Group
Who we are: Personal development and scientific discovery rely on curiosity, creativity, and multiple perspectives. As a team we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where people from all backgrounds thrive, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or country of origin. We value and foster collaboration within and outside our group, and we welcome multiple approaches and points of view.
Lida Holowatyj-den Toom
Sekretariat/Administrative assistant working Thursdays 8am - 5pm
D1.065, Tel. 77383, sofch[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de
Violeta Vetsova
Model complexes for REE-Methanoldehydrogenase Enzymes, PhD Student (since December 2018)
Violeta studied for a Masters Degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at the LMU with emphasis on inroganic and organic chemistry. She prepared her Bachelor Thesis in organic chemistry the group of Prof. Paul Knochel and presviously was an intern at Bayer in Wuppertal and in our group. She continued her PhD with us after completing her Masters Thesis on Model complexes for REE-Methanoldehydrogenase Enzymes.
Email: violeta.vetsova[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de, Lab D3.061, Phone: 77475
Helena Singer
Biochemistry of the Lanthanides and Actinides. PhD Student (since January 2019).
Helena studied for a Masters Degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at the LMU with emphasis on inorganic and physical chemistry. She prepared her Bachelor Thesis in inorganic chemistry the group of Prof. Dirk Johrendt and presviously was an intern with Prof. Bein and Prof. Kornath and well as in the group of Dr. Zwickenpflug at the Walther-Straub-Institute. She is currenty pursuing her PhD with us after completing her Masters Thesis in the working group of Dr. Steinritz at the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxikology, German armed forces. She is also working on the MZL Project: Vernetzes Curriculum Biologie/Chemie.
Email: helena.singer[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de, Lab: D3.062, Phone: 77476 and 77846, F4.041
Tri Phi
Biochemistry of the Lanthanides. PhD Student (since October 2019).
Tri continued his Master’s studies at the LMU after receiving his B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biochemistry there. With majors in biochemistry and organic chemistry, he conducted lab rotation with Thomas Carell (LMU), Thorsten Bach (TU Munich) and Dieter Edbauer (DZNE), covering topics of epigenetics, neurodegenerative diseases and total synthesis. For his master’s thesis he hopped the pond and joined the lab of Prof. Chris Chang at the University of California, Berkeley working on novel amino acid-specific bioconjugation reactions. Outside the lab, he is a member of the student initiative btS e.V. and organizes local network events and workshops to give life science students an early insight into industry. Moreover, he enjoys browsing the world wide web for cat gifs and dank memes.
Email: Tri.phi[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de, Lab: D3.062, Phone: 77476 and 77846, F4.041
Sophie Gutenthaler-Tietze
Synthesis and characterization of bioinspired lanthanide chelators (PhD Student since April 2020)
Sophie studied for a master’s degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at the LMU Munich after completing her bachelor’s degree (B.Sc.) in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the same university. She prepared her bachelor thesis in the group of Prof. Klüfers and was a research intern in the groups of Dr. Schredelseker at the Walther Straub Institute, Prof. Trapp at the LMU and Prof. Duhme-Klair at the University of York. Before starting her PhD with us, she prepared her master thesis in our group working on bioinspired lanthanide chelators.
Lab D2.062, Phone: 77418/77423 and 77846, F4.041
sophie.gutenthaler[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de
Annika Menke
Investigations of Fe(IV)=O complex reactivity against synthetic nucleobases (PhD Student since April 2020)
Annika studied for a master’s degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at the LMU Munich with emphasis on inorganic and organic chemistry after completing her bachelor’s degree (B.Sc.) in a transnational chemistry program (Regio Chimica) at the Albert-Ludwig university of Freiburg and université de l’Haute Alsace Mulhouse. She prepared her bachelor thesis in the group of Prof. Weber and was a research intern in the groups of Prof. Newman at the university of Ottawa, Prof. Carell at the LMU and in our group. Before starting her PhD with us, she prepared her master thesis in our group working on complex formation of cisplatin with 5-methylcytosine.
Lab D3.061, Phone: 77475
annika.menke[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de
Rachel Janßen
Investigations of Fe(IV)=O reactivity in epigenetics (PhD Student since May 2020)
Lab D3.061, Phone: 77475
rachel.janssen[@]cup.uni-muenchen.de
Rachel studied for a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry (B.Sc.) at the LMU Munich and subsequently completed her master‘s degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at the LMU with emphasis on organic and inorganic chemistry. She prepared her Bachelor thesis in the group of Prof. Klüfers and was a research intern in the group of Prof. Knochel and our group. Before starting her PhD with us, she prepared her master thesis in our group working on the synthesis of pyrroloquinoline quinone derivatives as model complexes.
Ioana Ciubotaru
MDH Biomimetics PhD Student
Ioana completed her bachelor’s (B.Sc.) and master’s (M.Sc.) studies in chemistry at the University of Heidelberg with the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She completed her bachelor thesis in inorganic chemistry with the group of PD Dr. Ballmann and internships in the groups of Prof. Gade, Prof. Mastalerz, Prof. Dreuw and PD Dr. Behrens (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). After joining our group for her master’s thesis exploring new ligand platforms for PQQ-based MDH biomimetics, she started her PhD with us and continues to work on lanthanide-MDH biomimetics.
Lab D3.061, Phone: 77475
iocich"at"cup.uni-muenchen.de
Doreen Reuter
Iron Biomimetics PhD Student (at HHU)
Doreen studied for a Master’s degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at Harvard University, Boston in collaboration with LMU Munich, where she worked on antitumor agents. She majored in organic and inorganic chemistry after having received her Bachelor’s degree (B.Sc.) in Chemistry and Biochemistry at LMU Munich. She did her Bachelor’s thesis in the research group of Prof. Dr. Franz Bracher at the Department of Pharmacy at LMU Munich. Doreen has performed internships in the research group of Prof. Dr. Oliver Trapp and in our group and was an intern in the working group of Dr. Simone Rothmiller at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the German Armed Forces. Doreen takes up on her internship in our group by further exploring biomimetic and fully synthetic iron(IV)-oxo complexes in her PhD thesis.
Michael Mertens
PhD Student
Michael received his bachelor´s degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry (B.Sc.) from the LMU, where he subsequently earned his master´s degree (M.Sc.), majoring in organic and inorganic chemistry. He prepared his Bachelor thesis in the group of Prof. Karaghiosoff and was a research intern in the group of Dr. Thorn-Seshold and at the Wacker Consortium in Munich. Prior to his PhD, he completed his master´s thesis in our group, which focused on the synthesis of biomimetic copper complexes.
Lab: D3.062, Phone: 77476 mimech"@"cup.lmu.de
Philippe de Bary
PhD Student
Philippe completed his bachelor´s (B.Sc.) and master´s (M.Sc.) studies in chemistry at the university of Heidelberg. Philippe performed internships in the groups of Prof. Krämer, Prof. Hashmi, Prof. Dahint and in a cooperation of Prof. Comba and Jun.-Prof. Thomas. His master thesis, in the group of Prof. Comba, was focused on synthesis of Patellamid-derivates and the influence of different stereoisomerism on their resulting copper(II)-complexes. The focus of his PhD in our group will be on development of bio-inspired recycling of f-elements.
Email: Philippe.deBary [ @ ] cup.uni-muenchen.de, Lab: D2.062, Tel.: 77423
Kora Holschbach
PhD Student
Kora received her integrated master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry (M.Sc.). During her studies, she interned in the group of Prof. Hulme (UoE) on an RSC stipend where she focussed on the synthesis of a novel cyclophilin ligand, and gained industrial experience by working for the In Silico Research Department (Merck) in Darmstadt. Prior to her PhD, she completed her master thesis in the group of Prof. Sieber (TUM) which focussed on azaphilones and their covalent reactivity with lysine residues in bacterial proteome. In our group, she will study the biochemistry of Fe-αKG-dependent enzymes.
Email: korhoch [ @ ] cup.uni-muenchen.de
Alexandra Bork
Postdoc (at HHU)
Alexandra studied for a Bachelor (B.Sc.) and Masters Degree in Biochemistry (M.Sc.) at Goethe University in Frankfurt with emphasis on membrane proteins and protein biochemistry and continued her PhD at HHU Düsseldorf on structural and functional studies on the Ca2+ dependent K+ channel AKT1 from A. thaliana and its interacting proteins in the lab of Prof. Dr. Lutz Schmitt.
Timm Baranski
Master student (at HHU)
Timm started his studies for his Bachelor's degree (B.Sc.) at the HHU in Düsseldorf. There he received his Bachelor's degree with focus on inorganic chemistry in the group of Prof. Frank and investigated new synthesis routes for tin(II)trifluorinacetate. Subsequently joining our group for his Master’s thesis exploring photocatalytic reoxidation of biomimetic iron(IV)-oxo complexes.
Lab. HHU 26.42.01.41 tibar102[@]hhu.de
Laura Naumann
Master Student visiting from Heidelberg University
Laura received her Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Heidelberg University, where she conducted her Bachelor's thesis research on 2D materials under the supervision of Prof. Backes. She subsequently began her Master's program at Heidelberg, including internships with Prof. Krämer, Prof. Mastalerz und Prof. Selhuber-Unkel. Her research interests lie at the intersection of chemistry and biology, and she is now doing her Master's thesis with us on bioinspired complexes.
Alishbah Maqsood
Student Assistant
Clarissa Sonnemann
ACF Intern
Hannah Goerlach
ACF-Intern
Jost Goormann
Bachelor Student/Hiwi (LMU/HHU)
Sophie Falkai
Student Assistant
Remy aka Puriflash XS
Cherished Labmember that runs our columns...
Labpets
Neons, shrimps and snails (since April 2016)
Alumni
Dr. Niko Lindlar, geb. Jonasson
Niko studied for a Masters Degree in Chemistry (M.Sc.) at the University of Heidelberg and conducted his research for his master thesis in our laboratory in collaboration with the Comba group. He did his Bachelor thesis in the group of Prof. Gade and previously conducted research internships at the university of Innsbruck and Harvard university. He successfully defended his PhD thesis in November 2021 and was a postdoc with us until August 2022.
Dr. Henning Widmann, geb. Lumpe
Synthetic Models for REE-Methanoldehydrogenase Enzymes, (PhD Student June 2016 - December 2019, Postdoc January 2020 - September 2020)
Henning started his studies back in 2009 through participating in the Bachelor program of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the LMU Munich. He prepared his bachelor thesis in the group of Prof. Dr. Dirk Trauner. After seven months of “work & travel“ in New Zealand, he continued his studies and started the Master’s program of the LMU in October 2013. He prepared his Master Thesis In the group of Prof. Dr. Paul Knochel and finished his studies in March 2016 by obtaining the Master’s Degree in chemistry.
Dr. Berenice Jahn
Mechanistic Studies of REE-Dependent Methanoldehydrogenase, PhD Student (January 2017 - August 2020)
In 2009 Bere started her undergraduate studies in chemistry and biochemistry at the LMU Munich. She prepared her bachelor thesis in nanochemistry in the group of Prof. Dr. Bettina Lotsch. During 2014 she did an internship abroad in the group of Prof. Dr. Jenny Martin at the UQ in Australia (structural biology). In 2016 she prepared her master thesis in cell biology in the group of Prof. Dr. Angelika Vollmar and finished her postgraduate studies in August 2016 by obtaining the Master´s degree in Biochemistry.