Postdoctoral Fellows
Abdel Rahman Abdel Fattah
Studied Engineering and obtained his PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McMaster University. During his PhD, he created new ways to magnetically manipulate cells for tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting applications and made carbon nanotube-based antigen biosensors. He developed an interest in the mechanics of embryogenesis and, during his postdoctoral work in the lab of Adrian Ranga at KU Leuven, discovered how mechanical forces affects morphogenesis, cell fate specification and patterning in the development of our central nervous system using neural tube organoids. In the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga, he is keen on charting the role of solute carriers in the cell’s ability to cope with mechanical changes in its microenvironment.
AAbdelFattah@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Johannes Bigenzahn
Studied medicine at the Medical University Vienna (Austria), which he completed in 2010. Thereafter he joined the lab of Prof. Giulio Superti-Furga to obtain a PhD in the area of translational cancer research with a focus on the role of protein complexes in cancer cell proliferation and drug resistance. He uses advanced microRNA-based RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering as well as TAP-MS-based proteomic technologies, to gain a deeper understanding on cellular signaling adaptation in response to drug perturbation.
JBigenzahn@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Fabian Frommelt
Studied Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) and the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich (ETH). Fabian obtained a PhD in Systems Biology at the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology (IMSB) at ETH Zürich working on protein-protein interactions and protein complex analysis by applying protein co-fractionation techniques in combination with quantitative proteomics. In the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga he is focusing on deciphering protein interaction networks and applying proximity labelling techniques for solute carries (SLCs) within the RESOLUTE consortium.
FFrommelt@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Zuzana Gelova
Zuzana studied Molecular and Cell Biology at the Palacky University in Olomouc and obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from CEITEC - Masaryk University in Brno. During her PhD, she participated in screens for novel antibody fragments, their characterization and utilization in the modulation of hormonal activity in plants. After, she moved as a postdoc to IST Austria and studied receptor-ligand binding, the downstream protein-protein interactions in a novel signaling cascade and its impact on plant growth and development. Now, at the Superti-Furga lab, she is focusing on characterization and functional validation of new high-affinity binders to SLC transporters within the RESOLUTE consortium.
ZGelova@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Selene Glück
Studied biology with a focus in virology at the University of Zürich and obtained her PhD at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). During her PhD work she characterized two mechanisms that prevent the innate immune DNA sensor, called cyclic GMP-AMP synthase from being activated by self-genomic DNA. In the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga she is interested in the intercellular communication through solutes released from stressed mammalian cells, the interplay of these solutes with xenobiotics or peptidic factors and their physiological consequences.
SGlueck@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Ann-Katrin Hopp
Studied Molecular Biology at the University of Saarland and the University of Strasbourg and obtained her PhD from the Department of Molecular Mechanisms of Disease at the University of Zurich. During her PhD, she characterized ADP-ribosylation and its turnover in mitochondria and developed a keen interest in cell metabolism. In the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga, she is interested in understanding the interplay between key regulators of cellular energetics and solute carriers.
AHopp@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Rene Ladurner
Studied Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna where he worked at the MFPL and GMI for his Master’s degree and at the IMP on the role of cohesin proteins for his PhD. As a postdoc at Stanford University he investigated centromere assembly and mitotic RNA-DNA hybrids. He joined the Superti-Furga lab in 2022 to work as a Project Scientist on validating SLC protein interactions as part of the RESOLUTE consortium.
RLadurner@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Philipp Leippe
Studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at the LMU Munich with research stints at the New York University and at the Institute de Biologie in Lille, France. He earned his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry under the guidance of Dirk Trauner at the LMU Munich, focusing on tethered photopharmacology for receptor tyrosine kinases and G protein-coupled receptors. Continuing his interest in chemical biology, he joined Kai Johnsson at the MPI for Medical Research to develop biosensors for amino acids. Currently, in the Superti-Furga lab and in the RESOLUTE consortium, he utilizes his expertise in biosensors to investigate transporters.
PLeippe@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Shao Thing Teoh
Shao received his PhD in Biotechnology from Osaka University, Japan, where he applied metabolomics in the study of butanol tolerance in microbes. He then transitioned to cancer research as a postdoc at Michigan State University, USA, where he studied the role of sialic acid metabolic dysregulation in breast cancer metastasis. As a RESOLUTE project scientist in Superti-Furga Lab, he aims to apply his metabolomics experience towards identifying substrates and elucidating biological roles of ‘orphan’ solute carriers (SLCs).
STeoh@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Jennifer Wen An Wang
Jennifer obtained a bachelors in Physiological and Biological Sciences and then completed a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. During her PhD she uncovered a role for intracellular calcium signaling in regulating cholesterol metabolism. She then continued in the field of calcium signaling for her post-doc at the University of Geneva, to decipher the molecular interaction of UNC93B1 and STIM1 during store-operated calcium entry. By the end of her post-doc, she had oriented herself towards studying cellular and organelle ion distribution and the molecular players involved. In June 2022 she joined the REsolution consortium at the Superti-Furga lab, and her work focuses on the study of human genetic variation of solute carriers and its functional impact.
WWang@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Gernot Wolf
Graduated from the Karl-Franzens Universität Graz in Molecular Microbiology and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. During the second part of his Ph.D. studies and the following five years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, he investigated the restriction of transposable elements by the KRAB-zinc finger protein family. At the Superti-Furga lab, he will spearhead the generation of loss- and gain-of-function cell line models for more than 450 SLCs as part of the RESOLUTE consortium.
GWolf@cemm.oeaw.ac.atBioinformaticians
Manuel Bichler
Studied strategic management and tourism at the Management Center Innsbruck (Austria). Worked in Marketing & PR for a sports company in Zurich. Started a mobile first events startup. Gained programming experience in a digital agency in Vienna. Joined RESOLUTE in 2020 as web developer.
MBichler@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Evandro Ferrada
Obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich, working on molecular evolution. He carried out postdoctoral work at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, and at the Department of Genome Sciences of the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. As a researcher at CeMM he brings expertise on molecular evolution, evolutionary systems biology, and the integration of large-scale data analysis. In June 2021 he joined the REsolution Consortium where he is contributing to the analysis of human genetic variation and to the functional characterization of solute carriers using large-scale mutagenesis data.
EFerrada@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Andrea Garofoli
Studied Computer Science (BSc) at the University of Perugia and Bioinformatics (MSc) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. During his PhD studies, carried on in Basel's Institute of Pathology, he focused on the use and the development of computational analyses to improve translational cancer research. He joined the lab of prof. Giulio Superti-Furga as a Data Scientist in 2021 as part of the REsolution consortium.
AGarofoli@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Ulrich Goldmann
Studied Computer Science (BSc) at the Vienna University of Technology and Molecular Biology (MSc) at the University of Vienna. After graduation, he worked as Data Analyst at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK. Later, Ulrich obtained a PhD at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, on the bioinformatic analysis of the cell surface proteome (surfaceome) by integrative analysis of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics data. He joined Prof. Superti-Furga's group in 2017 as Data Scientist and is currently working as Data Manager in the RESOLUTE project. Ulrich's expertise is large-scale data management, analysis, integration and visualization as well as applied statistics, machine learning and web development.
UGoldmann@cemm.oeaw.ac.atPhD Students
Vojtech Dvorak
Obtained his Master’s degree in Animal Physiology and Immunology from Masaryk University in Brno. During his studies he was part of the team at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where he also worked on his bachelor and diploma thesis, both focused on Circulating Tumour Cells. He started his PhD studies in the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga in 2018 with the main focus on the development of chemical probes targeting SLCs.
VDvorak@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Patrick Essletzbichler
Completed his Master’s degree in Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. After internships at Haplogen GmbH, Vienna (Austria) and the Veit Hornung lab at the University Hospital Bonn (Germany) he worked for his Master’s thesis in the Feng Zhang lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston (USA), harnessing the RNA-targeting CRISPR/Cas13 system. He started his PhD in the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga in 2017 and is currently investigating the hypusine pathway using a combination of functional genetic screens, proteomics and genome engineering approaches.
PEssletzbichler@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Andrè Ferdigg
Obtained his Master’s degree in Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany. After internships at the Elena Conti lab (Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried) and the Martin Jinek lab (University of Zürich), he worked for his Master’s thesis at the Max Perutz Labs (Vienna BioCenter), focussing on the regulation of cellular iron homeostasis. In 2022, he joined the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga as a PhD student to study the role of membrane transporters in the import of heavy metals.
AFerdigg@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Ben Haladik
Studied at Goethe University Frankfurt where he obtained his Master’s degree studying the spatial distribution of cancer cells in Hodgkin Lymphoma with computational image analysis. In 2018 he joined Kaan Boztug’s laboratory and then in 2019 he started a collaborative project under the co-supervision of Giulio Superti-Furga. Here, he studies differential drug effects in pediatric leukemias with image-based screenings.
BHaladik@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Felix Kartnig
Studied human medicine at the Medical University of Vienna (Austria), finishing his degree with a diploma thesis on the molecular mechanisms of three dimensional tissue integrity and inflammation in the human synovium in Priv. Doz. Kiener’s lab. He thereafter joined the lab of Prof. Superti-Furga to do his PhD studies in the field of molecular medicine. His main focus is the study of intercellular interplay in autoimmune disease facilitating high content high throughput microscopy.
FKartnig@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Yee Kwan Law
Obtained his integrated Masters’ in Biochemistry (Molecular & Cellular) from the University of Oxford. Completed his research project in James Naismith’s lab at the Rosalind Franklin Institute (UK), focusing on the structural biology of carbon-carbon bond-forming enzymes. In 2021, he joined the Superti-Furga lab as a PhD student to investigate the role of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters in mediating resistance to cytotoxic drugs.
YLaw@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Sophie Piech
Studied biochemistry at the University of Zurich where her research project centered on targeting tyrosine kinases with engineered proteins known as DARPins. She obtained her master’s degree at the University College London (UCL), focusing on drug design and chemical synthesis. In 2020 she joined the Superti-Furga lab as a PhD student to investigate the proteostatic regulation of RAS.
SPiech@cemm.oeaw.ac.atTechnical Assistants
Julio Garcia
Studied Biochemistry (BSc) at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid where he researched the hepatotoxic effects of bisphenol F in a murine model. Then he obtained a master’s degree in Biotechnology (MSc) at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. During his master’s thesis in the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (Madrid) he generated and characterized RASA1 mutant cell lines. Now he is working as technical assistant in the RESOLUTE project.
JGarcia@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Christoph Klimek
After completing his Master’s degree in Molecular Biology (Molecular Medicine) at the University of Vienna, Christoph joined the GSF lab in 2018 as a technical assistant in the RESOLUTE project. He worked together with Svenja Onstein under the supervision of Gernot Wolf on the creation of cell lines for RESOLUTE. From 2022 on he switched to the REsolution project where he is focusing on the creation of solute carrier mutant variant cell lines and their characterization under the supervision of Jennifer Wang.
CKlimek@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Sabrina Lindinger
Obtained her Bachelor's of Science at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna . Following a 6-month internship in the GSF lab working under the supervision of Enrico Girardi and Nikolaus Krall and 6 months working at the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at the King´s College London, she returned to the GSF lab as a technical assistant in 2017. Until 2019 she worked under the supervision of Enrico Girardi to uncover relationships between SLCs and cytotoxic human drugs. This work led to a publication in Nature Chemical Biology. Currently Sabrina is working for the RESOLUTE consortium under the supervision of Abigail Jarret focusing on metabolomics sample preparation.
SLindinger@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Okechukwu Ochulor
He obtained his Bachelor in Science at the University of Nigeria followed by an Erasmus Master on Infectious Disease and One Health. For his Masters thesis, he worked on developing and optimising a prognostic kit for predicting SARS-CoV2 severity while at the Laboratory of Functional Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Institut Pasteur. He then worked on screening to identify broadly neutralizing antibodies against betacorona viruses at the Institute of Virology, Hannover, Germany. He joined CeMM in 2021 as a PhD student and currently in the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga, assists on investigating the interplay between key regulators of cellular energetics and solute carriers.
OOchulor@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Svenja Onstein
She did her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Chemical Biology at the Technical University Dortmund. During her Master’s thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute in Dortmund, she studied the production of hydrogen peroxide in cells stimulated with EGF. Now she works on the creation of modified cell lines for the RESOLUTE project under the supervision of Gernot Wolf.
SOnstein@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Stefania Scorzoni
Studied Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Perugia (Italy), obtained her degree with a master’s thesis in Pharmacology and worked two more years as Research Assistant in the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. In 2014, she joined the Superti-Furga Laboratory working on the link between nutrient availability and cellular metabolism under the supervision of Manuele Rebsamen. She is currently developing new techniques for studying Solute Carriers (SLCs) together with Selene Glück.
SScorzoni@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Adrijana Stefanovic
Adrijana Stefanovic, MSc, is Technical Assistant at CeMM and an Austrian citizen born in Bosnia. She is a biologist and graduated in January 2005 in Genetics at the University of Vienna. During her Diploma thesis at the Krankenanstalt der Stadt Wien, Rudolfstiftung, she worked on intervertebral disc degeneration and characterized human Nucleus pulposus cells at the molecular as well as at the histochemical level. Since February 2005 she is a member of the Giulio Superti-Furga laboratory. Adrijana Stefanovic played a major role in organizing and setting up the Superti-Furga laboratory in Vienna, and she was working as Technical and Research Assistant in various projects.
AStefanovic@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Manuela Vollert
Born in Germany, Manuela Vollert performed studies in Biology with specialization in Microbiology and Genetics at the University of Vienna. Since 2009 she is technical assistant in Prof. Superti-Furga's group. She was involved in supporting various great projects. For example, to study Solute Carriers (SLCs) under the supervision of Manuele Rebsamen. At the moment she is concentrating on administrative tasks.
MBruckner@cemm.oeaw.ac.atManagement
S. Andreas Angermayr
Studied Molecular Biology at the University of Graz including a semester at Heidelberg University. He finished his undergraduate studies with a master thesis on neuronal cell death at IMBB in Heraklion. After a short research stint in New Zealand, he did his PhD project on a metabolic engineering at the University of Amsterdam. For his postdoctoral training he joined the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria and, supported with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, followed the groups’ migration to the University of Cologne. He worked on the response of bacteria to antibiotics. He came onboard CeMM October 2019 to assist the GSF lab in the role of a lab manager.
AAngermayr@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Alvaro Ingles-Prieto
He studied Biochemistry at the University of Salamanca and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Granada. During his Ph.D., he characterised the structure, stability and catalytic activity of ancestral proteins. He next joined IST Austria as a Postdoc, where he developed an approach to activate membrane receptors with light. He started working at CeMM in 2017 as a postdoctoral fellow to investigate the interactome of Solute Carrier (SLC) transporters. Since 2019, he is the Communications and Business Development manager of RESOLUTE and REsolution IMI consortia.
AInglesprieto@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
Tabea Wiedmer
Studied Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and University of Copenhagen (Denmark). After an internship at a Swiss biotech company she moved to the University of Bern (Switzerland), where she obtained her PhD. She joined the lab of Giulio Superti-Furga as a Postdoctoral Fellow within the RESOLUTE consortium, focusing on metabolomics and assay development, and in December 2019 became the Scientific Project Manager of RESOLUTE.
TWiedmer@cemm.oeaw.ac.at