Staff

Iris studied Pharmacy from 2006-2011 and received her Master of Science in Molecular Pharmacology from 2011-2013. She received her PhD in Pharmacology in 2016 from the University of Athens. Iris joined the Institute for Vascular Signalling, in the Medical Faculty of the Goethe University as a post-doctoral fellow in 2016 after being granted the European Society of Cardiology research grant. In 2021 she received the Emmy Noether Research grant and was appointed a W1 Professor for Cardiovascular Surveillance within the Excellence Cluster ‘Cardiopulmonary Institute’ at the Medical Faculty of the Goethe University. In 2024 she joined the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University as the Head of the Vascular Dysfunction Department. Her research is focusing on vascular fate decisions and molecular mechanisms that drive endothelial cell transitions.

Ioanna Georgiadou has graduated from the department of International Trade in 2012 in Greece. From 2022 she is a member of Professor Bibli´s Team, first in Frankfurt and now in Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. She is responsible for all administrate issues within the Department of Vascular Dysfunction.

Britta Heckmann completed her apprenticeship as a biology laboratory assistant at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2001, she has gained over 20 years of professional experience at Heidelberg University Hospital. In 2022, she moved to the working group of Prof Bibli. With the move to Mannheim, she started working as a laboratory manager. In addition to her full-time position, she is married and the mother of three children.

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Christina Karantanou graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece with a bachelor in Biology and completed her master studies in 2016 in the subject of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK. During her PhD (2017-2021) at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany she studied the interplay between different cells of the bone marrow microenvironment in the context of blood cancer and gain knowledge in the fields of autophagy, extracellular vesicles and cell to cell communication. In 2022 she joined the lab of Prof. Dr. Bibli where she is studying the mechanisms that control blood and lymphatic vascular fitness in health and disease with focus on mitochondrial function, mitophagy and redox control. 

Cong Xu studied vascular regeneration using the adult zebrafish fin regeneration model during my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster (2010–2014).  He also worked as a postdoc on a project to define the role of innate lymphoid cells in lung fibrosis at University Hospital Erlangen (2020–2023) and on a project to develop bone-targeting recombinant protein to stimulate osteogenesis in vivo at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster (2015–2020). Since 2023, Cong joined Prof. Bibli's group as a postdoctoral fellow with a focus on the metabolic regulation of endothelial cell fates and functions.

Zohaib Kahn completed his PhD in 2018 under a joint program between the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the University of Cambridge, UK. During his postdoctoral time he was involved in multiple projects focused on mapping biochemical alterations in brain tissue and biofluids (CSF, Lymph, plasma) recruited from pre-clinical models as well as in human subjects, relying on metabolomics and proteomics (LC MS/MS - DDA, DIA) platforms. Currently he is investigated metabolite-protein interactions in the context of vascular homeostasis.

Anastasia Kyselova completed her PhD in 2019 from the Medical Faculty of Goethe University. She joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2022 and she is working on the metabolic rewiring of glutamine in endothelial epigenetic control.

PhD Candidates

Janina Wittig received her bachelor of science in Biosciences at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg in 2015. During her master studies in Molecular Medicine at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main she joined the group of Prof. Dr. Bibli and completed her master of science under Prof. Dr. Bibli’s supervision in 2018 investigating the role of hydrogen sulfide-generating enzymes in stem cell metabolism during cardiac differentiation. Thereafter she started her PhD in Prof. Dr. Bibli’s group where she is currently focusing on the flux of carbons from metabolites to specific histone marks which regulates stem cell identity and commitment to the mesodermal lineage.

Maria-Kyriaki Drekolia received an integrated Bachelor's and Master's in Pharmacy from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, she furthered her studies with a Master's thesis in Gene Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined in 2020 the lab of Prof. Bibli at the Goethe University and now in the Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg after receiving a PhD scholarship from Onassis Foundation. She currently focuses on how metabolism impacts endothelial cell fitness and how impaired endothelial cell function impacts on cardiomyocyte function.

Janina Mettner received her B.Sc. in Biosciences from the Fresenius University in 2019. Afterwards she completed her M.Sc. in Molecular Medicine at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main in 2022, where she focused in her Master’s thesis on the signalling pathway of EAT-2+ CD8 T cells in XLP patients at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Currently she focuses on the metabolic regulation of endothelial cells in health and during cell damage response with a special focus on cysteine and glutamine catabolic processes.

Yunyun Chen received her undergraduate degree in Clinical Medicine from Jiujiang College, and her master's degree in Oncology from Xiamen University. During her master's degree, her research interests were mainly in the pathogenesis and treatment of oesophageal squamous carcinoma. She joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2023 and currently she is investigating how folates regulate vascular regeneration through affecting mitochondrial turnover rates and epigenetic marks.

Yali Du received her bachelor degree in Clinical Medicine from Lanzhou University, and her master's degree in Ophthalmology from Tongji medical college of Huazhong University Science and Technology. During her master's degree, her research interests were mainly in the pathogenesis and treatment of eye vascular diseases. She joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2024 with a PhD scholarship from the China Scholarship Council. Currently she is investigating how redoxomic alterations within the mitochondrial compartment impact vascular growth and regeneration.

Yifan Zhu received her Master degree in pharmacy in 2023 from the Guangxi University. Currently is investigating how metabolites decorate tRNAs to alter protein synthesis in the developing vasculature. She is passionate about cell biology under different pathophysiological conditions.

Lavanya Gupta completed her Bachelor’s in Biochemistry Hons in 2018 from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, New Delhi. Afterwards, she completed her Master's from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, in 2023. During her master's, she identified the Estrogen-regulated miRNA network in Human trophoblast invasion process and its correlation with Gestational trophoblast disorders like preeclampsia. She joined Prof Bibli’s lab in 2024 exploring novel cysteinolytic regulators.

Boran Zhang got his undergraduate degree in Clinical Medicine from Hubei Polytechnic University, and his Master’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Basic Medicine investigating Huntington’s Disease (HD) and protein functions. He joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2024 and he is working on the endothelial cell pericyte communication in the regulation of vascular stability.

Sijia Zhang pursued his undergraduate studies in Clinical Medicine at Jianghan University from 2015 to 2020. He then continued his education by undertaking a Master's degree in Oncology at the Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, from 2020 to 2023. During his master's program, his research primarily focused on the role of protein kinase CK2 in tumor immunology, especially concerning the regulatory mechanisms of tumor PD-L1 expression. In 2024, he joined Professor Bibli's research team, where he is focusing on endothelial cell adipocyte communication through cysteine metabolism.

Ting Huang received his bachelor degree in Clinical Medicine from Gannan Medical University, and his master's degree in Cardiology from Fudan University. During his master's degree his research focused on the molecular mechanisms and treatment methods of cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction. He joined Prof. Bibli's lab in 2024 with a PhD scholarship from the China Scholarship Council. Currently he is investigating the metabolic carbon flux to the cardiac epigenome.