well as developing a novel technique to observe sister chromatid interactions.

Marlies joined the Torres-Padilla lab in September 2021 as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow. Here, she studies transcriptional regulation at and around transposable elements in early mammalian development, addressing her research questions using both computational and experimental approaches. By comparing how transposable elements regulate and are regulated across different mammalian species, she aims to gain a deeper understanding on how transposable elements and their host genomes co-evolved. 

Google Scholar | ORCID iD | Twitter

Academic Career & Research Areas
Daniela Schranner completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Exercise Physiology at the Technical University of Munich and at the University of Sydney in Australia, with a focus on human performance, health and exercise training. In 2017, she started her PhD in Exercise Biology at the Technical University of Munich and received a doctoral scholarship from the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) from 2018-2021. During her PhD, she spent time as a visiting researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Since June 2021, Daniela is a postdoc in the group of Gabi Kastenmüller.

Daniela’s research focuses on characterizing the short and long-term metabolic changes of exercise and their beneficial role for human health and preventive potential for diseases. Since joining Helmholtz Munich, her specific focus lies on the molecular underpinnings of the preventive potential of individualized exercise training for neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer’s diseases).

ORCID iD | ResearchGate

Academic Career & Research Areas
Denis Vecellio Reane graduated in Medical Biotechnologies from the University of Padua. In 2016, Denis obtained his PhD in Biosciences and Biotechnologies at the University of Padua in the field of calcium signalling in mitochondria under physiological and pathological conditions. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padua, he focused on the mechanisms of tissue-specific regulation of mitochondrial calcium signalling, focusing on skeletal muscle. In 2021, Denis joined Helmholtz Munich to continue his research in the field of interorganelles communication. He was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the European Union in 2022 to study the alteration of endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria crosstalk in metabolic diseases.

Denis' research focuses on signalling crosstalk between the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. He is interested in how communication between these intracellular organelles is modulated under physiological or pathological conditions. The aim of his research is to understand how intrinsic changes in one organelle can affect the functions of the other. Using a systematic approach that combines unbiased and hypothesis-driven experiments, Denis' research aims to identify how alterations in inter-organelle crosstalk contribute to the onset and progression of metabolic disease.

ORCID iD | LinkedIn | Twitter |

Academic Career & Research Areas: 
Johanna Winter studied Physics at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Umeå, Sweden. She completed her Master thesis at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in the field of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology. For her doctoral studies, Johanna Winter joined Helmholtz Munich. During that time, she received the Young Investigator Award by the German Society of Medical Physics. In 2022, she started her postdoctoral research at the Klinikum rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich, while she is still affiliated with Helmholtz Munich.

Johanna focuses her research on the improvement of cancer therapy. She works on bringing microbeam radiotherapy, an emerging therapy technique with less side effects than conventional radiation therapy, towards clinical application. Her main focus is the prototype development of a novel x-ray source for microbeam radiotherapy as well as microbeam treatment planning to support preclinical research and to prepare clinical trials.

ORCID | Google Scholar