NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 944–18189
Email: Ute.Ackermann@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Center

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Christin.Albrecht@ukr.de

Christin Albrecht (née Riegel) studied biology at the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen and graduated with a diploma in neuropharmacology. She performed her PhD thesis in the group of Prof. Edinger/Hoffmann at the University Hospital Regensburg. She showed that in vitro expanded donor Treg efficiently ameliorate acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). In 2020, she joined the JCC, where she first led the immune monitoring unit. In 2022, she took over the responsibility as Head of Manufacturing and is thus in charge for maintaining the clean room status of the facility and the production of high quality cell therapeutics.

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944–18134
Email: Federika.Autino@ukr.de

Immunometabolomics

Tel: +49 941 944–38477
Email: Nathalie.Babl@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18139
Email: Jeremy.Baldwin@ukr.de

Dr. Jeremy Baldwin is an early career research fellow specializing in the fields of immunology, vaccine research, cancer immunotherapies, and tissue engineering. In 2014, Dr. Baldwin was awarded an ANZ board Trustee fellowship to undertake a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology at the Queensland University of Technology. During his Ph.D. studies, he also completed a Master of Research and Development Management as part of the Australian Government’s Commercialization Training Scheme to train the next generation of entrepreneurial scientists. Other notable work experiences prior to the conferral of his Ph.D. include an internship at Harvard University to study the processes of research translation, an international research training program at the Tropical Disease Institute, Ecuador, and traveling to Antarctica as part of a youth expedition to raise awareness for renewable energies and climate change. Following successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis, Dr. Baldwin was awarded a Fulbright Future Fellowship, Endeavour Research Fellowship and Sir Winston Churchill fellowship to continue his post-doctoral training in immunology. Dr. Baldwin joined the LIT Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation in 2021. His current research interest focuses on metabolically reprogram CD8⁺ T cells and its application in cancer immunotherapies.

Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944–38114
Email: markus.barden@ukr.de

Markus Barden joined Prof. Abken‘s group at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne during the course of his medical studies at the University of Cologne in 2016. After completing his clinical practical year at University Hospital Regensburg, he graduated from medical school in 2020. Since early 2021, he is Postdoctoral Scientist in Prof. Abken’s research division “Genetic Immunotherapy” at the LIT.

His current research is aimed at analyzing at the molecular and cellular level the CAR T cell targeting of cancer by microscopic 4D-analyses and at developing novel strategies in modulating the immune response, in particular by adding cytokine signals to the CAR T cell.

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Sandra.Boehm@ukr.de

Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944-38490

Email: Tirza.Brandl@ukr.de

Algorithmic Bioinformatics

Tel: +49 941 944-18162
Email: Kedi.Cao@ukr.de

Metabolite Driven Intercellular Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–
Email: Sonja.Decking-Paede@ukr.de

Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38115
Email: Valerie.Bezler@ukr.de,  Valerie.Degenhart@ukr.de,

Dr. Valerie Degenhart is engaged in the translation of CAR T cells to clinical trials and preclinical development of genetic immunotherapies.

Dr. Degenhart completed her studies in Molecular Medicine at the University of Ulm, specializing in cancer research. In 2020, she joined the research group of Prof. Abken as a PhD scientist, successfully achieving her doctorate in 2024.

In her research, Dr. Degenhart is focusing on improving CAR T cells for the application in solid tumors, aiming to to elucidate the role of candidate genes in the activation and persistence of the CAR T cells.

FACS Analytics and Cell Sorting

Tel: +49 941 944-18493
Email: Jaqueline.Dirmeier@ukr.de

Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38117
Email: Celine.Dreger@ukr.de

Immune Cell Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–6225
Email: Valeryia.Drobyshava@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Center
+
Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944-5549
Email: Ruediger.Eder@ukr.de

Genetic Immunotherapy
+
T-Cell Therapy

Tel: +49 941 944-
Email: Patrick.Elsenbroich@stud.uni-regensburg.de

Epigenetic Immunooncology

Tel: +49 941 944-38119
Email: Julia.Von-Poblotzki@ukr.de

Julia began her academic journey at the Technical University of Munich, where she studied biology. During her master’s program, she focused on genetics, medical biology, and neurobiology.
For her PhD, she joined Dr. Schmidl’s research group, which specializes in epigenetic immuno-oncology. In her project, Julia is working to introduce new and advanced CRISPR techniques in the lab. These techniques will help her in screening and manipulating non-coding gene regulatory elements associated with immune checkpoint genes. This research will have the potential to enhance immunotherapy by enabling precise control over gene expression.

Innate Immune Sensing in Cancer and Transplantation

Tel: +49 941 944-18463
Email: Kaiji.Fan@ukr.de

GCP & Regulatory Affairs

Tel: +49 941 944–15532
Email: Ute.Fehn@ukr.de

FACS Analytics and Cell Sorting

Tel: +49 941 944-18493
Email: Irina.Fink@ukr.de

Inflammation, Autoimmunity and Fibrosis

Tel: +49 941 944–7386
Email: Antje.Fruehauf@ukr.de

Structural Biochemistry

Tel: +49 941 944–xxxx
Email: Franziska.Funke@ukr.de

Dr. Franziska Funke joined Dr. Leo Scheller`s research group at the LIT in 2025, having completed her PhD with a focus on Protein Engineering and Structural Biochemistry at the Institute for Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry in Regensburg. She obtained her M.Sc. in Biochemistry at the University of Regensburg, including a research internship at the University of Michigan.

In her research, Dr. Funke focuses on understanding the structural requirements and mechanical forces involved in signal transduction within chimeric antigen receptors in the T cell synapse. Her aim is to harness this knowledge to design synthetic receptor proteins that improve CAR-T cell selectivity towards solid tumors, and optimizing and controlling the immune response.

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 944-18186
Email: Claudia.Gebhard@ukr.de

Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38117
Email: Johanna.Gizler@stud.uni-regensburg.de

Innate Immune Sensing in Cancer and Transplantation

Tel: +49 941 944-18463
Email: Sascha.Goettert@ukr.de

Algorithmic Bioinformatics

Tel: +49 941 944-18162
Email: Laura.Grepmair@ukr.de

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18129
Email: Kathrin.Guetter@ukr.de

Innate Immune Sensing in Cancer and Transplantation

Tel: +49 941 944-18463
Email: Severin.Guetter@ukr.de

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18126
Email: paul-sylvester.hahn@lit.eu

Genetic Immunotherapy

UKR Guest Scientist

Phone: +49 941 944-18105
Email: dennis.harrer@ukr.de

Dennis Harrer graduated from the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen in 2019. After completing his MD thesis dealing with adoptive T cell therapy of malignant melanoma he moved to the University Hospital Regensburg, Department of Internal Medicine III in 2019. One year later, he joined Prof. Abken’s group as a post-doc and clinician scientist.

His research interests are focused on developing novel CAR/TRUCK T cell constructs for anti-cancer therapy. Particularly, the use of inducible gene-expression systems and shRNA-based technologies for gene silencing are primary occupations.

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Verena.Heindl@ukr.de

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 944-68552
Email: Paul.Heinrich@ukr.de

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 943-68550
Email: Inmaculada.Hernandez-Lopez@ukr.de

Inmaculada Hernández López studied Biotechnology at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. Starting in 2012, she did a PhD in the field of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at BOKU University in Vienna, Austria, under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Borth. Together they have worked on the transcriptomic and epigenomic characterization of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells.

During her PhD, she pioneered the epigenomic analysis of CHO cells in Prof. Borth’s group, both experimentally and computationally: producing, analyzing and publishing the first reference epigenomes for CHO cells at different culture conditions. Furthermore, she did a 9 months placement on the statistical genomics group from CNAG-CRG Barcelona. Concurrently, she completed a post-graduate Masters degree in bioinformatics and biostatistics at the University of Barcelona.

In a further position at the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University (UK), starting in 2016, she developed new analytical strategies to integrate gene expression, epigenomic and 3D genome organization data from men and women in immune cells. Furthermore, she provided help to undergraduate and PhD students to improve their bioinformatic skills.

During her last position, she was employed as a computational Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Single Cell Genomics Team at the National Centre for Genomic Analysis (CNAG-CRG) in Barcelona. There, she focused on the systematic integration of genomic data from individual cells to characterize the underlying phenotype. She was working on several projects in collaboration with diverse hospitals in Spain and Germany, where they characterized the immune landscape and tumour tissues under the effect of different treatments in diseased individuals compared to healthy. In 2021, she joined the LIT as a bioinformatician in the Bioinformatics Unit of the NGS-Core.

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18138
Email: christoph.heuser@ukr.de

Dr. Christoph Heuser is a Senior Scientist in the Division for Functional Immune Cell Modulation headed by Prof. Dr. Luca Gattinoni. From 2006 to 2011, Christoph studied Molecular Biomedicine at the University of Bonn where he also obtained his Ph.D. at the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Experimental Immunology (supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts). Funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, he investigated how Dendritic Cells initiate innate and adaptive immune responses against infections and upon tumor vaccination. Moreover, he studied the timing of stimulatory as well as regulatory interactions controlling T cell responses using genetic and pharmacological tools. In 2018, Christoph moved to the Center for Translational Cancer Research of the Technical University of Munich (TranslaTUM) where he worked at characterizing human tissue-resident memory T cells by single-cell technologies. Christoph joined the LIT Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation in 2021 to contribute to the understanding of stemness in memory T cells. His goal is to discover opportunities for manipulating the cells’ signaling networks to ultimately advance adoptive cell therapies against cancer.

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 944-18188
Email: Fabian.Hoelzl@ukr.de

Fabian Hölzl earned his Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the Technical University Munich. In 2022, he embarked on his doctoral journey under the guidance of Prof. Rehli, focusing on cohesin mutations in myeloid malignancies. His research delves into the intricate mechanisms of how the loss of cohesin disrupts the spatial and functional chromatin organization within cells.

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18126
Email: Frauke.Hoffmann@ukr.de

Frauke Hoffmann studied biology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and went to the University of Regensburg for her master´s degree. She joined the LIT to perform her master thesis in the group of Prof. Feuerer. After graduation, she stayed at the LIT and is currently doing her PhD in Prof. Feuerer´s group.
Frauke Hoffmann´s research focuses on fibroblasts and their bifunctional role within the tumor microenvironment, with the goal of gaining more insight into this axis to find potential therapeutic approaches.

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18127
Email: Veronika1.Hofmann@ukr.de

associated to
Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944-18114
Email: Astrid.Holzinger@ukr.de

Astrid Holzinger studied pharmacy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, including an internship at the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Florida. After her graduation she performed her PhD thesis in Prof. Abken’s group at the University of Cologne, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne. She received her PhD from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University Bonn in 2015 and continued as a post-doc in Prof. Abken`s group. In 2018 she moved to Regensburg and contributed establishing the new research group and laboratories for Gene-Immunotherapy.

Dr. Holzinger’s research focus is the functional and physical interaction of CAR molecules and the fine-tuning of CAR activation. Also, Dr. Holzinger is setting up the translation from research to GMP-compliant manufacturing of CAR T cells in cooperation with the José Carreras Center of the LIT.

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18104
Email: Abir.Hussein@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18134
Email: Gabriele.Inchingolo@ukr.de

Gabriele Inchingolo is currently a Ph.D. student in Division for Functional Immune Cell Modulation. Gabriele graduated from the University of Bari in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine with honors. He has an academic and industrial background. His research interest is in the area of immuno-oncology and lymphocyte biology, with a particular focus on ex vivo T-cell engineering for cancer immunotherapy applications, T cell exhaustion, differentiation and memory formation. Gabriele‘s thesis project involves immunomonitoring of patients enrolled in Phase I clinical trial of anti-CD19 CAR T_SCM cells against B cells malignancies.

T Cell Therapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38117
Email: Helena.Janning@ukr.de

T-Cell Fitness

Tel: +49 941 944-18139
Email: Pallavi.Kadam@ukr.de

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18107
Email: Beril.Kadioglu@ukr.de

Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944–18494
Email: Evangelia.Kandylaki@ukr.de

Epigenetic Immunooncology

Tel: +49 941 944-38119
Email: Gayatri.Kavishwar@ukr.de

Gayatri, with a PhD in Cancer Biology and over 6 years of experience in cancer therapeutics and immuno-oncology research, has cultivated her expertise in the forefront of cancer treatment. During her doctoral research at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), she had the opportunity to explore the immuno-therapeutic potential of oncolytic parvovirus H-1PV for prostate cancer treatment. As a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy in Dr. Schmidl’s group, Gayatri continues to learn and grow in her contributions to the field. Her research primarily focuses on the Epigenetic Regulation of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells, with a special emphasis on key T cell processes like activation, exhaustion, and stemness. She is dedicated to using CRISPR-based techniques to improve CAR T cell function and efficacy.

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Julia.Kefer@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Sandra.Kneidl@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: kristina.kolodova@ukr.de

Epigenetic Immunooncology

Tel: +49 941 944-18179
Email: Manuela.Kovacs-Sautter@ukr.de

GCP & Regulatory Affairs

Tel: +49 941 944–18203
Email: Viola.Kraus@ukr.de

Viola Kraus holds a Ph.D. degree in immunobiology. Following some years of pre-clinical research in a biotech company she changed into the field of clinical research. Based on her experience in a clinical research organization (CRO), in the pharmaceutical industry and at the University Hospital Regensburg she has high expertise in the planning, preparation, implementation and conducting of clinical trials.

In 2023, she joined the LIT, where she is in charge as a clinical trial manager for the coordination of all investigator initiated trials (IITs) exploring new immune cell therapies conducted in close cooperation with the University Hospital Regensburg. Depending on the stage of the respective clinical trial she and her team are responsible for budget calculation, the development of a project plan, the preparation of regulatory documents, center management and clinical trial coordination.

Algorithmic Bioinformatics

Tel: +49 941 944-18162
Email: Robert.Lohmayer@physik.uni-regensburg.de

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Christine.Luginger@ukr.de

Christine Luginger trained as a biology technical assistant. Since 2006, she worked in basic immunology research groups at the UKR and then in the stem cell facility of the division of Transfusion Medicine. She joined the JCC in 2010 and contributed to the planning and construction of the GMP facility. Upon further training, she received the honorius degree as biotechnician. She is head of clean room technologies and thus responsible for the continuous maintenance of the GMP-facility. She is involved in the testing, qualification, validation and release of equipment and manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, she is an expert in manufacturing and supports quality assurance.

Algorithmic Bioinformatics

Tel: +49 941 944-18162
Email: Richard.Luepken@ukr.de

Epigenetic Immunooncology

Tel: +49 941 944-38116
Email: Marianna.Maddaloni@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18138
Email: Asia.Majidi@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18134
Email: Maka.Malania@ur.de

Maka Malania holds a Ph.D. degree in Physiology with an emphasis on Neuroscience. She has over 15 years of experience as a research scientist in world-class institutions and intensive training in scientific project monitoring and management process. Maka Malania joined the LIT Division of Functional Immune Modulation as a Project Manager in 2022. She coordinates the administrative and financial management efforts in EU-funded projects.

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18135

Azucena Martín holds a B.Sc. degree. She provided technical support to several groups actively involved in immunology and translational medicine research in both UK and Germany, before joining the LIT Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation in 2019. Azucena currently manages the running of the laboratory and supports research activities across the group’s different projects.

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944–18134
Email: Giovanna.Martino@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18137
Email: Fabio.Mastrogiovanni@ukr.de

Fabio Mastrogiovanni received an M.Sc. degree in Biology from the Naples University Federico II and is FELASA accredited since 2021. Before joining the LIT, he worked as a research technician at DZNE -German Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases- and at TUM – Technical University of Munich.  Since 2019, he has been a research assistant in the Division of Functional Immune Modulation. He is the technical coordinator of the ZTL – Animal Experimentation Area – and is also responsible for managing and developing various experimental procedures.

Immunometabolomics

Tel: +49 941 944–38477
Email: Carina.Matos@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Ramona.Meier@ukr.de

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18105
Email: Ayse-Nur.Menevse@ukr.de

Algorithmic Bioinformatics

Tel: +49 941 944-18162
Email: Tim.Mirus@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Andreas.Mitsch@ukr.de

Andreas Mitsch studied Pharmacy at the University of Marburg and holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. After first positions in drug development and clinical development of oligonucleotide-based drug candidates for oncological indications in different biotech companies, he joined the José-Carreras-Center in 2015, where he is in charge of quality control of cell therapy products.

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18104
Email: meghma.mukherjee@ukr.de

Meghma is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the Division of Interventional Immunology, led by Professor Philipp Beckhove. Her academic journey commenced with a Bachelor’s in Biotechnology Engineering from SRMIST, India, followed by a Master’s in Immunology from the University of Bonn, Germany. Following her Bachelor’s degree, Meghma gained valuable experience at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, where she focused on the application of Nanomedicine to target tumor-associated macrophages in cancer. Her current research endeavors focus on reprogramming antigen receptor-engineered T cells to overcome tumor intrinsic immune resistance, presenting promising prospects for the advancement of Cancer Immunotherapy.

Inflammation, Autoimmunity and Fibrosis

Tel: +49 941 944–7348
Email: Sophia.Neumayer@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18134
Email: Pedro.Noronha@ukr.de

Pedro Noronha received a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in 2013. He joined the LIT Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation in 2021 after working for two years as Research Technician at the ImmunoSurgery Lab at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon. His interests rely on adoptive cell therapy, and on the optimization of autologous or allogenic immune cell therapy products by using engineering and biotechnology techniques.

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Susanne.Ohmayer@ukr.de

Susanne Ohmayer studied chemistry at the University Regensburg and joined the JCC in 2012, where she supported the manufacturing team. Since 2019, she took over the management of the Quality Assurance Unit and thus is responsible for the implementation, optimization and continuous adaption of the pharmaceutical quality system.

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18108
Email: Birgitta.Ott-Roetzer@ukr.de

Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38114
Email: Hong.Pan@ukr.de

Hong Pan graduated for BSc in biological sciences from Zaozhuang University in Zaozhuang (P.R. China) in 2010.  Thereafter she received her MSc in Neuroscience at Beijing Institute of Technology in Beijing. From 2015-2020, she performed her PhD thesis and follow up studies on Neuroimmunology at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen. Since October 2020, she is post-doc fellow in Prof. Abken’s group.

Dr. Pan’s research is focused on engineering novel CAR constructs towards non-classical targets and exploring CAR T cell therapies in solid tumor mouse models. Also, Dr. Pan is working on redirecting an immune response to treat invasive inflammation and transplant rejection.

Structural Biochemistry

Tel: +49 941 944–xxxx
Email: Linkon.Paul@ukr.de

Genetic Immunotherapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38117
Email: Anja.Pavlica@ukr.de

Innate Immune Sensing in Cancer and Transplantation

Tel: +49 941 944-18463
Email: Markus.Perl@ukr.de

Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944-38490
Email: Franziska.Pielmeier@ukr.de

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 944-18189
Email: Johanna.Raithel@ukr.de

NGS and Data Technologies

Email: Agata.Rakszewska@ukr.de

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-38124
Email: Ardita.Ramadani@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18134
Email: Nisha.Rana@ukr.de

Nisha Rana holds a Master’s degree in Bioinformatics from Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya in Jalandhar, India. Before moving to Germany, Nisha worked in the industry for six years as Bioinformatics Analyst at Genotypic Technology and later at Sandor Specialty Diagnostics. In 2019, she joined the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg to support the bioinformatics activities in the laboratory of Dr. Erika Pearce. In 2021, Nisha moved to Dr. Bengsch’s group at the University Hospital in Freiburg where she acquired skills in analyzing Cy-Tof and IMC.

Since July 2023, Nisha has been a Bioinformatician within the LIT Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation. Nisha’s expertise lies in working with various types of next-generation sequencing data, with a primary focus on RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq, scRNA-Seq, and more. She utilizes a range of software, databases, and scripting languages to extract valuable insights from the complex realm of genetic data.

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18125
Email: Uwe.Ritter@ukr.de

Epigenetic Immunooncology

Tel: +49 941 944-38178
Email: Elena.Romero-Fernandez@ukr.de

Elena Romero Fernández is currently a PhD student at the LIT institute with a strong academic background in Biotechnology. She holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona, Spain. Her educational journey was followed by the completion of a master’s thesis at the University of Freiburg, which resulted in the publication of her first scientific work.
Building upon her academic achievements, Elena transitioned into a Ph.D. program at the LIT, Regensburg. Her doctoral research is dedicated to enhancing T cell functionality by strategically targeting pivotal immune-related enhancers. Her focus centers on the development and implementation of an innovative epigenetic editing system, in order to advance the field of immuno-oncology and its potential applications in cutting-edge therapies.

T-Cell Fitness

Tel: +49 941 944-18139
Email: franziska.roscher@lit.eu

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18108
Email: Eveline.Roeseler@ukr.de

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18127
Email: Brigitte.Ruhland@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18134
Email: Esen.Sayin@ukr.de

Dr. Sayin received her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Middle East Technical University (Turkey) in 2017 with a thesis focused on understanding the effects of chemical and physical microenvironmental cues on the mechanical properties of bone tissue-engineered artificial matrices. In 2015 she worked as a visiting research scholar at University College London (UK) to study the oxygen-limited niches within tissue-engineered bones. Upon completion of her doctorate research, Dr. Sayin received the Julia Polak European Doctorate Award from the European Society for Biomaterials.

Since November 2023, Dr. Sayin has been a postdoctoral scientist in the Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation directed by Prof. Luca Gattinoni. She works on the EIC-funded project INCITE to develop a 3D-printed immune niche microenvironment for the generation and expansion of tumor-specific stem cell memory T cells.

Transl. Immunobiology of Early Systemic Cancer

Tel: +49 941 944–11231
Email: Sebastian.Scheitler@ukr.de

associated to
Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18374
Email: Roland.Schelker@ukr.de

Assoc. Prof. Roland Schelker received his M.D. from the University of Cluj-Napoca in 2009. Since 2009 he has been working as a Resident Physician (2009-2018) and as a Specialist Physician (2018-present) in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology at the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, University Hospital Regensburg.  During 2019-2021 he was a DFG-funded Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, USA), in the laboratories of Luca Gattinoni (Experimental Transplantation and Immunotherapy Branch; National Cancer Institute) and Warren Leonard (Laboratory of Molecular Immunology; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute).

In 2021, Assoc. Prof. Schelker joined the LIT Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation as a Postdoctoral scientist. In 2025, he earned his second doctorate (PhD) with summa cum laude. His research interest focuses on the role of transcriptional co-regulators in CD8⁺ T cell stemness, memory formation, and antitumor immunity.

T-Cell Therapy

Tel: +49 941 944-38117
Email: charlotte.schenkel@ukr.de

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-38125
Email: Lisa.Schmidleithner@ukr.de

Innate immune sensing in cancer and transplantation

Tel: +49 941 944-38455
Email: Dhyani.Shah@ukr.de

Immunology

Email: Saima.Shaikh@ukr.de

Immune Cell Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–6225
Email: Saumitra.Shaligram@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944–38134
Email: Caio.Silveira@ukr.de

Dr. Caio Silveira received his Ph.D. from the University of Sao Paulo in 2019 with a thesis focused on the development of novel strategies to reprogram the tumor microenvironment in cervical cancer under the supervision of Dr. Ana Paula Lepique. Caio worked then as an analyst in cell therapy at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (2019-2020), where he acquired extensive experience in the GMP manufacturing of TILs and virus-specific T cells. From 2020 to 2023 he was a postdoctoral scientist at the Advanced Cell Therapy Laboratory at the University of São Paulo/Fundação Hemocentro de Ribeirão Preto, working on the development of new vectors for the production of CAR T cells, under the scientific supervision of Dr. Renato Cunha.

In October 2023 Dr. Silveira joined the Division for Functional Immune Cell Modulation at LIT. In Dr. Luca Gattinoni’s group, Caio works on the EIC-funded T-FITNESS project to overcome major barriers to successful cell therapies and to foster his academic career.

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 943-68553
Email: Jakob.Simeth@ukr.de

Jakob Simeth studied Computational Science and Physics in Regensburg. During his PhD in particle physics simulations, he was co-responsible for data sharing and archiving in a large, trans-European collaboration,  where he gained experience in automatic data processing and data management in general. Later, when working in the group of Rainer Spang, he focused on bioinformatic algorithms and further pursued projects in data annotation and provenance tracking.
In the NGS Core at the LIT, Jakob Simeth is responsible for research data management. Building on a broad knowledge in IT, he continues to work on the automation of data management processes, improving the efficiency and user experience for all members and users of the core. His mission is to make data produced at the LIT as openly accessible and findable (FAIR) as possible while ensuring the necessary security levels and safety measures for human genetic data.

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18138
Email: Dragana.Slavkovic-Lukic@ukr.de

Dr. Dragana Slavkovic Lukic received her Ph.D. degree from University of Heidelberg in 2012 with a thesis focusing on the interaction of spumaretroviruses with host cells and their potential use as gene-engineering vectors. After completing her Ph.D. studies, she worked as a postdoctoral scientist at Würzburg University Hospital where she gained valuable knowledge on translation research by working on T cell-engaging bispecific antibodies and TCR-redirected T cells. She joined LIT in 2020 as the head of the preclinical development and clinical cell manufacturing programs of the Division of Functional Cell Immune Modulation.

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18106
Email: Slava.Stamova@ukr.de

Slava Stamova has a Master degree in Molecular Bioengineering from Technical University Dresden. She has performed her PhD thesis in the group of Prof. Michael Bachmann at the Institute of Immunology at the Medical Faculty of Technical University Dresden, as part of the PhD Program of Max Plank Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden.

After obtaining her degree and working as a Postdoc in the group of Prof. Bachman, she joined the Department of Translational Immunology at German Cancer Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, in the group of Prof. Philipp Beckhove as a Postdoctoral researcher. In 2015 she moved to Regensburg and contributed to the establishing of the Interventional Immunology research group and the laboratory facilities of LIT.

Dr. Stamova’s research interest lies in the understanding the immune resistance mechanisms used by the tumor cells and utilize the obtained knowledge in synthetic immunology approaches for genetic modification of T cells for immunotherapy of solid cancers. Dr. Stamova works on generating 4^th generation CAR T cells (TRUCK), that secrete in inducible manner antibody fragments blocking immune checkpoint molecules, or cytokines and chemokines that can modulate the immune suppressive microenvironment and boost T cell functionality and T cell mediated eradication of cancer and in this way improve the efficiency and safety of the existing immunotherapeutic approaches.

NGS and Data Technologies

Tel: +49 941 943-68551
Email: Nicholas.Strieder@ukr.de

Nicholas Strieder studied Biology at the University of Regensburg, focusing on cell biology. During a one year Erasmus exchange at the University of Leicester he was involved in protein import into chloroplasts and protein structure analysis using crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques. Following his graduation in yeast protein biology, he performed his PhD in the lab of Prof. G. Meister on miRNA mediated regulation in human cells applying high-throughput sequencing methods. In 2014 he joined the Statistical Bioinformatics Lab of Prof. R. Spang focusing on bioinformatic analysis of NGS data sets. After a 3 year postdoc phase he went to industry and worked on the bioinformatic analysis of food contaminating bacteria with long and short read sequencing methods at Labor Kneißler Burglengenfeld. In 2019 he joined the LIT and contributed by establishing the Bioinformatics Unit of the NGS-Core.

Dr. Nicholas Strieder works on the bioinformatic analysis of bulk and single cell high-throughput sequencing data with a focus on T cell development and function in heathy tissue and disease in collaboration with the research groups of the LIT.

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18125
Email: Philipp.Stueve@ukr.de

Epigenetic Immunooncology

Tel: +49 941 944-38119
Email: Chiara.Suriano@ukr.de

Chiara Suriano graduated in Genomic, Molecular, and Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Parma. She conducted her Master’s thesis in the Molecular Microbiology group at the Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde in Porto, Portugal. In 2022, she started her Ph.D. in the Epigenetic immuno-oncology group of Christian Schmidl. Her research is focused on the role of cGAS/STING in allo-transplantation, aiming at modulating this pathway to minimize Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) while preserving the crucial anti-tumor effects.

Inflammation, Autoimmunity and Fibrosis

Tel: +49 941 944–7386
Email: Yvonne.Talke@ukr.de

Immune Cell Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–6225
Email: Kimaya.Tekade@ukr.de

T-Cell Fitness

Tel: +49 941 944-18139
Email: Gaurang.Telang@ukr.de

Metabolite Driven Intercellular Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–xxx
Email: Ines.Ugele@ukr.de

Functional Immune Cell Modulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18138
Email: Selina-Timea.Vadasz@ukr.de

Timea Vadász successfully completed her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Medicine at Ulm University in 2020, during which she gained first insight into molecular immunology and discovered her deep interest in T cell biology. During her undergraduate studies, Timea worked at the Institute for Transfusion Medicine on the topic “Production of an AK2-deficient human cell line as a model system for pathophysiological studies of reticular dysgenesis”. In October 2020, she started studying for a master’s degree in Molecular Medicine at the University of Regensburg to further specialize in the field of immunology. Timea joined the research group of Professor Gattinoni in January 2022, as an intern, continued her research in the same group and culminated her master’s thesis titled “Enhancing CD8+ T cell antitumor response through Rbbp4/7 mediated epigenetic reprogramming”. Timea is currently a Ph.D. student and her thesis project focuses on “Reprogramming the Tumor Milieu by T cell-mediated Exosomal miRNA Delivery”. Her main goal is to uncover novel pathways that can be therapeutically exploited to overcome current hurdles facing cancer immunotherapies.

Immune Cell Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–6225
Email: Sabina1.Vancikova@ukr.de

Immunometabolomics

Tel: +49 941 944-18478
Email: Florian.Voll@ukr.de

Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18493
Email: Claudia.Weber@ukr.de

Metabolite Driven Intercellular Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–9423
Email: Monika.Wehrstein@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Centrum

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Anna.Weigl@ukr.de

Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944-18494
Email: Niklas.Wenzl@ukr.de

José-Carreras-Center

Tel: +49 941 944-5101
Email: Stefanie.Windschuettl@ukr.de

Stefanie Windschüttl studied biology at the University Regensburg and did her PhD thesis in cell biology at the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich. In former positions as Clinical Research Associate and GMP scientist, she ensured that quality and functionality of new drugs adhere to required standards. In 2020, she joined the JCC where she is deputy head of quality assurance and manufacturing. Thus, she ensures the maintenance of the clean room status and assures the production of high-quality cell therapeutics in compliance with all GMP and regulatory requirements.

Inflammation, Autoimmunity and Fibrosis

Tel: +49 941 944–7386
Email: Frederike.Winter@ukr.de

Metabolite Driven Intercellular Communication

Tel: +49 941 944–9423
Email: Claudia.Woegerbauer@ukr.de

Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944–18105
Email: Alexander.Wurzel@ukr.de

Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18127
Email: Marina.Wuttke@ukr.de

associated to
Interventional Immunology

Tel: +49 941 944-18104
Email: Maria.Xydia@ukr.de