Group Leader
LUCA GIORGETTI
After studying Physics, I obtained my PhD with Gioacchino Natoli at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, where I combined physical modeling with quantitative experiments to characterize the inflammatory transcriptional response. I then did my postdoc in Edith Heard’s lab at the Curie Institute in Paris studying chromosome architecture and its role in X chromosome inactivation. In 2015 I started my own lab at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, where we combine wet- and dry-lab approaches to unravel the interplay between chromosome structure and transcriptional regulation.
PhD students
PIA MACH
I grew up in a small village near Cologne in Germany. I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Tübingen. Internships at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge and the Wyss Institute in Boston then sparked my interest in epigenetics. In 2018, I joined the Giorgetti group at the FMI to pursue my PhD in Molecular Biology. I am interested in understanding the dynamical properties of chromosome structure in the nucleus. For this, I employ a live-cell imaging approach in mouse embryonic stem cells. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, meeting friends and of course, swimming in the Rhine in summer. In winter, the alps are always close enough for an occasional skiing trip.
Gergely Tihanyi
I was born in Budapest, Hungary where I completed my Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering. During those years, I performed an internship in genome metabolism and repair, which got me interested in molecular biology. I continued my studies in the Molecular Biosciences Master’s program at Heidelberg University, where I investigated X-chromosome inactivation at EMBL. I joined the Giorgetti lab at the FMI in 2020 as a PhD student, since I am fascinated by the connection between transcriptional regulation and chromosome architecture. In the course of my PhD, I aim to elucidate enhancer-promoter interactions by developing an integrated reporter assay. Outside of the lab, I spend most of my time in the kitchen, as I am an enthusiast cook and a foodie.
Jana Tünnermann
After growing up in a small village in northern Germany, I gradually moved further south for my studies. I studied Biochemistry in Göttingen and Heidelberg (Germany) with stops in Brazil and Finland. I did my Master thesis at the DKFZ in Heidelberg where I studied the possibility of liquid-liquid phase separation forming heterochromatin. During this time, I became fascinated by cellular organization, epigenetics, and microscopy. In my PhD project, I work on enhancer-promoter contacts using live-cell imaging approaches. I hope this work will contribute to a better understanding of the spatial-temporal organization of chromatin.
Julie Cordier
I grew up in the north-east of France and moved to Paris in 2017 to study engineering. I then moved to Stockholm for a joint program between Chimie ParisTech- PSL University (FR) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE). I graduated from both universities in 2021 with master’s degrees in chemical engineering and medical biotechnology. I worked for a year as a research technician at SciLifeLab, Stockholm, where I used CRISPR-derived tools for the functional validation of enhancers. I absolutely loved studying enhancers and got interested in 3D-genome architecture, which is why I joined the Giorgetti lab as a PhD student in 2022. I aim to further investigate how multiple enhancer-promoter combinations affect transcription.
Elena Testoni
I grew up in a small city next to Bologna in Italy. After high school, I then moved to Paris to do my bachelor in Biology and continued with a Master in Genetics at the University of Paris. I’m still experiencing lab work and I’m here to learn! In my free time, if I’m not too tired, I really enjoy hiking and walking around the city.
Nessim Louafi
I grew up in a small village in the south of France close to Montpellier. I got my undergraduate degree in life sciences at the University of Grenoble where I did internships in biochemistry at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA). I then moved to Montpellier for my masters in quantitative biology at the University of Montpellier. During my masters, I got introduced to a variety of quantitative fields in biology such as imaging and image analysis. During that time I have also been introduced to the field of genome architecture and got very passionate by the combination of approaches used in the field. I am currently doing my PhD working on live cell imaging of Cohesin to study loop extrusion. Outside of the lab, you can find me on my road bike when the weather allows it!
Postdoctoral fellows
Pavel Kos
I was born on Sakhalin Island but grew up in a small town near Smolensk, Russia. I obtained Master's and Ph.D. degrees in physics at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. After studying the statistical physics of macromolecules, I became interested in the spatial organization of DNA inside the cell nucleus. I joined the Giorgetti lab in 2019, and now I am working on understanding the principles of chromatin fiber dynamics. Outside of work, you can find me snowboarding in the winter and running along the Rhine in the summer.
Ilya FLyamer
I grew up in Moscow, where I stayed to study Molecular Biology at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. For my final year project, I spent almost a year in Vienna analyzing 3D structure of the genome in mouse oocytes and zygotes. I then moved to Edinburgh for the PhD and a short postdoc afterward, where I focused on how polycomb organizes the genome in 3D in mouse ES cells. I joined the Giorgetti lab end of 2021, and my main interest is how 3D genome structure is regulated, and how it in turn affects gene expression. Outside the lab, I can often be found dancing tango in the evenings if I am not cooking or baking bread. Also, in winter skiing is always a fun option.
Kristina makasheva
After receiving my bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Novosibirsk State University in Russia, I became interested in biochemistry and molecular biology and continued my master's studies at the same university. During my master's program, I investigated how DNA base excision repair enzymes recognize and repair lesions in transcription bubble templates. During those years I also had several internships in the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow and the Gustave Roussy Institute in Paris. Then I moved to Switzerland for my PhD in biophysics at the EPFL in Lausanne. I focused on the development of multiplexed single-molecule imaging techniques to study how chromatin effectors, e.g., transcription factors and Cas9, invade the chromatin in vitro. For my postdoc, I was looking for a lab where I could continue to study transcription and chromatin dynamics, but this time using live cell imaging, which is why I joined the Giorgetti lab in June 2023. I am working on establishing 3 color live cell imaging to reveal how enhancer-promoter dynamics correlate with transcriptional output. In my free time, I enjoy reading, yoga, traveling, and spending time with my family and friends.
Research Associates
Julie Cramard
I did my bachelor’s degree in Bioanalysis at the University of Amiens and my master’s degree in Biotechnologies at the University Paris V. After my studies, I started working as a research associate at the Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK) in a pipeline making human induced pluripotent stem cells. I then spent some time at the Stem Cell Institute (Cambridge, UK) where I discovered the wonderful world of epigenetics. I joined the Giorgetti group in 2017, as a research associate. I mainly provide assistance to projects in the lab requiring genome engineering and molecular biology. Outside the lab, I enjoy baking, puzzling, crafting and hiking. I also like spending time at the Rhine in summer.
Undergraduates
Alumni
PhD students
Josef Redolfi (2015-2020)
Yinxiu Zhan (2015-2020)
Postdoctoral fellows
Jessica Zuin (2016-2023)
Ewa Piskadlo (2018-2022)
Yinxiu Zhan (2020-2022)
Josef Redolfi (2020-2021)
Marco Michalski (2018-2020)
Technical/Research associates
Peter David Cron (2015-2018)
Mariya Kryzhanovska (2017-2021)
Undergraduates
Elena Testoni (2022)
Alexis Cornec (2021)
Simon Gaudin (2021)
Tania Distler (2019)
Camilla Ugolini (2018)
Visiting scientists
Karolina Stepniak (2018-2019)