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Meet The Team
Sebastian Preissl, PhD
Univ.-Professor, Head of the Department Pharmacology and Toxicology
sebastian.preissl[at]uni-graz.at
sebastian.preissl[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I am a Professor and Head of the Department Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of Graz. I am also a 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 postdoc 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 single cell epigenomic profiling of 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 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 and kidney diseases.
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Claudia Domisch
Technician
claudia.domisch[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I am a research technician in the lab. I support several projects by generating sequencing libraries for different bulk/single cell sequencing assays including RNA-Seq and ATAC-seq and by performing spatial transcriptomics experiments.
Luis Hortells, DVM, PhD
Instructor
luis.hortells[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I am an instructor/senior scientist at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Freiburg.
I am originally from Aragón, and I got my Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and my PhD in the University of Zaragoza. During my PhD I studied the role of hyperphosphatemia in the development of medial vascular calcification in the context of chronic kidney disease.
Afterwards I did a brief but productive postdoc in the University of Pittsburgh (PA, USA), where I studied non-canonical roles of telomerase in the development of cardiac valve calcification. Then, I expend several years as a postdoctoral associate in the Heart Institute of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (OH, USA). There, I had a great time working in a combined project of Prof. Katherine Yutzey and Prof Jeffery Molkentin, where we characterized different populations of cardiac fibroblasts, and investigated their role in postnatal heart maturation. It was in that project, when by analyzing transcriptomic profiles of Postn+ fibroblast, I found what would become my driving force and passion in research: cardiac glial cells and their role in development, aging and disease.
Most recently, I moved to Freiburg to continue studying the intracardiac nervous system by using cutting edge imaging techniques, next generation sequencing, hiPCS co-culture systems, and genetically modified mouse models.
Maren Leibrecht
MD student​
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Hi, I am a medical student at the 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 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 cardiovascular disease using single-cell epigenomic technologies.
Eliza Sassu
Master student
eliza.sassu[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I completed my bachelor's degree in Molecular Medicine at the University of Freiburg and wrote my thesis on the aging process of the intracardiac nervous system. My current studies are focused on cardiac reprogramming as part of my master's degree in Molecular Medicine.
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.
Samuel Wald
PhD student
samuel.wald[at]pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de
Hi, I’ve studied pharmacy at the University of Tübingen. I am currently working on my diploma thesis at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Freiburg.
My research focuses on dissection of epigenetic processes underlying perinatal and postnatal adaptations of skin macrophages.
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