Young Scientist Association - Team

Melanie completed her bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Vienna. She finished her master’s degree in the same field with a specialization in Molecular Nutrition. During her studies she accomplished an internship in Malawi to implement rural health clubs, improving nutritional standards.

After her graduation, she gained experience in a pharmaceutical company as a quality control technician and returned to the field of nutritional research at the Medical University of Vienna in May 2020. Melanie is enrolled in the PhD Program Endocrinology and Metabolism, working at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology in the research group of Univ.Prof.PD Nadja Haiden, MD.MSc. She is part of the Neonatal Nutrition Team and focuses on complementary feeding in very low birth weight infants.

If you are further interested in Melanies research topics, please contact her directly or visit her LinkedIn profile.

Philipp received his Bachelor’s degree from the Universities of Tuebingen and Stuttgart (interuniversity degree), and a Master’s degree from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, both in Medical Engineering, with a focus on Medical Physics. Alongside his academic education, he already gained experience in industry, working on computer vision, medical image processing, machine learning and hardware development for medical devices at Sony and ZEISS.
He is currently enrolled in the PhD program ‘Medical Physics’ at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna.
His primary research interests are translational applications in ophthalmology with a strong focus on GPU-accelerated medical image and data processing for real-time medical applications and visualization techniques like rendering of medical data for surgical applications.

Nadja did her Bachelor's Degree in Biology and Master's Degree in Genetics and Developmental Biology at the University of Vienna. In 2021, she joined the Malignant Diseases PhD-program and the YSA.

She works in the Tumor Pathology working group under the supervision of Enikö Kallay and Martin Schepelmann at the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research.

Nadja is the Secretary of the Young Scientist Association.

Johanna did her Bachelor's Degree in Biology and Master's Degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna. In 2021, she joined the Immunology PhD-program and the YSA.

She works in the Gastrointestinal Immunology working group under the supervision of Eva Untersmayr-Elsenhuber at the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research. Her group aims to elucidate the crosstalk between these barrier-layers and to evaluate the impact of nutrition in health and disease. Currently, she deals with altered barrier functionality in diseases with fatigue-associated symptoms, such as known from the Long-COVID syndrome.

For more detailed information on the research topics of her working group contact her or visit the website of the Gastrointestinal Immunology working group.

Michael studied Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna and Heidelberg University, graduating on the topic of post-stroke epilepsy and associated clinical predictors. During his studies he accomplished clinical electives abroad in Tübingen, Munich and Zurich.

His main research interests are currently in the field of neuroimmunology, working in the group of Prof. Romana Höftberger at the Division of Neuropathology and Neurochemistry, Department of Neurology. His research projects focus on the neuropathology and pathomechanisms of autoantibody-mediated neurological diseases and the blood-brain barrier, as well as demyelinating CNS disorders and epilepsy.

To support progress here, his goal is to foster collaborations and open-minded, vivid discussions between young and senior scientists and the public.

For further information please contact him via email or visit his profile on ResearchGate.

Maria studied Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and at the University of Eastern Finland. She did her Master's thesis at the St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute in Vienna and graduated in 2017.

She is a PhD student in the program “Inflammation and Immunity” in the research group led by Prof. Barbara Bohle. In her project she aims to investigate the immune response to allergen-specific immunotherapy, focussing on the characteristics of induced antibodies. In 2019 she was a visiting researcher at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute in Germany.

Maria joined the YSA in 2018 and is Vice President since autumn 2019. What she enjoys most about being a member is to collaborate with enthusiastic colleagues and the possibility to turn ideas into action, getting a taste of different fields of responsibility along the way.

If you are further interested in her research, please contact her directly via E-Mail or her LinkedIn profile or visit the website of her working group.

Fabian studied Physics at the Leibniz University of Hannover and gained experience in biomedical imaging device and high-power laser development. After an internship at the Audi AG aeroacoustic and -dynamic development department, he gained a PhD from the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering.

During his doctoral research he explored various applications of multimodal endoscopy for cancer/disease detection at an early stage using diverse imaging technologies – applicable for bladder and colon cancer detection or assessment of pituitary gland and adenoma screening. Currently, he continuous his work as a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering.

If you are further interested in his research contact him or visit his LinkedIn website.

During her Bachelor´s studies Ramona studied Biology at the University of Vienna. As a follow-up, she continued her Master´s studies at the same University and conducted her Master´s thesis at the Institute of Cancer Research in Vienna.

In 2018 she started with her PhD and the work in the group of Prof. Wilfried Ellmeier at the Institute of Immunology. Her research focuses on investigating Histone Deacetylases (HDACs) regulate lymphocytes and lymphocyte-mediated immune responses.

If you are further interested in Ramonas research topic contact her directly or visit the home page of the Ellmeier-Lab.

Anja studied Sports Medical Engineering and Medical Engineering Science in Koblenz and Lübeck (Germany). During her Master's she completed internships in Germany and California.

After graduating in 2019, she started her PhD at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in the group of Tilman Schmoll. Her PhD project focuses on clinical applications of optical coherence tomography in ophthalmology.

For more information about Anjas research topics, please contact her or visit her profile on LinkedIn.

Karina did her Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology and Master's Degree in Biotechnology with a specialization in medical biotechnology at the University of Wroclaw (Poland). During her Master's she completed a research project within the Erasmus program at the Medical University of Vienna.

In 2021, she started her PhD at the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research at the Medical University of Vienna. She works under the supervision of Professor Enikö Kállay in the Tumor Pathology group. She is studying the anticancer effects of vitamin D and its analogs in different cancer models (ovarian and colorectal cancer).

If you are further interested in her research, please contact her directly via E-Mail or her LinkedIn profile or visit the website of her working group.

Nishelle did her Bachelor's degree in Forensic Science at Amity University, Dubai. She pursued her masters in Toxicology at the University of Central Lancashire, England and gained experience in chromatography and spectrometry  devices.  After an internship at the Lancashire Police department of Forensic Toxicology, she is now acquiring a PhD from the Center for Pathophysiology, Immunology and Allergy Research under the supervision of Dr. Prof. Rudolf Valenta

In her doctoral research ,she aims to  construct a PreS carrier vaccine for HDM species Blomia Tropicalis for Chinese population and on component resolved diagnosis between various HDM species.

If you are further interested in Nishelle's research topics, please contact her directly or visit her LinkedIn profile.

Lisa did her Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna. During that period she completed internships in Norway and Germany.

In 2018, she started her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Nicole Boucheron at the Institute of Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna. Her project deals with the effect of a specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor on follicular helper T- cell formation and function.

Within the YSA Lisa is responsible for the website.

For further information about Lisas research, please contact her or visit the home page of the Ellmeier-Lab.

Nikolina did her Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University Josip Juraj Strossmayer of Osijek and a Master's degree in Experimental biology at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. Before and after graduation she gained additional experience as an Erasmus+ trainee at the Medical University of Vienna and as a BioTechMed LabRotation awardee at the Medical University of Graz.

In 2021., she started her new and exciting position as PhD student under the supervision of Assoc.Prof. Mag. Dr. Arvand Haschemi at the Department of Laboratory Medicine.  The main focus of her research is immunometabolism of human intestinal tissue macrophages with an aim of characterizing different macrophage populations and their metabolic signatures signature in health and disease.

If you are further interested in her research, please contact her directly via E-Mail or her LinkedIn profile.