UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

Aakanksha Bansal after completing B.Tech Biotechnology was awarded GATE 2011 scholarship and received her M.E Biotechnology degree from BITS Pilani, India. As a part of Master’s program she completed her thesis at University of Cologne under Prof. Scholz on “Frequency specific neuronal activation to understand olfaction and locomotion in Drosophila”. She got selected for PhD fellowship at IGSDHD Graduate School, Cologne in 2013. Presently she is pursuing her PhD under Prof. Björn Schumacher at CECAD research Centre, Cologne. Her research focuses on the role of DNA damage in Immune system regulation in Mammalian system.

Lena Ebert completed her studies in Molecular Life Sciences at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. For her master thesis she went to the lab of Ron Korstanje at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA. There she used Haplotype Association Mapping to identify candidate gene regions associated with urine concentration ability and lithium induced site effects in the kidney. Currently she is working on her PhD under supervision of Bernhard Schermer in the Nephrolab, Department of Internal Medicine II, University Hospital Cologne. Her research focusses on the role of the Jade protein family members in cilia biology, cell cycle regulation, and renal cell carcinoma.

Dilyana Filipova completed her Bachelor studies in molecular biology at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”. During the last two years of her studies there she volunteered  as a student research assistant in the department of bacterial genetics, developing methods for detection of novel strains of lactic acid bacteria, and was awarded an European scholarship for extracurricular activities. She obtained a M.Sc. degree in biological sciences with a specialization in genetics from the University of Cologne, focusing on transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation in Escherichia coli. Simultaneously she worked as a research student assistant in the department of plant physiology and biochemistry. Currently, Dilyana is a PhD student in the group of Prof. Dr. Symeon Papadopoulos at the Institute of Physiology, University Hospital of Cologne, where she analyses the molecular dynamics of calcium channels in skeletal muscle during excitation-contraction coupling, as well as their role in myogenesis.

Rafia Mubaraka completed her Bachelor's in Agriculture with a distinction of Gold medal from University of Sargodha, Pakistan. She then moved to University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan for her Master's in Soil Microbiology, where she worked on scrutinizing drought and salinity tolerant rhizobia for improving growth of wheat seedlings. There she won All Pakistan Agrarian Talent Award 2011. Furthermore, in 2013 she was honoured with DAAD doctoral research grant in the field of Plant Molecular Physiology and Genetics from Germany. Currently she is working in Prof. Dr. Marcel Bucher group in Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne. Her research focuses on Plant-Microbe Interaction regarding the role of phosphate starvation regulator, PHO2 in mycorrhizal symbiosis in Lotus japonicus

Sara Murru obtained her Bachelor degree in experimental biology and Master degree in neuropsychobiology at the University of Cagliari (Italy). She then moved to Haifa (Israel) and worked on a project aiming to dissect protein degradation involvement in memory formation. Currently, Sara is a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Elena Rugarli. She is working on elucidation the effect of the m-AAA protease dysfunction in glial cells.

Lisa-Marie Neupert completed her Bachelor studies in biology focusing on natural variations in pattern-triggered immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) in Cologne. During her post-graduate studies in statistics and population genetics at the Cologne Center for Genomics (CCG), she investigated human genetic variation on an Indonesian island. Currently, Lisa-Marie is a PhD student in Prof. Dr. Nürnberg’s group (University of Cologne, CCG), working on computational epilepsy genetics.

Marine Przybyl completed her Bachelor´s degree in Horticultural Sciences at the Leibniz University of Hanover and proceeded with her Master´s degree in Crop Science at the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn. She performed her Master thesis in the group of Prof. Dr. Frank Hochholdinger working on auxin signalling in maize. Since September 2015 she pursues her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in the group of Ivan F. Acosta, focusing on male reproductive development in barley and Arabidopsis.

Kathrin Schrage completed her Bachelor studies in Biology at the University of Cologne (Hasselmann lab). In 2015 she completed her Master studies in Anthropology at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz. During those studies she did a two month internship at the Institute of Genetics at the Medical University in Innsbruck. In August 2016 she started her PhD at the University of Cologne at the Institute of Biochemistry in the group of Dr. Sajid Hussain where she elucidates the role of different genetic mutations in the etiology of the Filippi syndrome and primary microcephaly.

Kanika Sharma completed her Master's studies in Bioinformatics at Guru Nanak Dev University during which she did her thesis project at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. In July 2013 she started her PhD at the University of Cologne at the Institute for Genetics in the group of Prof. Dr. Sigrun Korsching working on elucidating the structure and interaction of receptor-ligand in the olfactory system of zebrafish.