Meet The Team
Sebastian Preissl, PhD
Group leader, Principal Investigator
sebastian.preissl[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I am a deputy professor and group leader at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Freiburg.
I studied pharmacy and received my PhD from University of Freiburg, Germany (Supervisor: Prof. Lutz Hein), where my research focused on DNA methylation in cardiomyocytes in heart development and heart failure.
My postdoctoral research in Prof. Bing Ren’s laboratory at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer, San Diego, centered on 3D chromatin organization and enhancer dynamics in cardiomyocyte differentiation and optimizing single cell epigenomic protocols to profile chromatin accessibility in mouse forebrain development. From 2017-2021, I was the Associate Director for Single Cell Genomics at the UCSD Center for Epigenomics (Director: Bing Ren). Here, my team set up state-of-the-art single cell (epi-)genomics research platforms and standard operating procedures for single cell (epi-)genomic profiling that enabled in depth studies of mouse and human tissues including brain, lung, heart and an atlas of chromatin accessibility across 30 human adult tissues.
The main objective of my lab's research is to dissect epigenomic and gene regulatory programs to understand the molecular basis of human diseases including cardiovascular diseases.
Maren Leibrecht
MD student
Hi, I am a medical student at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg and conduct my doctoral thesis at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Freiburg.
My current research focuses on epigenetic changes in atrial fibrillation.
Rebekka Roth
PhD student
rebekka.roth[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I completed my studies of pharmacy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and wrote my diploma thesis on gene expression changes in cardiomyocytes in atrial fibrillation at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Freiburg.
My doctoral thesis focuses on uncovering cell-type-specific gene regulatory programs associated with atrial fibrillation pathogenesis using single-cell epigenomic technologies.
Birgit Scherer
Technician
birgit.scherer[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I am a research technician in the lab and take care of lab organization, ordering and several molecular biology techniques including genotyping.