Alumni

Julien Weber was a lab manager in our lab from May 2017 until August 2023. Julien was born in the small town of Epinal in France. He studied Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Lorraine, Nancy. After several months of experience in different laboratories in Paris and in the USA, he moved to Zurich in September 2009. Since then, has worked in several labs at UZH, where he enriched his knowledge in multiple techniques (proteomics, molecular biology, animal experimentation) as well as in lab organisation. In May 2017, he joined the Polymenidou group as a Lab Manager. Outside the lab he enjoys reading, going to the movies with friends, running, swimming and handicraft.

Manuela Perez-Berlanga was a PhD student in our lab from September 2017 until June 2023. Manuela was born in Spain and studied Biochemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid. During this time, she came to Zurich for a summer as part of the Biology Undergraduate Summer School (BUSS). She then moved to Germany in 2015 to continue her studies with a Master in Biology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. She finished her Master Thesis in the lab of Prof. Ulrich Hartl, where she worked on protein aggregation in ALS and FTD. After a year working as a research assistant, she joined the Polymenidou lab in September 2017 to start her PhD on the mechanisms of TDP-43 toxicity in neurodegeneration. Outside the lab, she enjoys movies, series, books and good food.

Izaskun Mallona Gonzalez was a genomic data scientist in our lab from October 2021 until April 2023. Izaskun completed her PhD in plant developmental biology in 2012 (Marcos Egea lab, Spain), with an emphasis in methods development for gene expression quantification. After that, she switched to epigenomics (Miguel A. Peinado lab, Spain; Tuncay Baubec lab, Switzerland; Mark Robinson lab, Switzerland) and released several methods and tools to analyze, browse and visualize epigenetic data. She joined the Polymenidou lab in October 2021 to work on transcriptomic data analysis of a variety of experimental approaches aimed at understanding the neurodegenerative processes in ALS/FTD. As a biologist and computer engineer by training, she is interested in the interface between life and computer sciences, and advocates for open science and free software. Her current research interests include gene expression regulation, single-cell technologies, and methods development. In her spare time, Izaskun likes reading, playing music, trail running, cross-country skiing, and bouldering.

Benjamin Wymann was a trainee in our lab from September 2022 until December 2022. Benjamin grew up in Luzern, Switzerland and moved to Zurich to study Interdisciplinary Sciences with a focus on Neurobiochemistry, Organic Chemistry, Spectroscopy and Immunology at ETH Zurich. His passion for Neuroscience directed his attention to a Bachelor’s thesis on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome patients at the University Hospital Balgrist in Zurich and to teaching a Neuroscience-based learning course for students. He joined the Polymenidou lab in September 2022 for his master’s research project, which is focused on the development of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) ligands for the detection of TDP-43 aggregates in the human brain. Under the supervision of Carlo Scialo, MD-PhD, Benjamin tests the specificity of candidate PET compounds for TDP-43 aggregates in cell culture models. In his free time, Benjamin loves singing in the Swiss Youth Choir, mountaineering with his friends, nature immersions and practicing biohacking.

Tomas Demeter was a pre-doc Student and a PhD Student in our lab from January 2019 until October 2022.​
​Tomas comes from Kosice, Slovakia. After finishing his undergraduate studies in Biology at Comenius University in Bratislava, he moved to Prague, Czech Republic where he studied Molecular Biology, Genetics and Virology at Charles University. During his studies in Prague he became interested in all things related to RNA. His Master thesis, as well as his internship at University College London, were focused on the role of canonical RNA interference pathway in mammals. In January 2019 he joined NCCR’s RNA Biology and Disease pre-doc program which allowed him to spend four months in three different laboratories across Switzerland, including the Scheiffele group in the Biozentrum, Basel and the Schratt group in ETH, Zurich. In the Polymenidou group, Tomas wants to describe aggregation properties of TDP-43 produced in vitro and compare them to TDP-43 isolated from patient samples. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, experimenting in his kitchen, playing video games and listening to podcasts or audiobooks. After doing one of his Pre-Doc rotation in our Lab, Tomas decided to stay and started his PhD in March 2020.

Daniel Hajnal was a Summer Intern in our lab from July until September 2022.
​Daniel was born and raised in Zurich, Switzerland where he is also studying medicine at the UZH. From the start he was interested in the research underlying medical discoveries and so he joined the Polymenidou group for his Master thesis. His interests were particularly piqued by the research into cancer biology and neurology, which is why he now studies how the RT-QuIC technique can be used as a diagnostic tool for TDP-43 proteinopathies, under the supervision of Carlo Scialo. Aside from his studies, Daniel enjoys cycling, swimming and the occasional hiking trip. Also, he is very fond of his friend group, sushi, and the music genre of indie rock.

Ruben Rigort was a Master Student and a PhD Student in our lab from January 2021 until September 2022.
Ruben is from Zurich, Switzerland. He studied biochemistry at the University of Zurich. During his bachelor studies he joined the Polymenidou lab for an internship, where he developed his interest in proteinopathies. After finishing his bachelor studies, he was very happy to be able to rejoin the team for his master thesis, followed by a PhD thesis. He is keen on understanding the biophysical characteristics of TDP-43 and their changes upon RNA binding. Besides the lab Ruben enjoys jogging, painting, and having a beer with friends.

Joris Van Dorpe was a Master Student in our lab from February until September 2022.​
Joris comes from a small village in Belgium and started studying Biochemistry and biotechnology at the University of Ghent. By experiencing bipolar disorder, he became very curious and passionate to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms in mental diseases and the workings of the human brain. Therefore, he chose to study an interdisciplinary combination of Biomedical biotechnology and Neuroscience in the Master program and he decided to join the Polymenidou lab for his Master thesis. Under the supervision of a PhD student in the lab, Laura De Vos, he studies the modulation of TDP-43 oligomerization to discover if this process plays a role in transition of functional TDP-43 into irreversible cytoplasmic aggregation in ALS/FTLD patients. In his free time, Joris likes singing and playing the guitar, dancing Lindy hop, travelling and helping the world.

Claudia Stenger was our Administrative assistant from May 2019 until March 2022. 
Claudia was born and grew up in Zurich. She lived for several years abroad working at the Swiss Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria and later at the Swiss Consulate in Chicago, USA. After her return to Switzerland, she worked for different companies in Zurich before she started a job at the UZH in 1997. In her free time, she loves to play Tennis and to spend time with her family and friends.

Johanna Furrer was a Master Student and a PhD Student in our lab from August 2019 until January 2022.
Johanna grew up in Lucerne, Switzerland and studied Biomedicine at the University of Zurich. During her undergraduate studies, she did an internship at the institute for medical virology at the University of Zurich. In her final year of study, her interest in neurobiology and especially in neurological disorders grew and she decided to pursue a Master Degree in Neuroscience. In the Polylab Johanna tries to develop new cellular models to investigate the mechanism of TDP-43-associated pathologies. After successfully defending her Master's, Johanna decided to pursue her studies as a PhD Student in the lab. In her free time, Johanna enjoys hiking, skiing, reading, sewing and spending time with friends and family.

Katharina Hembach performed her PhD Thesis in our lab as a collaboration between the Polymenidou and Robinson labs from November 2015 until April 2020 and stayed in our lab as Postdoc until December 2021. 
Katharina was born in Germany and studied Bioinformatics at the Ludwig-Maximilian University and Technical University Munich.  She helped the people by contributing to several projects in the lab with the analysis of different types of RNA sequencing data. She also develops a method for the identification and correct quantification of cryptic exons from RNA-seq data. In her free time, Kathi likes to go on bike/hiking trips and she enjoys reading and cooking.

Sonu Sahadevan, M.K performed her PhD Thesis in our lab from January 2015 until March 2020 and stayed in our lab as Postdoc until August 2021. From November 2021, she is working as Postdoctoral researcher at AbbVie.
Sonu comes from Kerala, India where she completed her studies in Biotechnology at the Amrita School of Biotechnology. After defending her master thesis at the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), she continued to work on a project on understanding the role of glycans in regeneration. Later, discovering her interest in molecular neuroscience, she joined the Centre for Brain Development and Repair at inStem and worked on understanding the role of fragile X mental retardation protein in posttranscriptional regulation and activity-mediated protein synthesis at synapses. She joined the Polylab in January 2015 as a PhD student and she was investigating the early synaptic dysfunction in ALS and FTD. Sonu defended her PhD in March 2020 and was then a Post-Doc in the lab. In her free time, she enjoys meeting friends, travelling, watching movies and cooking.

Mikhail Rudinskiy performed his Master Thesis in our lab from September 2019 until February 2020.
Mikhail is originally from Kaliningrad, Russia. He moved to Switzerland in 2013, where he studied Life Sciences and Technology at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and did his bachelor thesis designing PDMS microstructures to study fibrous tissue regeneration. During his master in Bioengineering, also at EPFL, Mikhail joined the Lashuel laboratory to study aggregation of Tau and its acetylation mimetics. He also performed a 6-month internship at AC Immune working towards the development of diagnostic and therapeutic antibodies for ALS. After completing a project on production and purification of AAV viruses for gene therapy at Bernard Schneider laboratory, Mikhail joined the Polylab to investigate the role TDP-43 oligomerization in disease. Outside of the lab, Mikhail enjoys skiing and snowboarding, as well as learning new languages.

Mélanie Jambeau performed her PhD Thesis in our lab from November 2013 until July 2019. From August 2019, she is teaching Physiotherapy in Nancy.
​Melanie comes from France, Nancy, where she originally studied Physiotherapy. She loved practicing physiotherapy for 5 years and then decided to make a career change towards scientific research, something she had always wanted to do. She studied Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Lorraine, Nancy. She enjoyed a lot her training in Dr. Kurt De Vos’ lab in SITraN, UK (Sheffield Institute for Translational Neurosciences) during her first master project. She then joined Dr. Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne’s lab in the University of California, San Diego, where she focused on the role of FUS in the regulation of RNA splicing and expression. She started a collaborative PhD between the Poly lab and the Lagier-Tourenne lab at the Massachussets General Hospital in October 2015. Outside the lab, she loves spending time with her family and friends and is fond of backpacking, hiking and camping.

Zuzanna Maniecka performed her PhD Thesis in our lab from November 2013 until July 2018. From January 2019, she is working as clinical project manager at SAKK.
​Zuza comes from Poland, where she studied Molecular Biology at the University of Warsaw. She did internships at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, and at the Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry and Biophysics Institute at the University Paris-Sud in Orsay, France. She was the first student to join the Polylab in November 2013, where she works on establishing a novel ex vivo model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Her project aims to decipher the molecular mechanisms triggered by TDP-43 aggregation and mislocalization linked to these neurodegenerative diseases. In her lab-free time, Zuza enjoys trying out new recipes, snowboarding and discovering Switzerland with a fantastic group of new friends.

Eva-Maria Hock performed her PhD Thesis in our lab from January 2014 until May 2018. From January 2019, she is working at Neurimmune.
Evi was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany and studied Technical Biology at the University of Stuttgart. After an internship at the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, she discovered her interest in Neurobiology. She joined the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Children’s Hospital in Boston for her Diploma Thesis in developmental Neuroscience, using electrophysiological and cell biological approaches. Evi joined the lab in January 2014 and she studies the spreading properties of the ALS-linked protein FUS/TLS, using organotypic slice cultures and iPSC-derived motor neurons. Outside the lab, she enjoys several outdoor activities including rock climbing, skiing and wakeboarding ​.

Martina Panatta worked as a Predoc in our lab from January until April 2018. She is now a PhD student in the DMMD.
Martina comes from Italy and she graduated in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biomedical Science at the university of Rome Tor Vergata. During her Master’s degree traineeship at the ENEA Casaccia Research Center in Rome she studied the epigenetic effect of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on neuronal cell culture. She joined the lab in January 2018 as Predoc from the NCCR RNA & Disease program to acquire new techniques in RNA biology and neurobiology fields. She likes to spend her free time with friends and family doing outdoor activity, watching movies and cooking.

Myriam Balerna performed her Master Thesis from August 2016 untill August 2017. She is now working for a company.
​Myriam comes from Lugano, Switzerland. She studied Biology and Neuroscience at the University of Fribourg. After an internship at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich she decided to stay at the Zurich University for her Master. She joined the Polylab in August 2016. Myriam is mainly interested in developing a method to directly reprogram motor neurons from fibroblasts of ALS patients and subsequently try to understand the mechanisms related to this pathology.
Outside the lab, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, backing and dancing salsa.

Tariq Afroz worked as a Postdoctoral in our lab from November 2014 until October 2017. From November 2017, he joined the team of AC Immune in Lausanne. Email: Tariq
Tariq comes from Roorkee, a small university town in the northern part of India. He studied Biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. To pursue his interest in RNA biology, he came to Switzerland for his PhD at ETH Zürich, where he followed a structural approach in order to better understand the role of sequence-specific protein-RNA interactions in translational regulation. Tariq joined the Polymenidou lab in November 2014 and focuses on delineating the role of TDP-43 and FUS/TLS in RNA processing, which when misregulated contributes to the ALS pathology. Outside lab, he plays tennis and enjoys skiing and fondue in the winter.​

Florent Laferrière worked as a Postdoctoral in our lab from February 2014 until September 2017. From October 2017, he is working in the IMN in Bordeaux with the Pathophysiology of parkinsonian syndromes team. Email: Florent
Florent was born in Paris, France. He is an Engineer in Agronomy with a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry. He did his PhD at the National Institute of Agronomical Research near Paris, working on prion diseases. He studied the links between prion protein aggregation and several pathological aspects of the disease, such as infectivity, replicative ability and interspecies transmission. Florent joined the lab in February 2014 and he focuses on the contribution of ALS-linked protein (SOD-1, TDP-43) aggregation and misfolding in the pathogenesis of the disease. Outside the lab, he plays handball, enjoys snowboard, food and wine.

Sarah Erni worked as a Lab Technician in our lab from April 2015 until July 2017. From August 2017, she is working as a teacher and will be training the next generation of biology students. 
​Sarah comes from Switzerland and studied biology at the University of Zurich. She did her master thesis in the field of genetics at the Institute of Medical Molecular Genetics where she aimed to characterize sequence variations found in patients diagnosed with a specific eye disease. After her studies, she joined the Polymenidou Lab in April 2015 as a lab technician. In her free time she enjoys inline skating, hiking reading books and listening to music.

 Julia Luedke worked in our lab from January 2014 until June 2017. From July 2017, she is working in the D-HEST. 
Julia was born and raised in Karlsruhe, Germany. She studied Biology at the University of Göttingen, where she became fascinated by Neurobiology during her Diploma thesis. In 2008 she moved to Switzerland and since then, she has worked in several labs at ETH and UZH, as well as at the FMI in Basel, where she gathered a lot of experience in lab organization. In January 2014, she joined the Polymenidou group as a lab manager. After a baby break in May 2015 she rejoined the lab in December 2015. Outside the lab she enjoys going to heavy metal concerts, cooking, fishing and playing with her children. 

Larissa Gilhespy performed her Master Thesis from November 2015 till January 2017. She is now a student to become a biology teacher and is working part-time in a company. 
Larissa comes from Switzerland and has dual citizenship (Swiss/English). She finished her Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Zurich in May 2015. She joined the Polymenidou Lab for her Master Thesis, which will be focused on the characterization of the biochemical and functional role of TDP-43 aggregates in the CNS, as well as their seeding ability in vitro. In her leisure time, she enjoys travelling, baking and exercising.

Vanessa Orlowski worked in our lab from May-Dec 2015, while Julia Lüdke was on maternity leave.
​Vanessa comes from Switzerland and has a dual citizenship (Swiss/German). She is a trained chemistry lab technician and did her apprenticeship at the Carbogen Amcis AG in Bubendorf (Basel). She then joined the group of Regula Schmid-Hempel in Experimental Ecology, ETH, where she worked for one and a half year as an intern, studying the bumblebee Bombus terrestris and the beetle Tribolium castaneum. Soon after that, she joined the National Center for Retroviruses (Nationales Zentrum für Retroviren, NZR) under the supervision of Jörg Schüpbach in the Institute of Medical Virology, University of Zurich. She worked for two and a half years with HIV-1 and HIV-2 and also contributed to the studies of the Lars Hangartner group, focusing on influenza viruses. In 2015 she joined the Polymenidou group as Lab Manager, replacing Julia during her maternity leave. In her free time she likes to play videogames or board games, read, listen to music, play Lacrosse, practice Haidong Gumdo, travel, learn Korean and go diving.

Paulina Cieslic visited the Lab in 2014 July-September as an Erasmus student. She is currently a PhD student.
​Paulina, born in Poland, studies neurobiology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The subject of her theoretical bachelor’s thesis was novel therapeutic methods of curing ALS. She joined the lab as a summer ERASMUS internship student to broaden her knowledge of ALS. During her stay she worked on establishing detection methods for misfolded SOD1. In the free time, she plays board games and bakes.