MEMBERS
Research Group Leader
Project Coordinator
Dr. Finni Häußler
Finni grew up in the north of Germany. She
helps with the administrative organisation
for both groups. Furthermore,
Finni is responsible for the plant breeding and
reproduction. She will also help with
upcoming experiments.
+49 (0) 89 2180 74091
Postdoc
Dr. José Campoy
José Campoy comes from the south of Spain.
His main focus is to decipher the basis of
bud dormancy in temperate-fruit trees
tinkering with spontaneous-mutants, single-
cell sequencing, meristematic layers and
computational genetics. His work is funded
by the programme Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Individual Fellowships.
Postdoc
Dr. Manish Goel
Manish is from India and his primary research
focus is to develop novel computational
methods for comparing genome structures.
He is also interested in studying meiotic
recombination and making corresponding
predictive models.
PhD Student
Dr. Xiao Dong
Xiao Dong comes from China. Her research interest is
to investigate and understand the spectrum and
mechanism of mutation in plant genome. Her work
focuses on the analysis of variance in mutation
accumulation lines of Arabidopsis thaliana (Col-0)
which have been infected by pathogens.
Postdoc
Dr. Hequan Sun
Hequan Sun comes from China. His research
interests are mainly in developing
computational methods by integrating next
generation sequencing and genetics, as well
as understanding the origin of mutations
(e.g., in meristematic layers) during genome
evolution using computational techniques.
Postdoc
Dr. Sergio Tusso
Sergio comes from Colombia. He is interested in
speciation genomics in diverse study systems, and in
general ecological and molecular factors resulting in
population divergence. His work focuses on
comparative genomics, experimental evolution, and
inference of molecular recombination from single
cell sequencing.
PhD Student
Vidya Oruganti
Vidya is interested in the immediate effects of
polyploidization on the genome specifically
focusing on the analysis of neopolyploid
mutation accumulation lines that have been
unexpectedly generated from backcrossing
Arabidopsis suecica with Arabidopsis thaliana
(Col-0), as well as on methods to study the
mutations in these lines at different levels.
Technician
Birgit Walkemeier
Birgit comes from Germany. She works part-time
for the group in Cologne. With her strong knowledge in
different molecular methods she is a strong and
essential support for the group.
Postdoc (to be)
Raúl Wijfjes
Raúl’s main research interest lies in developing
strategies to link genomic and phenotypic variation
between different species of the Brassicaceae family.
While his first name suggests him to be of Spanish
origin, he actually hails from the Netherlands.
Master Student
Lisa Correa Baus
Lisa comes from Ecquador. She is doing her master in
„Molecular and Cellular Biology“ at the LMU. During her
bioinformatic courses she gained a deeper insight into
NGS and brought her to Cologne to do her
master thesis.
Alumni
Mathieu Piednoel (Customer Agent Service, Cologne, Germany)
Geo Velikakkam James (Group Leader, Rijk Zwaan, plant breeder, The Netherlands)
Maria Cartolano (Postdoc, Univ of Cologne, Germany)
Vimal Rawat (Data Scientist, BASF, Germany)
Vipul Patel (Data Scientist, Göttingen, Germany)
Xue Dong (Postdoc, Kunming Univ, China)
Benjamin Hartwig (Founder of Neuroblitz, Germany)
Eva-Maria Willing (Bioinformatician, HpH Institut für Hämatopathologie, Hamburg, Germany)
Jonas Klasen (Data Scientist, Moia, Hamburg, Germany)
Karl Nordström (Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, Univ. des Saarlandes, Germany)
Maria Cartolano (Postdoc, Uniklinik Köln, Germany)
Rafa Campos (Bioinformatics Scientist, Uniklinik Köln, Germany)
Wen-Biao (Postdoc, China)
Kristin Krause (Inside Sales Account Manager, Illumina, Köln/Bonn, Germany)
Visitors
Erik Wijnker (Postdoc, Wageningen University, The Netherlands)
Luis Zapata (Postdoc, The Institut of Cancer Research, London, UK)
Andreas Madlung (Professor at University of Puget Sound, Seattle, US)