Alumni - PhDs/PostDocs
Hella Schwanke completed her PhD at the TU Braunschweig in the group of Melanie Brinkmann (P01), where she focused on the molecular mechanism of immune evasion mediated by the M35 protein of murine cytomegalovirus. Hella investigated the direct binding of M35 dimers to regulatory DNA elements and the resulting influence on the binding of the transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) to these sequences. Using methods such as RNAseq, SLAMseq, and ChIPseq, Hella could demonstrate in close collaboration with DEEP-DV groups that M35 affects the expression of the type I interferon Ifnb1 as well as other IRF3-dependent genes. Her study was published in the Journal of Virology (PDF) and in a review article (PDF).
Hella currently works as a biologist in a diagnostic institute for haematological diseases.
Denise Ohnezeit started as a PhD student in Nicole Fischer’s group in P04, working on the manipulation of the host response by human polyomaviruses. Denise graduated in late summer 2022 and joined the labs of Angus Wilson and Ian Mohr at NYU, New York in summer 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher. There, Denise continues her passion for genome-wide analysis of the host response altered by chronic DNA viruses, now focusing on large nuclear DNA viruses.
Alessandro was a postdoctoral fellow in the Schreiner lab at the Hannover Medical School. As his PhD training was already in the organoid field, he worked on human organoid models as infection models for adenovirus infections and immune responses.
Due to this very applied and cutting-edge field of research, Alessandro is interested in a career in the pharmaceutical industry.