Akhtar Lab, 2022

Team

Lab Akhtar

Interested in joining the Akhtar lab? 

Are you a highly motivated scientist with an interest in epigenetic research and would like to join the Akhtar lab for a summer internship, Master’s thesis or postdoctoral research project? Send your CV and letter outlining your experience and interests to . If you are interested in a PhD position in the Akhtar lab, please apply through the IMPRS-IEM graduate school.

Group Leader Asifa Akhtar

Asifa Akhtar obtained her Bachelor degree in Biology at University College London (UCL), UK, in 1993 and her Ph.D. in 1997 at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, studying transcriptional regulation in Richard Treisman’s laboratory. She continued in the field of chromatin regulation as a postdoctoral fellow in Peter Becker’s laboratory at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany, and the Adolf Butenandt Institute, Munich, Germany. 

In 2001, Asifa Akhtar became group leader at EMBL. In 2009, she moved her laboratory to the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany (MPI-IE). In 2013, she was appointed Director at the MPI-IE, heading the department of chromatin regulation. Asifa Akhtar received the European Life Science Organization (ELSO) award for significant contribution in the field in 2008 and was elected as an EMBO member in 2013. In 2017, she was awarded the Wilhelm Feldberg Prize for outstanding contribution in the field. She has been awarded the Leibniz Prize 2021 for her cell biological work on the mechanisms of epigenetic gene regulation.

She serves as evaluator for many research and funding organizations (e.g. MPG, DFG, EU), editor of well-recognized scientific journals (e.g. eLife, PLoS Genetics, Journal of Cell Science) and actively participates in several local and international research consortia (e.g. CRC746, CRC992 MEDEP, CRC1140 KIDGEM, CRC1381, FP7 network EpiGeneSys).

Qualifications and history

  • 1971 Born in Karachi, Pakistan
  • 1990-1993 Undergraduate studies in Biology at University College London, UK
  • 1993-1997 PhD studies at Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, UK
  • 1997-2000 Postdoctoral fellow at EMBL, Heidelberg and the Adolf-Butenandt-Institut, Munich, Germany
  • 2001-2009 Group Leader at EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany
  • Since 2009 Head of the Laboratory of Chromatin Regulation, Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany
  • Since 2013 Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany
  • Since 2020 Vice President of Max Planck Society (Biological and Medical Section)

Team

Name
+49 761 5108-
Akbas, Mehmet Eray
PhD Student
  • 693
Akhtar, Asifa
Group Leader
Alexiadis, Anastasios
Postdoc
  • 583
Chen, Hui-Ru (Elsa)
Postdoc
  • 691
Erdogdu, Niyazi Umut
Postdoc
  • 692
Förtsch, Arion
PhD Student
  • 693
Ganter, Kerstin
Technical Assistant
  • 707
Ghosh, Anuraag
PhD Student
  • 583
Grzadzielewska, Iga
PhD Student
  • 696
Guhathakurta, Sukanya
Postdoc
  • 692
Hirsch, Naama
Postdoc
  • 704
Holz, Herbert
Technical Assistant
  • 695
Jäcklein, Karin
Technical Assistant
  • 706
Kapoor, Ankita
Postdoc
  • 545
Karayol, Remzi
Postdoc
  • 514
Kulkarni, Tanvi Sandeep
PhD Student
  • 691
Martinez Greene, Juan Alfonso
PhD Student
  • 695
Mueller, Kimberly
Administrative Assistant
  • 564
Mungenast, Leonie
Student Assistant
  • 567
  • 693
  • 704
Namasivayam, Anoja
Student Assistant
  • 514
Oellers, Ronald
PhD Student
  • 798
Schreyeck, Gabriel
Student Assistant
  • 514
Seyfferth, Janine
Technical Assistant
  • 706
  • 707
Shvedunova, Maria
Project Leader
  • 545
Stawiarska, Wiktoria
Student Assistant
  • 514
Stehle, Thomas
Technical Assistant
  • 514
Sun, Yidan
Project Leader
  • 568
Tripathy, Bhabesh Kumar
PhD Student
  • 696
Wiese, Meike
Postdoc
  • 694
Xing, Ming
Postdoc
  • 692
  • 707
Zhao, Yuling
PhD Student
  • 704
Zhou, Yilong
Postdoc
  • 696
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