Our team - project leaders

Christoph BOCK
Project leader P02

Christoph BOCK, PhD
Principal Investigator,
CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Visiting Professor at MedUni Vienna
phone: +43 1 40160 70070
e-mail: cbock@cemm.oeaw.ac.at

Christoph Bock is a Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Christoph studied computer science and bioinformatics at the University of Mannheim and completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, followed by postdoctoral research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. His research group combines high-throughput experimental biology (genome sequencing, epigenetics, CRISPR screening, systems & synthetic biology) with computational research (bioinformatics, machine learning, artificial intelligence), in order to dissect immune regulation and to improve diagnosis and therapy for cancer and immune disease. He is an elected member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and has received several major research awards, including the Max Planck Society’s Otto Hahn Medal (2009), an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), and the Overton Prize of the International Society of Computational Biology (2017).

Michael BONELLI
Project leader P03

Michael BONELLI, MD
Associate Professor, Clinical Rheumatologist
Division of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna
phone: +43 1 40400 43000
e-mail: michael.bonelli@meduniwien.ac.at


Michael Bonelli is Assistant Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. Michael studied Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, where he also finished his internal residency and rheumatology fellowship at the Department of Rheumatology. Within his research, he focused on the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of murine and human inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. He has spent 4 years as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. John O´Shea at the National Institute of Health where he analyzed the importance of enhancers for cell stabil-ity/plasticity particularly under pathogenic conditions in vivo. After his return in 2014, he has established a research group at the Department of Rheumatology. His particular interest is to study epigenetic modifications of T cells under inflammatory conditions.






Nicole BOUCHERON
Project leader P04

Nicole BOUCHERON, PhD
Principal Investigator
Institute of Immunology, Medical University of Vienna
phone: +43 1 40160 33297
e-mail: nicole.boucheron@meduniwien.ac.at

Nicole Boucheron is junior research group leader at the Medical University of Vienna. Nicole studied Cellular and Molecular Biology in Strasbourg (France) and Milan (Italy). She pursued her PhD at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch (Switzerland) and graduated at the University of Lausanne in 2002, followed by postdoctoral studies at the Medical University of Vienna, Institute of Immunology. Nicole has a research interest on the fine-tuning of Th subset functionality in health and disease using mouse models. She has expertise in primary T cell cultures, animal models and FACS methods. In 2014 she received the Sanofi-Aventis prize.






Wilfried Ellmeier
Project leader P01, P05

Wilfried ELLMEIER, PhD
Professor of Immunobiology, SFB speaker
Institute of Immunology, Medical University of Vienna
phone: +43 1 40160 33293
e-mail: wilfried.ellmeier@meduniwien.ac.at

Wilfried Ellmeier is Professor of Immunobiology and Head of the Institute of Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He studied biochemistry at the University of Vienna, carried out his doctoral thesis at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP Vienna) and performed postdoctoral studies at the Skirball Institute (NYU Medical Center) in New York. His research interests focus on epigenetic and transcriptional control mechanisms that regulate T cell development and T cell-mediated immunity. He received several prizes including the START program award for highly-qualified young scientists from the Austrian Science Fund and the Novartis award for biology. Wilfried Ellmeier is a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a board member of the Austrian Science Fund. He is president-elect (2023-2024) of the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI). He also has a strong interest in science policy and served as the President (2020-2021) of the BioMed Alliance in Europe.

Iris GRATZ
Project leader P06

Iris GRATZ, PhD
Assistant Professor, SFB deputy speaker
Department of Biosciences, University of Salzburg
phone: +43 662 8044 5764
e-mail: iris.gratz@sbg.ac.at

Iris Gratz is Assistant Professor at the University of Salzburg. Iris studied Genetics and received her PhD in immunology from the University of Salzburg in 2005 and since then focused on skin T cell biology. She performed postdoctoral studies at the EB House Austria, Dept. of Dermatology in Salzburg (2006-2009) and in the group of Abul Abbas at UCSF in San Francisco, USA (2009-2014). In 2014 she established her own research group at the University of Salzburg. Her areas of expertise include T cell biology, skin immunology, mouse models (skin inflammation, skin grafting, xenografting), flow cytometry and signaling pathways. Her group aims to elucidate the biology of regulatory T cells in tissues. In 2014 she received the Christian-Doppler prize of the county of Salzburg.

Markus HARTL
Project leader P07

Markus HARTL, PhD
Head, Mass Spectrometry Facility
Max Perutz Labs (MPL) Vienna, University of Vienna
phone: +43 1 79044 4291
e-mail: markus.hartl@univie.ac.at

Markus Hartl is the head of the MPL Mass Spectrometry Facility. Markus studied Ecology at the University of Vienna, performed his PhD thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, and graduated from the University of Jena, Germany (2010). He joined the lab of Iris Finkemeier at the LMU Munich, where he established the methodology for acetylomics in a collaboration with Matthias Mann at the MPI for Biochemistry (2010-2014). In 2014, Markus was appointed as head of the MPL Mass Spectrometry Facility that provides services for more than 30 research groups in the Vienna region. In his research, he develops and applies new proteomics methods to help solving biological problems.



Karl KUCHLER
Project leader P08

Karl KUCHLER, PhD
Professor of Molecular Genetics, Faculty member of MPL
Medical University of Vienna, MFPL
phone: +43 1 4277 61807
e-mail: karl.kuchler@meduniwien.ac.at

Karl Kuchler is Professor of Molecular Genetics and a faculty member of MPL. Karl studied Technical Chemistry and received his PhD in Biochemistry from the Technical University of Graz in 1986. After receiving postdoctoral training at the University of California at Berkeley, and at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, he accepted a faculty position at the MedUniWien in 1992, where he has been a group leader at the MFPL ever since. He has a long-standing track record in studying host-pathogen interactions and fungal immunology. He received the Novartis prize for biology (1996) and has been appointed as a life-time honorary member of the Austrian Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

Christian SEISER
Project leader P09

Christian SEISER, PhD
Associate Professor
Center of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Medical University of Vienna
phone: +431 40160 37507
e-mail: christian.seiser@meduniwien.ac.at

Christian Seiser is Associate Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. Christian studied Biochemistry, performed his PhD thesis at the University of Vienna and received his PhD from the University of Vienna (1989). He performed his postdoctoral studies at the ISREC, Lausanne, Switzerland (1989-1992). He established his independent research group at the Vienna Biocenter in 1992. He focuses his research on chromatin modifications and in particular on HDAC1 and HDAC2.






Clarissa CAMPBELL
Project leader P10

Clarissa CAMPELL, PhD
Principal Investigator
CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
phone: +431 40160 70063
e-mail: CCampbell@cemm.oeaw.ac.at

Clarissa Campbell studied biology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2010) and obtained a masters in immunopharmacology at the Oswaldo Cruz foundation in Brazil (2011). In 2012, she joined the Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program (IMP) at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences (USA). After obtaining her PhD in 2019, Clarissa was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Alexander Rudensky lab until 2021, when she started as an independent group leader at CeMM. Her group employs gnotobiotic mouse models, engineered bacterial strains, metabolic interventions and experimental infection to investigate the effects of metabolites on intestinal T-cell function.




Thomas KRAUSGRUBER
Project leader P11

Thomas KRAUSGRUBER, PhD
Principal Investigator
Institut für Artificial Intelligence, Medical University of Vienna
phone: +431 40160 36323
e-mail: thomas.krausgruber@meduniwien.ac.at

Thomas Krausgruber studied genetics and received his PhD in molecular immunology, focusing on macrophage biology, from Imperial College London (UK) in 2011. He performed his first postdoc training in the group of Fiona Powrie at the Translational Gastroenterology Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Ox-ford, UK (2012-2015) addressing fundamental and disease-relevant questions of T-cell adaptation to local environments using animal models. For his second postdoc studies he joined Christoph Bock’s laboratory at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria (2015-2022) complementing his immunological background with high-throughput biology and genomics/epigenomics/transcriptomics technology. His research focuses on immune regulation in non-immune, structural cells and on the systemic interplay of structural cells with the hematopoietic system. Since 2022 he is a principal investigator and junior group leader at the Medical University of Vienna.




Our team - Postdocs, PhD students and Research Technicians

We have established an international SFB research team encompassing approx. 40 members from 17 nations. Team members listed below are directly financed by the SFB, while adjunct SFB members in part contribute to the SFB projects and participate in many SFB activities, thus increasing critical mass. The SFB has also been serving as a platform for PhD thesis projects and several PhD students are currently supported by the SFB or contribute to SFB projects.
Bioinformatician - Postdoc

Lina DOBNIKAR, PhD
bioinformatics platform (BOCK Lab)
e-mail: LDobnikar@cemm.oeaw.ac.at

Postdoc

Teresa PREGLEJ, PhD
BONELLI Lab
e-mail: teresa.preglej@meduniwien.ac.at

Postdoc

Wolfgang REITER, PhD
HARTL Lab
e-mail: wolfgang.l.reiter@univie.ac.at

Postdoc

Valentia STOLZ, Msc
SEISER Lab
e-mail: valentina.stolz@meduniwien.ac.at


Postdoc

Ci "Ashley" ZHU, MD
ELLMEIER Lab
e-mail: ci.zhu@meduniwien.ac.at

PhD student

Matarr KHAN, Msc
BOUCHERON Lab
e-mail: matarr.khan@meduniwien.ac.at

PhD student

Alice Emma TALIENTO, Msc
GRATZ Lab
e-mail:aliceemma.taliento@plus.ac.at

PhD student

Philipp PENNINGER
KUCHLER Lab
e-mail: philipp.penninger@univie.ac.at


PhD student

Melanie JENSEN, Msc
GRATZ Lab
e-mail: Melanie.Lietzenmayer@stud.sbg.ac.at

PhD student

Monika WALDHERR, Msc
ELLMEIER Lab & bioinformatics platform
e-mail: monika.waldherr@fh-campuswien.ac.at

Master student

Osamah AL-RUBAYE
Master student (since 01/2022) - Ellmeier Lab
e-mail: a11852519@unet.univie.ac.at

Bioinformatician - staff scientist

Moritz MADERN, Msc
ELLMEIER Lab & bioinformatics platform
e-mail:moritz.madern@meduniwien.ac.at

Research Technician

Natascha HARTL, Msc
HARTL Lab
e-mail: natascha.hartl@univie.ac.at

Research Technician

Marlis ALTENEDER, Msc
BOUCHERON Lab
e-mail: marlis.alteneder@meduniwien.ac.at

SFB Administration

Christa GREGORI-SCHÜLLER, PhD
Administrative coordinator (ELLMEIER - SFB office)
e-mail: christa.gregori@meduniwien.ac.at

Adjunct SFB members

In addition to the core team directly funded by the SFB, our SFB consortium also includes adjunct members who work on related research subjects within the individual SFB laboratories. Adjunct members contribute their research expertise to the SFB projects and participate in many SFB activities. Current and previous adjunct members are / were:

ACHATZ, Gertrude, Priv.Doz. Mag.Dr. PLUS
BREIT Lina MedUni Wien, Rheumatology
BRINKMANN Marie, BSc MedUni Wien, Rheumatology
FLASCH Regina MedUni Wien, IFI
GÖSCHL, Lisa, Dr.med.univ. PhD MedUni Wien, Rheumatology
HAMMINGER, Patricia, Mag. MedUni Wien, IFI
HESS, Lena, BSc MSc MedUni Wien, CACB
HOFFMANN, Pol, BSc. MedUni Wien, IFI
MÜLLER, Lena, MSc PhD MedUni Wien, Rheumatology
RICA, Ramona, MSc MedUni Wien, IFI
RONACHER, Lara PLUS
SAKAGUCI, Shinya, Assoc. Prof. Dr. MSc MedUni Wien, IFI
SANDNER, Lisa, MSc MedUni Wien, IFI
UMUNDUM, Maria, Mag MedUni Wien, IFI
VCELKOVA, Terezia, MSc MedUni Wien, CACB
WALTENBERGER, Darina, Mag MedUni Wien, IFI

GLASER, Walter, PhD MedUni Wien, MPL
KNÖRZER, Selina, BSc MedUni Wien, CACB
TEUFL, Magdalena, MSc MedUni Wien, MPL
Clinical scientist

Lisa Göschl, MD - Clinical resident
BONELLI Lab
e-mail: lisa.goeschl@meduniwien.ac.at

PhD student

Lisa SANDNER, Msc
BOUCHERON Lab
e-mail: lisa.sandner@meduniwien.ac.at

PhD student

Ramona RICA, Msc
ELLMEIER Lab
e-mail: ramona.rica@meduniwien.ac.at

PhD student

Lena HESS, Msc
SEISER Lab
e-mail: lena.hess@meduniwien.ac.at

Lab manager & Technician

Darina WALTENBERGER
ELLMEIER Lab
e-mail: darina.walternberger@meduniwien.ac.at


SFB Alumni


CVETKOVIC, Natalija, master student
HAWLIN, Vanessa, master student
MEISELEDER, Lisa, visiting student
PONNURANGAM, Aparna, Postdoc
PRANTL, Isabella, visiting student
RIEDELBERGER, Michael, PhD student
SCHÖFTNER, Leonie, PhD student
SIMONOVIC, Natalija, Postdoc
SZENES-NAGY, Antal, PhD student
TEUFL, Magdalena, master student
WIESINGER, Dominik, visiting student


Social media

copyright 2019-2023: SFB-F70. All rights reserved.