Group Members

Joachim Weischenfeldt

Professor, group leader, started Oct 2015

• Profile: Joachim did his PhD at BRIC with Prof Porse followed by postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Jan Korbel at EMBL, Heidelberg.

  The interest of the lab spans different aspects of cancer genomics. A focus area is larger structural variants in cancer, their emergence and functional consequences on chromatin organisation and how the evolve during tumour evolution

• About/Fun fact: Joachim is an avid coffee drinker, sometimes alternating with cola, and has an impressive stash of empty coke cans. So you may enjoy refreshment during Liverpool or Danish national team football games in his cinema size screen at his office. When on retreat, watch out and be prepared for his round of science karaoke.

Francesco Favero

Assistant professor, started in 2016

• Profile: Francesco did his PhD in Zoltan Szallasi group at DTU in Kongens Lyngby. After a brief adventure in the Biotech industry he started in the Weischenfeldt group in 2016. Francesco's expertise is analysis of somatic copy numbers and intratumour heterogeneity, and his research focus is on complex structural variants and the multiple aspects of cancer driver discovery
• About/Fun fact: Francesco enjoys to automise processes and make pipelines. He has three children, two based on DNA and one based mostly on C++, R and python (pype, his pipeline). He is painstakingly thorough and cares for little details as much as his 1000 animals, sometimes the wrong details.

Francisco Germán Rodriguez Gonzalez

Staff scientist, started 2016

• Profile: Germán has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Gran Canaria, Spain. Afterward, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Medical Oncology Department at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam under the supervision of John Foekens and John Martens. He is a staff scientist in the Weischenfeldt group, with expertises in different sequencing-based methods and he mentors students in the lab.
• About/Fun fact: Hungry news reader, Germán is constantly updated on what happens around the world and is open to discussing almost everything. He loves music. When he's alone in the lab doing almost a day long experiments, he turns the volume up to the maximum, and you can listen to all kinds of musical styles, from latin rhythms to heavy metal. Proud of his Canary heritage, he always brings Ambrosías Tirma, exquisite wafers, for his colleagues and he never has lunch before 13 pm.

Jakob Schmidt Jespersen

Staft scientist, started 2019

• Profile: Jakob has a MSc degree in Molecular Biomedicine from University of Copenhagen and obtained his PhD degree in 2017 from Centre for Medical Parasitology (UCPH) studying malaria parasite virulence gene variation, expression, and association with disease severity, supervised by prof. Thor G Theander and Thomas Lavstsen. He joined the Program for Translational Hematology (BRIC – UCPH) in 2017 as a lab-based staff scientist responsible for implementing and running assays for genomic characterization (e.g. WGS, panel seq, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq) of patient samples for research of myeloid leukemia development. Based in the Weischenfeldt lab since 2019. Jakob's main scientific interest is sequencing-based omics methodology, especially in their application on identifying mutations and processes at play in clonal evolution and cancer development.
• About/Fun fact: Passionate about sustainability and possessing a healthy appetite he produces a steady supply of sturdy homemade ryebread for his lunch box (and that of his kids) and prepares the sandwiches as meticulously as his experiments, never skipping a detail just like he never skips a healthy carrot snack.

Enrichetta Mileti

Post Doc, started 2021

• Profile: Enrichetta has a master’s degree in bioinformatics and did her master’s thesis at Stockholm University. She joined Carsten Daub’s lab at Karolinska Institute as a PhD student to study the role of gene regulation in human adipose tissue. She then moved to the Weischenfedt group in 2021. Her main interests are identifying the effects of oncogenic enhancers on the expression of cancer genes in brain tumours and how the 3D genome organisation affects enhancer-promoter contacts, leading to disruption of transcriptional programmes.
• About/Fun fact: gets a package from Italy every few months to keep the Italian roots alive, not scared of Scandinavian winter since she already suffered few years in Sweden

Evdoxia “Effie” Karadoulama

Post Doc, started 2020

• Profile: Effie did her PhD with Prof Jensen at the institute for Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University and Prof Sandelin at the Bioinformatics Center, Copenhagen University. Prior to this she did a bachelor’s in mathematics, at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, followed by a master’s in bioinformatics, at Copenhagen University. She is interested in applying computational methods to understand molecular biology and she is now focusing on cancer evolution. Her main interest is to decipher the spatial organisation and origin of prostate cancer at single cell resolution.
• About/Fun fact: Effie is an admirer of the growing process especially when it comes to her plants, children, sourdough and knitting works. She likes everything tidied up and she has constantly unlimited home projects lined up. When her family is sleeping (or sometimes awake) she enjoys a glass of wine, playing the piano and singing. Not a single day passes by without some delicious Greek olive oil, feta cheese and yogurt.

Josephine Deleuran Hendriksen

Post doc (since 2022), started 2016

• Profile: Josephine studied molecular biomedicine at University of Copenhagen and completed her PhD in the lab in September 2022, in which she studied glioblastoma tumours using single-cell RNA-sequencing. She focuses on the tumour evolution on a single cell level, and how the tumour microenvironment affects the disease progression. Prior to her PhD Josephine studied Molecular Biomedicine at University of Copenhagen.
• About/Fun fact: Josephine loves singing in choir every week, and she is the proud winner of a years supply of cereal.

Miglè Mikutenaite

PhD student since 2020, started 2018

• Profile: Miglė has started her PhD in 2018 and her project is aimed to study the tumour microenvironment and spatial tumour heterogeneity in prostate cancers using single cell techniques. In addition, she is passionate about exploring 3D chromatin architecture, and is also working on Hi-C methodologies for FFPE tissues. Miglė has a MSc in Molecular Medicine from Uppsala University, before she studied Genetics at Vilnius University.
• About/Fun fact: Miglė has a great interest in art, fashion, design and nature and can spot beauty in anything. She always sees something else living in UMAP plots and considers herself as a creative person. Miglė is a master packer and can travel anywhere with a small backpack. Definitely a cat person.

Etsehiwot “Essi” Girum Girma

PhD student since december 2020, started 2017

• Profile: ssi has a Msc in bioinformatics from University of Tampere, Finland. She started working as research assistance in the lab in 2017. In 2020 she started her PhD focused on the developing and applying methods to infer the clonal evolution of cancers specially in prostate cancer and AML. She is interested in identifying common and distinct patterns of clonal evolution by applying mathematical concepts and computational methodologies that utilize genome sequencing data from paired tumor samples.
• About/Fun fact: She somehow manages to work on so many projects at once and keep it organised and, judging from the silky-smooth chocolate cake she brought, she must be a great cook

Alessio Locallo

PhD Student, start 2020

• Profile: Alessio is a computational biologists with a MSc in Quantitative and Computational Biology from the University of Trento, Italy. He enrolled as a PhD student in 2019 in the group as part of a Marie-Curie program. His project aims to reconstruct the tumour evolution trajectories of glioblastoma patients, by applying and developing novel computational approaches. Understanding how glioblastoma evolves and resists treatments is crucial to provide better targeted therapies within the precision medicine context.
• About/Fun fact: He can talk for hours about how genome alignment works. He is a foodie who makes very Italian pesto out of 361 basil leafs. Loves when you break the spaghetti into tiny pieces. Long-term GNU/Linux user, he struggles every time he has to use a different operating system.

Eduardo Dias

PhD Student, start 2019

• Profile: Eduardo has a Master’s degree in Technological and Comparative Molecular Genetics, Portugal. During his undergrad work, he got exposed to both clinical genetic and basic research. His basic training is in molecular biology, and he is increasing using computational methods to investigate the 3D chromatin architecture and the impact of chromosomal alterations in pediatric brain tumors using chromosome conformation capture assays.
• About/Fun fact: Besides his obsessive-compulsive disorder that becomes visible when surrounded by a disorganized environment, the love of his life is and will always be his football club (he is from the city of Porto, btw :)

Maya Jeje Schuang Lü

MD PhD Student, started 2022

• Profile: Maya is a medical doctor from University of Copenhagen and finished first year residency as a medical oncologist before starting as a PhD student in February 2022. Her PhD project is about using drug screening on short-term cultured neurospheres grown from fresh glioblastoma primary tumour tissue to find individualized treatment for patients and to use single cell RNA sequencing to understand the resistance mechanisms of glioblastoma better.
• About/Fun fact: Maya is a highly skilled and enthusiastic badminton player (greatest sport in the world - or at least in Denmark). She plays badminton more than 4 hours on average per week! In general she focuses a lot on being healthy and, like Jakob, she will almost always bring her own lunch consisting of a lot of rye bread.

Balthasar Schlotmann

PhD Student, started 2022

• Profile: Balthasar studied Molecular Biomedicine in Bonn before doing his Masters in Bioinformatics at the University of Copenhagen, giving him a solid background in both, programming and biology. After some time as research assistant he started his PhD in the Weischenfeldt group in 2022. Balthasar is interested in germline genetics of cancer and his PhD project investigates the relationship between germline and somatic variants.
• About/Fun fact: Balthasar is not just using servers at work, but he also uses Archlinux at home on his personal computer and he makes a stand against the corrupting influence of US tech companies by using almost exclusively free software. When he is not in front of his home or office PC, he likes to sing in Copenhagens karaoke bars.

Daria Kiriy

PhD Student, started 2022

• Profile: Daria is a medical doctor, with a keen interest in cancer and bioinformatics. She started her biomedical career unconventionally as a bioinformatician with a job in the industry in a company specialising in precision medicine in cancer. Daria is interested in applying and developing computational tools to identify mechanisms of tumour evolution and drug resistance.
• About/Fun fact: Daria is an absolute coffee lover and can annoy you with discussion about best brewing techniques. She has a swimming qualification together with fear of depths. She once started her own lab coat and scrubs clothing line, because she couldn't find a decent one in her city.

Korbinian Schelzig

PhD Student, started 2023

• Profile: Korbinian did his MSc in Cancer Biology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. Prior to his masters, he did his BSc at Heidelberg University and before that was trained as a biotechnical technician in Friedrichshafen. His PhD project combines wetlab and computational analysis to study SVs using chromatin technologies from cancer patients.
• About/Fun fact: Korbinian has a great interest in any sports where you chase a ball (Beach volleyball, Tennis, Football, …) or involves any kind of board (Snowboard, Kitesurf, … ). He always cooks too much and brings the leftovers in a big box the next day.

André Vidas Olsen

PhD and short-term post doc in Weischenfeldt Lab from 2018 to 2024 studying complex SVs.
Role: PhD student/Post doc

Manuela Montes Gomez

Role: Master student from summer 2022 to summer 2023

Finnja Hendrike Becker

Role: Master student from winter 2022 to early 2023

Pascal Lafrenz

In the Weischenfeldt Lab from autmn 2021 to early spring 2022
Role: Erasmus student

Nikos Sidiropoulos

In the Weischenfeldt Lab from 2015 to 2021, now bioinformatician scientist at Novo Nordisk
Role: PhD and short-term Postdoc

Aidan Flynn

In the Weischenfeldt Lab 2017 - 2020, now Bioinformatician at The Rare Disease Oncogenomics Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia
Role: post doc

Apurva Gopisetty

In the Weischenfeldt Lab 2017 to 2018, now a PhD student at DKFZ, Heidelberg
Role: MSc student