Alumni

Group leaders

Dr. Artem Pankin

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Bioinformatics Researcher at Rijk Zwaan

Dr. Stephan Wawra

Previous Institute: Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Dr. Alisandra Denton

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Valence Labs, Canada

Dr. Ji-Yun Kim

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Assistant professor at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea

Dr. Vera Göhre

Previous Institute: Group Pathogenicity
Institute for Microbiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Professor at Hochschule Darmstadt

CEPLAS Postdoc Program

Dr. Juliana Almario

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Researcher (permanent position), CNRS, Microbial Ecology, University of Lyon, France

Dr. Anupama

Previous Institute: Institute of Synthetic Biology/ Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Molecular Biologist at SwiftPharma, Belgium

Dr. Yugander Arra

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

DBT-Ramalingaswami Faculty Fellow, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala India

Dr. Christos Bazakos

Previous Institute: Department of Comparative, Development and Genetics
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Guest Scientist MPIPZ & Researcher, Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources- HAO ELGO Demeter, Thessaloniki, Greece

Dr. Andrea Bräutigam

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Professorship for Computational Biology, University of Bielefeld

Dr. Friederike Brüssow

Previous Institute: Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions
 Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Dr. Irina Calic

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Dr. Balakumaran Chandrasekar

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Assistant Professor, BITS-Pilani, India

Dr. Ranju Chutia

Previous Institute: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Dr. Ahan Dalal

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Founder & Director of SymbioVerse Initiative, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany

Dr. Concetta De Quattro

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

permanent researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR)

Dr. Edgar Demesa-Arevalo

Previous Institute: Institute for Developmental Genetics/ Institute for Plant Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Assistant Professor/Principal Investigator, Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, CINVESTAV-IPN, Unidad Irapuato, Mexico

Dr. Rachel Denley Bowers

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Paloma Duran

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: PostDoctoral Researcher, Lab of Ecological genomics of adaptation in plant communities, CNRS Toulouse, France

Dr. Julia Engelhorn

Previous Institute: FIND-CIS group MPIPZ
Instiute of Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Junior Professor at the University of Montpellier/ UMR DIADE, France

Dr. Wilma van Esse

Previous Institute: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, The Netherlands (five-year VIDI grant)

Dr. Henning Frerigmann

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Scientific Lead at Chr. Hansen, NRW

Dr. Chihiro Furumizu

Previous Institute: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Assistant Professor, Hiroshima University, Japan

Dr. Lianne Gahan

Previous Institute: Institute for Computational Cell Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Data Scientist at Bayer

Dr. Shishir K Gupta

Previous Institute: Institute of Botany
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Assistant Professor, Department of Data Science, Centre of Biomedical Research, SGPGIMS Campus, Lucknow, India

Dr. Luise Hecker geb. Brand

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Developmental Biology 
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Product Owner, Miltenyi Biotec

Dr. Andrew Heidel

Previous Institute: Institute of Population Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Nadine Höcker

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Yuuma Ishikawa

Previous Institute: Institute for Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Richard Jacoby

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter
University of Cologne

Current Position:

Research fellow (ARISE), EMBL Heidelberg

Ganga Jeena

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter , University of Cologne

Current Position: Scientist at TU Dortmund

Dr. Niklas Udo Jung

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Nozomi Kawamoto

Previous Institute: Institute for Developmental Genetics
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf 

Current Position:

Assist. Prof. at National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Aichi, Japan

Dr. Ronny Kellner

Previous Institute: Evolution of obligate parasitism and biodiversity
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Senior Scientist Product Development, QIAGEN

Dr. Mather Khan

Previous Institute: Institute of Botany
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Scientist, Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA

Dr. Sakshi Khosa

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf  

Current Position:

Postdoc at HHU Düsseldorf

Dr. Christiane Kiefer

Previous Institute: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Research Assistant, Centre for Organismal Studies Heidelberg, Department of Biodiversity and Plant Systematics, Heidelberg University

Dr. Magdalene Kutyniok

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen

Dr. Dmitry Lapin

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Assistant professor at Utrecht University (The Netherlands)

Dr. Yuanyuan Li

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Molecular and Developmental Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Lecturer at Shandong Normal University, China

Dr. Anita Loeschcke

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Leader BioSC FocusLab Combicom, Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf c/o Forschungszentrum Jülich

Dr. Peter Lundquist

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University, USA

Dr. Otho Mantegazza

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position:

Research scientist for the European Commission, Italy

Dr. Anna Matuszyńska

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Junior Professor in Computational Life Science, RWTH Aachen University

Dr. Miguel Miñambres Martin

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry/ Institute of Synthetic Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Application Scientist, Hamilton Company, Madrid, Spain

Dr. Ryohei Thomas Nakano

Previous Institute: Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions
 Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position:

Professor at Hokkaido University, Japan

Dr. Helge Pallakies

Previous Institute: Institute of Developmental Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Head of Project Management at Amedon GmbH, Lübeck

Dr. Yao Pan

Previous Institute: Institute of Informatics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Application Specialist, Sysmex-Inostics, Hamburg

Dr. Thomas Perrot

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tours in France

Dr. Manuela Peukert

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Researcher, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Max Rubner-Institut, Kulmbach

Dr. Thea Pick

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Sebastian Ploch

Previous Institute: Institute of Population Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Labmanager, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, Frankfurt am Main

Dr. Parisa Rahimzadeh Karvansara

Previous Institute: Center for Plant Genome Engineering/ Institute of Molecular Photosynthesis
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Research Associate, Centre Algatech, Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences

Dr. Louai Rishmawi

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Postdoctoral Researcher at Montpellier SupAgro, France

Dr. Roxanne van Rooijen

Previous Institute: Developmental and Molecular Plant Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Researcher at Kekkilä-BVB, Netherlands

Dr. Hanna Rövenich

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter , University of Cologne

Current Position:

Postdoc UoC

Dr. Nima P. Saadat

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Melanie Sapp

Previous Institute: Institute of Population Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Scientific Coordinator, Institute for Human Genetics, University Hospital Düsseldorf

Dr. Kirill Schenstniy

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Postdoctoral Researcher at University of California, Berkeley, USA

Dr. Andrea Schrader

Previous Institute: Data Science and Management
University of Cologne

Dr. Mara Schuler-Bermann

Previous Institute: Developmental and Molecular Plant Biology
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Start-up Advisor-Technology Scout, Saarland University

Dr. Stefanie Schulze

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Molecular and Developmental Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Marc Somssich

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Team Leader Biotic Stress Resistance Research at KWS Saat SE & Co. KGaA

Dr. Antonella Succurro

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

CTO and Co-Founder CinSOIL

Dr. Filipa Tomé

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf c/o Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Senior Innovation Consultant, PNO Innovation Portugal

Dr. Alice Vayssières

Previous Institute: Molecular Systematics, Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne
c/o
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position:

Integrated crop protection engineer at ARVALIS, France

Dr. Berkley Walker

Previous Institute: von Humboldt Fellow at Institute of Plant Biochemistry , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Assistant Professor at Michigan State University

Dr. Leonie Weber

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Science communicator in the InnoTruck project of the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research)

Dr. Genghong Wu

Previous Institute: Institute of Bio and Geosciences-2 (IBG-2)
Forschungszentrum Jülich

Current Position:

Professorship for smart agriculture, Northwestern Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology University, China

Dr. Jia Yu

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Plant Molecular Biologist, Plant Organelle Technologies (POT)

Dr. Jinshun Zhong

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Genetics, HHU
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Professor and PI at the South China Agricultural University and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture

CEPLAS Graduate School

Dr. Ziba Ajami-Rashidi

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Molecular Ecophysiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Kumari Billakurthi

Previous Institute: Developmental and Molecular Biology of Plants, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK

Dr. Satish Kumar Eeda

Previous Institute: Institute of Developmental Biology, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

University of Cambridge

Dr. Katharina Eitzen, geb. Lentz

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter, Terrestrial Microbiology, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Researcher at Bex-Biotec GmbH

Dr. Jona Ejike

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Physiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Philipp Fesel

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Head of Product Management, UNIFERM GmbH

Dr. Rubén Garrido-Oter

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Contributing Investigator, Research Area 2,3,4

Dr. Silke Gerlich

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher at Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC) | DataPLANT - NFDI4Plants | Forschungszentrum Jülich

Dr. Katharina Gräfe

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Senior Project Manager at BIO.NRW

Dr. Jennifer Hage-Hülsmann

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Meike Hüdig

Previous Institute: Plant Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Project Manager, Miltenyi Biotec

Dr. Panpan Jiang

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Product Support Lead at Bayer CropScience

Dr. Gwendolyn Kirschner

Previous Institute: Institute for Developmental Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Horizon Europe MSCA fellow at The James Hutton Institute, Scotland, UK

Dr. Sarah Kranz-Finger

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry II 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

TunaTech GmbH

Dr. Emely Losemann

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences
University of Cologne

Dr. Alfredo Mari

Previous Institute: Evolution of obligate parasitism and biodiversity, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Dr. Anna Matuszyńska

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Junior Professor in Computational Life Science, RWTH Aachen University

Dr. Priyanka Mishra

Previous Institute: Cologne Biocenter
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Assistant Professor University of Allahabad, India

Dr. Daniel Moser

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences
University of Cologne

Dr. Ellen Oldenburg

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Postdoctoral Researcher, Research Area 2,4

Dr. Udhaya Ponraj

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: post doctorate at Department of Plant Science, University of Cambridge

Dr. Pia Saake

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences
University of Cologne

Dr. Armin Sadat-Khonsari

Previous Institute: Institute for Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Molecular Pathology and Translational Genomics, University Hospital Cologne

Dr. Debika Sarkar

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter Microbial, Ecological Genetics
University of Cologne

Current Position:

Lead data manager and researcher in clinical trials at Fraunhofer institute, Frankfurt am Main

Dr. Jan Schulze Hüynck

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter, Terrestrial Microbiology
University of Cologne

Current Position:

Senior Quality Control Growth Project Leader, Lonza, Switzerland

Dr. Priyamedha Sengupta

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences, Cologne Biocenter
University of Cologne

Current Position:

Postdoctoral researcher at Centro de Investigación en Agrigenómica (CRAG), Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Anna Sergeeva

Previous Institute: Institute for Botany
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Study Director Eurofins Agroscience Services

Dr. Kalpana Shanmugarajah

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Global Manager Medical Affairs at Klosterfrau Healthcare Group

Dr. Suraj Sharma

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Dr. Elia Stahl

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Molecular Ecophysiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Researcher, CNRS - University of Bordeaux, France

Dr. Esther Sundermann

Previous Institute: Computational Cell Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Researcher at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment; Think Tank Digitalisation Office, Thünen Institute

Dr. Vicky Tilmes

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Developmental Biology, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Senior Project Manager at BWI GmbH

Dr. Sebastian Triesch

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Bioinformatician at BMFZ-GTL

Dr. Agatha Walla

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Developmental Biology
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position:

Postdoctoral Researcher, AG von Korff, HHU Düsseldorf

Dr. Heidi Widmer

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Product Manager, Andermatt Biocontrol AG, Grossdietwil, Switzerland

Dr. Eva Willée

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute,  Cologne Biocenter , University of Cologne

Current Position:

Lecturer, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Proteaction, Germany