Team

Valeska obtained her PhD from the University of Dortmund for the total synthesis and structural elucidation of complex natural products in the field of organic chemistry. During her PostDocs her research focus was expanded by the design, bioconjugation, radiolabelling and in vitro/in vivo evaluation of new radiotracers. She joined our team in 2021 and is currently working on automating the radiolabeling of liposomes. Valeska enjoys to learn from future collaborative projects.

Katharina is a biomedical scientist with a focus on experimental and translational theranostics. She is interested in understanding mechanisms underlying response/non-response to radiopharmaceutical therapy, and aims at improving theranostic approaches and thus, outcomes for cancer patients. Katharina obtained her PhD at the Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy (Georg-Speyer-Haus, Germany). She served as head of the research group Experimental Oncology in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Würzurg (Germany), and of the pre-clinical Nuclear Medicine team at the University of California Los Angeles (USA), before transferring to University Hospital Essen in March 2021.

Verena is a biologist with a background in immunology. She obtained her PhD studying microglial immunology of the eye at the University of Cologne. Since 2022 she is part of our team and focuses on sex-specific differences in tumor glucose metabolism.

Yalcin is a biologist specializing in quantitative image analysis and 3D microscopy and is applying these techniques to theranostics since joining our team in 2023. He received his PhD in 2020 from the Heidelberg University on the filtration barrier of the kidney. As a postdoctoral researcher at DKFZ (NCT-Dresden), Yalcin studied esophageal cancer with the goal of accurately determining the spatial positioning of histopathology samples along the esophagus, which facilitates assessment of the extent of tumor infiltration and understanding clinical target volume (CTV) for radiotherapy.

Lara received her M. Sc. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of Bielefeld focusing on the cytotoxicity of natural killer cells. She joined our group in 2022 as a doctoral researcher and is a member of the GRK 2762 training program. She focuses on exploring a new radioimmunotherapy to target pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Justin is a chemist specialized in physical organic chemistry with interests in computational engineering. He did his PhD at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where he studied rigidly bridged oxo- and thioethers with solid and solution state emission for use in biomedical imaging. Since 2023 he is part of our team and is currently working on radiolabeled nanoreporters.

Natalie completed her training as a biological technical assistant in Marl in 2023 and joined our team later the following year. She supports ongoing projects in preclinical imaging and therapy and the work-up of clinical samples.

Anna completed her training as a biological technical assistant in Marl in 2024 and joined our team later that year. She supports ongoing projects in preclinical imaging and therapy and the work-up of clinical samples.