We are a team of international scientists working to answer open questions in the fields of evolutionary biology of aging and microbiome research.
senior scientist
Kathrin Reichwald manages the Valenzano lab, from animal licences, to group coordination and support of scientific projects.
research engineer
Farzana Shamim-Schulze is currently setting up the microbiome lab, where she will isolate, culture and genetically engineer killifish-derived microbes for our aging and microbiome research focus.
lab techs
Ivonne Heinze is supporting projects revolving around genomics, molecular cloning, and general lab organization.
guest scientists
Allen Mavuru is a field ecologist interested in using eDNA technology to study species conservation and trace species interactions in natural habitats. Allen is currently based in the molecular field lab in the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.
student interns
Jhanya Baskaran studies the trans-generational effects of male reproductive aging in the naturally short-lived turquoise killifish.
Lorenzo Pessi studies the impact of heterochronic microbiome transplantation on gut microbiome diversity in turquoise killifish. As a side project, Lorenzo studies immune system aging across immune organs in turquoise killifish.
Leonhard Kuhlmann studies the evolutionary basis of brain aging in killifishes. For this project, Leo uses histology and biochemistry to characterize hallmarks of brain aging in a genetic cross.
postdocs
Dennis de Bakker studies the genetic causes of naturally-occurring neurodegeneration in African killifishes using genomics, genome editing, histology and experimental anti-aging interventions.
Silvia Cattelan studies male reproductive aging in turquoise killifish. Silvia is an experimental biologists performing experiments in captive killifish cohorts.
Alina Ryabova studies immune aging in killifish. Alina is an experimental biologists, using omics technologies to understand co-evolution between gut microbiome and immune system during aging.
Flavio Costa is a microbiologist and his work unravels the interaction between the gut microbiome and aging in turquoise killifish.
Alessandro Del Re is a pharmacologist and his work is aimed at finding microbial mediators of host systemic health.
graduate students
Jens Seidel is interested at the interplay between immune aging and microbiome composition in killifish and mice. He develops molecular methods to study how the host immune system shapes the commensal microbiome. Jens’ work involves molecular biology, genome editing and genomics.
Gabriele Morabito works at the interface between genome instability and immune aging - he studies genome evolution and immune system-microbiome crosstalk during aging.
Martin Bagic develops numerical models of genome evolution, exploring how demography and ecology shape the evolution of the genetic variants that cause aging across species in nature.
Sam Kean studies how microbiota establish themselves, persist and change in composition throughout host life. Sam’s work involves fieldwork, genomics, bioinformatics and microbiology.