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Steering Committee

Prof. Dr. Stefan Engelhardt

Spokesperson - TUM
School of Medicine and Health
Phone: +49 89 4140 3260

Research Areas:

  • RNA formulation and delivery
  • Inhalation therapy
  • Polymer synthesis and materil science
  • Machine learning-based formulation development

Prof. Dr. Karl-Peter Hopfner

LMU
Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 76950

Research Areas:

  • Structural genome biology and cryo-electron microscopy
  • Genome maintenance
  • Chromatin remodeling
  • Innate immune DNA sensing

Prof. Dr. Veit Hornung

Spokesperson - LMU
Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 71109

Research Areas:

  • Nucleic acid sensing receptors and signaling cascades
  • Innate immune responses and programmed cell death pathways
  • Antiviral immunity and inflammatory responses
  • Genetic screens to identify key regulators of immune functions
  • Biochemistry and molecular biology

Prof. Dr. Caroline Kisker

Spokesperson - JMU
Rudolf Virchow Center for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging
Phone: +49 931 3180381

Research Areas:

  • Genome maintenance mechanisms
  • Structure and function of eukaryotic DNA repair enzymes
  • Structure based drug design, Ubiquitin system and disease

Prof. Dr. Michael Sattler

TUM
Bavarian NMR Center, Department of Bioscience, School of Natural Sciences, Molecular Targets & Therapeutics Center, Helmholtz Munich
Phone: +49 89 289 52600

Research Areas:

  • Biomedical Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning

Prof. Dr. Cynthia Sharma

Spokesperson - JMU
Institute of Molecular Infection Biology
Phone: +49 931 31 82560

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms and functions of small RNAs in bacterial pathogens
  • Discovery and characterization of bacterial RNA binding proteins and small proteins
  • Virulence mechanisms and control of bacterial pathogens
  • Deep sequencing approaches and humanized three-dimensional infections models

Investigators

Prof. Dr. Jörg Vogel

JMU/HIRI
Institute of Molecular Infection Biology and Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research
Phone: +49 931 31 80898

Research Areas:

  • Antisense technology to selectively eliminate and modulate microbes
  • Prokaryotic RNA binding proteins
  • Microbioal single-cell RNA sequencing
  • Jumbo phage biology

Prof. Dr. Fabian Theis

HMGU/TUM
Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Munich and Department of Mathematics, School of Computation, Information and Technology
Phone: +49 89 3187 43260

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms underlying reprogramming to totipotency
  • Transposable elements and (epi)genome function
  • Epigenetic reprogramming in early mammalian development
  • Nuclear organization and chromatin structure in early embryos and stem cells

Prof. Dr. Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla

HMGU/LMU
Faculty of Biology and Helmholtz Munich
Phone: +49 89 3187 3317

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms underlying reprogramming to totipotency
  • Transposable elements and (epi)genome function
  • Epigenetic reprogramming in early mammalian development
  • Nuclear organization and chromatin structure in early embryos and stem cells

Prof. Dr. Utz Fischer

JMU
Theodor Boveri Institute, Biocenter
Phone: +49 931 31 84029

Research Areas:

  • Structure and function of macromolecular machines acting on RNA
  • Discovery and characterization of RNA-binding proteins
  • RNA biology of viruses (HIV-1, poxviruses)
  • RNA biology and neuronal diseases

Prof. Dr. Claudia Höbartner

JMU
Institute of Organic Chemistry and Center for Nanosystems Chemistry
Phone: +49 931 31 89693

Research Areas:

  • Chemical biology of native nucleic acid modifications
  • In vitro evolution of ribozymes and deoxyribozymes
  • Ribozyme structures and mechanisms
  • Bioorthogonal chemistry for nucleic acid modification and labeling
  • Design and sysnthesis of modified oligonucleotides

Prof. Dr. Caroline Kisker

Spokesperson - JMU
Rudolf Virchow Center for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging
Phone: +49 931 3180381

Research Areas:

  • Genome maintenance mechanisms
  • Structure and function of eukaryotic DNA repair enzymes
  • Structure based drug design, Ubiquitin system and disease

Prof. Dr. Cynthia Sharma

Spokesperson - JMU
Institute of Molecular Infection Biology
Phone: +49 931 31 82560

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms and functions of small RNAs in bacterial pathogens
  • Discovery and characterization of bacterial RNA binding proteins and small proteins
  • Virulence mechanisms and control of bacterial pathogens
  • Deep sequencing approaches and humanized three-dimensional infections models

Prof. Dr. Jörg Vogel

JMU/HIRI
Institute of Molecular Infection Biology and Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research
Phone: +49 931 31 80898

Research Areas:

  • Antisense technology to selectively eliminate and modulate microbes
  • Prokaryotic RNA binding proteins
  • Microbioal single-cell RNA sequencing
  • Jumbo phage biology

Prof. Dr. Roland Beckmann

LMU
Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 76900

Research Areas:

  • Stuctural biology of the ribosome
  • Molecular basis of eukaryotic ribosome biogenesis
  • Translational regulation and quality control

Prof. Dr. Thomas Carell

LMU
Department of Chemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 77750

Research Areas:

  • Origin of nucleic acids on the early earth
  • Chemistry and biochemistry on non-canonical DNA and RNA nucleosides
  • Development of new nucleosides therapeutics with immunological or epigenetics modes of actions
  • Development of oligonucleotide therapeutics using click-chemistry

Prof. Dr. Karl-Peter Hopfner

LMU
Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 76950

Research Areas:

  • Structural genome biology and cryo-electron microscopy
  • Genome maintenance
  • Chromatin remodeling
  • Innate immune DNA sensing

Prof. Dr. Veit Hornung

Spokesperson - LMU
Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 71109

Research Areas:

  • Nucleic acid sensing receptors and signaling cascades
  • Innate immune responses and programmed cell death pathways
  • Antiviral immunity and inflammatory responses
  • Genetic screens to identify key regulators of immune functions
  • Biochemistry and molecular biology

Prof. Dr. Oliver Keppler

LMU
Faculty of Medicine and Max von Pettenkofer Institute
Phone: +49 89 2180 72901

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms and antiviral functions of innate immunity in HIV infection
  • Multi-gene editing in primary HIV target cells
  • Virulence mechanisms
  • SAMHD1: Discovery, characterization and inhibitor development in chemoresistance in cancer

Dr. med. Sarah Kim-Hellmuth

LMU
Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital and Institute of Translational Genomics, Helmholtz Munich
Phone: +49 89 3187 48956

Research Areas:

  • Genetic determinants of human immune response variation
  • Genetic ancetry effects on the human immune system
  • Genetic regulation during perinatal immune cell development
  • Gene-environment interactions and prediction models of human immune reposiveness

Prof. Dr. Andreas Ladurner

LMU
Biomedical Center
Phone: +49 89 2180 77095

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms and functions of histone chaperones in genome dynamics
  • Discovery and biology of poly-ADP-ribose nucleic acid signaling mechanisms
  • Allosteric control of gene activity by transcriptional metabolite receptors
  • Drug discovery and engineering of nucleic acids

Prof. Dr. Olivia Merkel

LMU
Department of Pharmacy
Phone: +49 89 2180 77022

Research Areas:

  • Molecular mechanisms of mRNA decay
  • Biochemistry
  • Structural biology
  • Biophysics

Prof. Dr. Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla

HMGU/LMU
Faculty of Biology and Helmholtz Munich
Phone: +49 89 3187 3317

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms underlying reprogramming to totipotency
  • Transposable elements and (epi)genome function
  • Epigenetic reprogramming in early mammalian development
  • Nuclear organization and chromatin structure in early embryos and stem cells

Prof. Dr. Elena Conti

MPI
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 8578 3602

Research Areas:

  • Non-coding RNA and RNA-based therapeutics
  • Macrophages as targets in cardiac and pulmonary disease
  • Cardiac and pulmonary autonomic innervation

Prof. Dr. Carina de Oliveira Mann

TUM
Department of Bioscience, School of Natural Sciences
Phone: +49 89 289 51690

Research Areas:

  • Role and function of long non-coding RNAs in the cardiovascular system
  • Therapeutic targeting of non-coding RNAs for vascular cell therapy
  • Spatial RNA in situ sequencing of human cardiovascular diseased tissue
  • Oragnoid and organ-on-chip modelling of vascular disease for drug development

Prof. Dr. Stefan Engelhardt

Spokesperson - TUM
School of Medicine and Health
Phone: +49 89 4140 3260

Research Areas:

  • RNA formulation and delivery
  • Inhalation therapy
  • Polymer synthesis and materil science
  • Machine learning-based formulation development

Prof. Dr. Lars Maegdefessel

TUM
TUM University Hospital and School of Medicine and Health
Phone: +49 89 4140 3490

Research Areas:

  • Human pluripotent stem cell models of cardiac development and disease
  • Human cardiac progenitors for cell therapy and regeneration
  • CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing of cardiac cells

Prof. Dr. Alessandra Moretti

TUM
TUM University Hospital and School of Medicine and Health
Phone: +49 89 4140 6907

Research Areas:

  • Innate immune sensing of viruses
  • Cellular perturbation of cellular signaling by viral infections
  • Multi-omics analysis of virus-host interactions
  • Intervention strategies to mitigate virus infections

Prof. Dr. Andreas Pichlmair

TUM
Institute of Virology
Phone: +49 89 4140 9270

Research Areas:

  • Virus-host interaction of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and SARS-CoV-2
  • Discovery of non-cytotoxic control of persistence of HBV DNA in the nucleus of infected cells
  • Preclinical/early clinical development of therapeutic vaccination and T-cell therapy to cure HBV
  • siRNA and mRNA-based therapies for chronic viral infections

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Protzer

TUM
Institute of Virology and School of Medicine and Health
Phone: +49 89 4140 6821

Research Areas:

  • Molecular cancer evolution with a focus on transformation metastasis and drug resistance in digestive tract cancers
  • Disease mdoelling using forward and reverse genetics in cells and mice
  • Development of genetic screening tools and methods
  • Analysis of non-coding RNA function in cancer

Prof. Dr. Roland Rad

TUM
TUM University Hospital and School of Medicine and Health
Phone: +49 89 4140 4374

Research Areas:

  • Integrative structural biology of protein and protein-RNA complexes
  • Alternative splicing
  • Non-coding RNA structure/function
  • Chaperones and peroxisome biogenesis
  • Structure-based drug discovery

Prof. Dr. Michael Sattler

TUM
Bavarian NMR Center, Department of Bioscience, School of Natural Sciences, Molecular Targets & Therapeutics Center, Helmholtz Munich
Phone: +49 89 289 52600

Research Areas:

  • Biomedical Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning

Prof. Dr. Fabian Theis

HMGU/TUM
Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Munich and Department of Mathematics, School of Computation, Information and Technology
Phone: +49 89 3187 43260

Research Areas:

  • Mechanisms underlying reprogramming to totipotency
  • Transposable elements and (epi)genome function
  • Epigenetic reprogramming in early mammalian development
  • Nuclear organization and chromatin structure in early embryos and stem cells

Associated Groups

Dr. Irene Beusch

JMU
Institute of Molecular Infection Biology
Phone: +49 931 31 81782

Research Areas:

  • Regulation of splice site selection
  • Mechanisms in spliceosome assembly

Dr. Jonathan Bohlen

LMU
Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry
Phone: +49 89 2180 71055

Research Areas:

  • Translational regulation in T cells
  • Monogenic ribosomopathies and immunodeficiency, tRNA metabolism, biogenesis, and autoinflammatory disease