Christina Zielinski

Christina Zielinski is the Chair of the Department of Infection Immunology at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology and a professor at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. She studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), at Harvard University (USA) and Duke University (USA). Her MD thesis research was performed at Yale University as a scholar of the German National Merit Foundation where she focused on the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of lupus erythematosus. Christina performed her postdoctoral training as a scholar of the German Research Foundation in the lab of Federica Sallusto in Switzerland where she decoded the regulatory cues that drive distinct functionalities of human Th17 cells. She then started her own research group as a Clinician Scientist at the Department of Dermatology at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. Christina Zielinski also completed her clinical specialization in dermatology and allergology at the University of Tübingen and the Charité-University Medicine in Berlin. In 2015, Christina was appointed professor at the German Center for Infection Research at the Technical University of Munich. Since 2021, she has been the Chair of Infection Immunology at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, where she is currently working on the regulation of human T cells and their translational impact in autoimmunity, infections, and cancer. Christina has been the recipient of a numerous research awards such as the Paul Langerhans Prize, the German Atopic Dermatitis Award and the Robert-Koch-Postdoctoral Prize. She also serves as a board member of the Germany Society of Immunology and the European Society for Dermatological research.

Hana Polášek-Sedláčkova

Hana Polasek-Sedlackova is a group leader of the Laboratory of DNA Replication and Genome Stability at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno, Czech Republic. Her laboratory combines quantitative high-content single-cell imaging with genome editing and biochemical approaches to investigate the cellular processes that ensure the error-free copying of DNA necessary for understanding the molecular basis of serious diseases such as cancer.

Jan Remsik, Pharm.D., Ph.D.

Intrigued by the ability of cancer cells to colonize the immune-populated cerebrospinal fluid, I generated a series of syngeneic animal models of leptomeningeal metastasis and accompanying single-cell atlases of human and mouse disease. Using these tools, my lab studies the mechanistic nature of cancer-immune cell interactions to develop alternative immune-therapeutic approaches against metastasis within this unique anatomic niche.

Hind Medyouf

The research in my lab is centered around the importance of the tumor microenvironment (TMEs) in hematological malignancies and metastasis. We use animal and 3D engineered human models in combination with single cell omics approaches to explore the broad area of tumor-niche co-evolution with a specific emphasis on (1) how this ecosystem promotes immune evasion and (2) how age-related changes in local TMEs impact cancer progression and modulate therapeutic sensitivities. 

Julian Staniek

Julian Staniek is a postdoctoral researcher and Hans A. Krebs Medical Scientist Fellow in the laboratory of Marta Rizzi at the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany. His research focuses on the signaling pathways and regulatory networks that govern human B cell fate decisions in secondary lymphoid organs, both in health and disease. Using low-input and single-cell high-throughput technologies, combined with advanced in vitro models and genome editing tools, Julian investigates the role of various cell death modalities in human B cell differentiation.