Team

Claus D. Kuhn, Principal Investigator
Claus is and always has been interested in understanding how RNAs and proteins interact and how these interactions bring about biological function. He is an X-ray crystallographer by training, yet is becoming more and more interested in next-gen sequencing applications to decipher the structures and functions of non-coding RNAs.
Scientific CV

E-mail: claus.kuhn@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-4356

Vlada Gorbovytska, PhD Student
Vlada studied biochemistry in Bielefeld and Bayreuth and decided to enter the mysterious field of enhancer RNAs for her PhD. She is investigating their biological function by combining biochemistry, next-gen sequencing and structural biology.

E-mail: vlada.gorbovytska@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-4391 or -4354

Iana Kim, PhD Student
Iana studied biochemistry in Voronezh and Moscow (Russia) and joined our lab to become an expert in planarian flatworms. Using modern biochemistry paired with next-gen sequencing she investigates why planarian stem cells require a special class of small non-coding RNAs, so-called piRNAs, for their function.

E-mail: iana.kim@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4353 or -4354

Felix Klatt, PhD Student
Felix, a native of Berlin, studied biochemistry in Bayreuth and decided to stay in the Bavarian province to tackle the Mediator kinase module using structural biology techniques.

E-mail: felix.klatt@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4353 or -4354

Silke Spudeit, Lab Technician
Silke, the only Frankonian in the lab, is supporting the scientific endeavors of all lab members. In addition, she is taking care of cell culture and the myriad other organizational tasks that need to be done to keep the lab running.

E-mail: silke.spudeit@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4386 or -4354 

Lisa-Marie Schneider, PhD Student
Lisa is interested in understanding the effect of neuronal enhancer RNAs on promoter-proximal pausing. For her work she combines "old-school" in vitro biochemistry with next-generation sequencing applications and work in zebrafish.

E-mail: lisa-marie.schneider@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4391 or -4354

Anna Liznar, Master Student
Anna is interested to understanding piRNA function in planarians. In particular, she is focussing on trying to understand how piRNAs are involved in mRNA turnover. To achieve her goals she is mainly using computational biology.

E-mail: liznar.anna@web.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4353 or -4354

Sebastian Riedelbauch, Master Student
Sebastian is interested in whether piRNAs have anything to do with innate immunity in planarians. He is using both experimental and computational approaches to tackle this question.

E-mail: sebastian.riedelbauch@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4354 or -4353

Meret Kuck, Bachelor Student
Meret aims to understand the Mediator kinase module from a structural perspective. To that end she uses both X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM.

E-mail: meret.kuck@uni-bayreuth.de
Phone +49 (0)921 / 55-4391 or -4354

Alumni

Robin Weinmann, Master Student

Ezgi June Olgac, Practical Student, Middle East Technical University in Ankara (Turkey)

Franziska Langhammer, Master Student

Melanie Müller, Master Student

Martin Kuric, Master Student