Chan Group

Staff scientists

Marek Kučka, Senior staff scientist

Slovakia

Sequencing technologies

What I do: I am currently focused on development and implementation of haplotagging, our new linked-read DNA sequencing method. This method allows for a cheap and high-throughput linked-read DNA sequencing using magnetic beads, Tn5-transposase and millions of barcodes.

What interests me: Molecular biology methods, Linked-read sequencing, Whole genome sequencing 
Where I’m from:  Country in the heart of Europe, Slovakia
Lab favourite: The lab-bench ….and the brain!

Insa Hirschberg

Germany

In vitro recombination and differentiation

What I do: I am part of the HybridMiX project with the goal of inducing in vitro recombination in hybrid mESCs and hence being able to generate cell lines with unique chromosomal combinations in a petri dish. I am looking forward to all the opportunities this new technique comes up with opening a whole new field to discover genetic markers.

What interests me: Immunology, FACS, tissue culture 
Where I’m from:  I grew up in a small town close to Hanover in Lower Saxony, Germany
Lab favourite: The chance to discover new things no one saw before. And surface tension – can be pretty helpful ;-)

João Castro (IMPRS)

Portugal

Evo-Devo of the mammalian limb

What I do: I am currently exploring how enhancers contribute to limb morphological adaptations, such as the long hindlimbs in jerboas and wing bones in bats. For this I have been developing a technique that allows in vitro assessment of enhancer activity in whole limb tissue, which I hope will enable the recovery of fore- and hindlimb specific enhancer activity changes.

What interests me: Gene regulation evolution, specifically how regulatory sequence modification changes embryonic development and alter morphology
Where I’m from:  I am from a very small village called Maia, in the island of São Miguel (Azores, Portugal). It’s a wonderful place, and if you are ever around don’t forget to treat yourself to whale watching and a volcano-cooked meal (literally, nothing better than a bit of sulfur taste with your chicken)
Lab favourite: PCR machine. PCR – the one thing that rules them all

Michelle Yancoskie

 

Genomic factors in regulating transcription

(PhD defended on 5.Nov, 2019)

CONGRATULATIONS DR. MISH!!!!

What I do: I'm currently wrapping up my work on testing for genomic features and factors that predict transcriptionn, and in doing so help link distal regulatory elements like enhancers to their target promoters accurately. For my next steps I'm looking for a postdoc position that will let me explore chromatin looping!

What interests me: How do chromatin loops form and progress, and what stalls them? How do enhancers find their targets, often skipping over closer promoters?
Where I’m from:  Born and raised in Germany (U.S. military brat), then Southern California
Lab favourite: Loops! "For", "if", and chromatin loops. One time when I first started, Frank told me to program a touchdown PCR. Half an hour later he saw that I was still at the PCR machine, painstakingly typing in one cycle at a time. "You need to learn how to program," Frank told me. That's when I started to learn loops. :)

Moritz Peters (IMPRS fellowship)

 

Genetic basis of stemness maintenance

What I do: I am analysing the transcriptome of in vitro recombinant F1 hybrid mouse embryonic stem cells and aim towards mapping strain-specific QTLs that can explain differences in pluripotent maintenance between the respective mouse strains.

What interests me: Identification of gene expression patterns regulating Pluripotency in early development of mouse embryonic stem cells 
Where I’m from:  Muenster, a city in the north-west of Germany
Lab favourite: In vitro recombination! and leukemia inhibitory factor - it's the stuff my stem cells lif for.

Volker Soltys (TIPPS)

 

Single-cell genomics with hybrid stem cells

What I do: I’m studying the behaviour of hybrid stem cells on a single cell level which are subjected to varying degrees of differentiation in order to track down species-specific traits. To maximise throughput and minimise costs, I want take advantage of our microfluidic setup for single-cell approaches.

What interests me: Developmental Biology, Microfluidics, Evolutionary Genomics 
Where I’m from:  Fellbach, city near Stuttgart, Germany
Lab favourite: Size selection beads – it’s like magic!

Dingwen Su (IMPRS)

 

Single-cell/molecule (epi)genomics

What I do: ATAC-seq in samples from Bloom syndrome families and DNA combing techniques.

What interests me:  Epigenetics, NGS techniques and pluripotency maintenance and differentiation of embryonic stem cells
Where I’m from:  Ezhou, a city in middle China along the Yangzi River
Lab favourite: Q5 polymerase, a true friend of DNA

 

 

Jones Group


Lab Members - Jones Group

Picture Name Position Nationality Room number Phone

+49 7071 601

E-Mail

@tuebingen.mpg.de


Picture of Jones, Felicity Felicity Jones Research Group Leader

ERC Consolidator

Australia Great Britain FML 0.12A 840

Picture of Avdievich, Elena Elena Avdievich Staff Scientist Russia FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Harjunmaa, Enni Enni Harjunmaa Postdoctoral Researcher

Human Frontier Science Program

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Finnish FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Neufeld, Stanley Stanley Neufeld Postdoctoral Researcher Canadian FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Dréau, Andreea Andreea Dréau Postdoc Romania FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Wang, Muhua Muhua Wang Postdoc China FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Tan, Li Li Tan PhD Student

International Max Planck

Research School, PhD candidate

Singapore FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Venu, Vrinda Vrinda Venu PhD Student India FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Kirch, Melanie Melanie Kirch PhD Student German FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Kick, Sebastian Sebastian Kick Fish Facility Technician, Tierpfleger German  FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Scionti, Domenico Domenico Scionti Research Assistant Italy  FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Venkataramani, Kavita Kavita Venkataramani Research Assistant India  FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of John, Malina Malina John Bachelor Project Student German  FML 0.01 887/886
Picture of Thome, Robin Robin Thome Bachelor Project Student German  FML 0.01 887/886

Name Position Nationality Started Finished
Jukka-Pekka Verta Postdoc, Craig Primmer Lab, University of Helsinki Finland  11.2014 01.2018
Cecilia Martinez PhD Student, Uruguay Uruguay  04.2013 10.2015
Saad Arif Lecturer, Dept. Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brooks University, UK Pakistan  09.2013 10.2015
Tim Schickfluss Germany Germany  08.2013 08.2015
Vineet Arora Predoctoral fellow, Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante India  06.2014 10.2014
William Toubiana PhD student, Khila Lab, IGFL, Lyon, France France 09.2013 01.2014
Kevin Jaatinen Tutor, USA Finland United States 06.2013 12.2013
Saudamini Shevade USA India 03.2013 06.2013