Team

Katharina Gryksa-Zotz

On maternity leave

Katharina studied Biology at the University of Regensburg and earned her PhD in 2022 at the Chair of Neurobiology and Animal Physiology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Inga Neumann. After working there as a postdoctoral researcher, she joined the laboratory in 2025. Her research focuses on the interactions between immune cells and neurons.

Valeryia Drobyshava

Valeryia studied Medical Biology at Belarusian State University in Minsk, Belarus. She moved to South Korea to pursue her Master's degree in Biomedical Science and Technology at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), where she completed her Master's thesis at the Center for Biomaterials. She joined the laboratory as a PhD student in 2022.

Morteza Heydari

Morteza studied Biology at Razi University in Kermanshah, Iran. He then completed a Master's degree in Biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics (IBB), University of Tehran, Iran. He joined the laboratory in 2023.

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), his research focuses on the role of the EGF-like growth factors amphiregulin and HB-EGF in immune regulation and tissue homeostasis during graft-versus-host disease (GvHD).

Saumitra Shaligram

Saumitra obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Microbiology from Abasaheb Garware College, India. He subsequently completed a second Master's degree in Clinical Immunology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

His research focuses on the development of regulatory T cell-based therapies for allergies.

Kimaya Tekade

Kimaya obtained her Master's degree in Life Sciences from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India. During her master's thesis, she studied the mechanisms underlying enhanced immunity in experimentally evolved Drosophila melanogaster, focusing on the relative contributions of pathogen resistance and disease tolerance. 

In her PhD, which she started in 2022, she uses mouse models, primary cell cultures, molecular biology, and bioinformatics to investigate the role of EGFR signalling in regulating CD4 T-cell immune responses.

Sabína Vančíková

Sabína grew up in Slovakia and studied Molecular Biology at Charles University in Prague, where she also completed two Master's theses in Immunology and Social Epidemiology.

She joined the laboratory as a PhD student in 2023. Her research focuses on the role of EGFR and its ligands in tumor microenvironment and immunotherapy. 

Lisa Michaelis

On maternity leave

Lisa completed her training as a Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) at the BBZ Ingolstadt, graduating in 2015. She subsequently worked at the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Regensburg, where she conducted basic research on retinal diseases. She joined the laboratory in May 2022.

Ulrike Stöckl

Ulrike joined the laboratory in early 2023. After completing her training as a Chemical Technical Assistant (CTA) at NTA Isny, she worked at various institutes of the University of Regensburg and the University Hospital Regensburg from 1978 onwards, conducting basic research in biochemistry, molecular biology, and protein biochemistry. She also worked in drug development at a biotechnology company in Martinsried.