Team
Akhtar Lab
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, your Master’s thesis, or a postdoctoral research project? Send your CV and a letter outlining your experience and interests to akhtarassistant@ie-freiburg.mpg.de. If you are interested in a PhD position in the Akhtar Lab, please apply through the IMPRS graduate school.
Group Leader Asifa Akhtar
Asifa Akhtar obtained her Bachelor degree in Biology at University College London (UCL), UK, in 1993 and her PhD 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 Institute, 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)
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Alums of the Akhtar Lab
| Name | Time Frame | Former Position | Current Position | Current Affiliation | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taipale, Mikko | 09/2001 — 10/2005* | — | Professor | Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomedical Research, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto | Lab |
| Buscaino, Alessia | 10/2001 — 10/2005* | PhD Student | Professor and Group Leader | Quadram Institute of Bioscience | Lab |
| Suyama, Ritsuko | 01/2007 — 10/2009* | Postdoc | Assistant Professor | Germline Biology Group, Integrated Biology Laboratories, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University | — |
| Lucci, Jacopo | 08/2007 — 12/2013* | Postdoc | Chief Scientific Officer | Bios-therapy, Physiological Systems for Health | Website |
| Chlamydas, Sarantis | 11/2007 — 01/2015* | Postdoc | Global Scientific Director | Global Scientific Director, Olink Proteomics, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific | |
| Stehle, Thomas | 07/2009 — 06/2025 | Technical Assistant | Retired | — | — |
| Conrad, Thomas | 10/2009 — 08/2012 | PhD Student | Team Leader Single Cell Technologies | Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine | |
| Hallacli, Erinc | 10/2009 — 01/2014 | PhD Student, Postdoc | Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Junior Group Leader | Max Perutz Labs/Medical University of Vienna | Lab |
| Lingg, Thomas | 10/2009 — 09/2014 | PhD Student, Postdoc | — | — | — |
| Lam, Ken | 10/2009 — 09/2018 | PhD Student | Senior Scientist | Arena Bioworks | |
| Ilik, Ibrahim Avsar | 10/2009 — 12/2018 | Postdoc | Postdoc | Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics | — |
| Schmidl, Linda | 01/2011 — 12/2019 | Administrative Assistant | Administrative Officer | Stadtverwaltung Kehl | Website |
| Dündar, Friederike | 05/2011 — 12/2014 | PhD Student | BioPharma Strategy Consultant | Catenion | |
| Toscano, Sarah | 10/2011 — 10/2017 | Postdoc | Regulatory Affairs Specialist, CH Team Lead and Global Project Coordinator | Product Life Group | |
| Herquel, Benjamin | 05/2012 — 06/2017 | Postdoc | Technical Service Scientist | Biomonitoring | Millipore S.A.S. | — |
| Semplicio, Giuseppe | 10/2012 — 11/2018 | PhD Student | Scientific Account Manager and Project Lead | Genedata AG | |
| Aktas, Tugce | 11/2012 — 11/2018 | Postdoc | Max Planck Research Group Leader | Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics | Lab |
| Karpiuk, Oleksandra | 03/2013 — 10/2014 | Postdoc | Project Manager/Scientist | Core Facility Genomics University Hospital Tübingen | |
| Dasmeh, Pouria | 07/2013 — 10/2014 | Postdoc | Group Leader | Center for Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Marburg University | Lab |
| Sheikh, Bilal | 07/2014 — 07/2022 | — | Group Leader | Helmholtz Munich | — |
| Kühn, Annika | 09/2014 — 08/2021 | — | — | — | — |
| Bhardwaj, Vivek | 10/2014 — 05/2019 | PhD Student | Assistant Professor | Institute of Biodynamics and Biocomplexity, Utrecht University | |
| Hmadi, Raed | 10/2014 — 02/2022 | PhD Student | — | — | |
| Pessoa Rodrigues, Cecilia | 09/2015 — 12/2021 | PhD Student | Junior Group Leader | Institute of Human Biology, Roche | Lab |
| Renschler-Göttelmann, Gina | 09/2016 — 12/2020 | PhD Student | — | — | — |
| Gautier, Richard | 11/2017 — 09/2019 | Postdoc | Research Project Manager | Anses Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort Laboratory, Swine Virology Innovation and Genomics Unit, Anses | Linktree |
| Sun, Yidan | 07/2017 — 12/2024 | Project Leader | Assistant Professor | Washington University in St. Louis | Lab |
| Chen, Hui-Ru | 09/2017 — 08/2024 | PhD Student | Postdoc | Weill Cornell Medicine/Hospital for Special Surgery | |
| Zhou, Yilong | 10/2018 — 12/2024 | Postdoc | Assistant Professor | Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore | Lab |
| Förtsch, Arion | 05/2020 – 06/2026 | PhD Student | Bioinformatician | ETH Zurich and Functional Genomics Center Zurich | — |
| Pimentel, Jerónimo | 06/2020 — 03/2021 | Postdoc | Product Manager | — |
* Until 2009, the Akhtar Lab was part of EMBL, Heidelberg and not located at the MPI-IE.