Shab Mohammadi

Shab joined our team in January 2022 after successfully completing an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Nebraska and University of Hamburg. Shab’s research focuses on understanding how novel protein functions (e.g., resistance to toxins) evolve. Her research covers genomic evolution (in silico), molecular function (in vitro), and whole organism physiology (in vivo).

Shrikant Pradhan

Shrikant completed his PhD in cancer genetics at the University of Delhi in 2015 and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina, USA. Shrikant is researching the evolution of target site insensitivity in predators of prey that are defended with cardiotonic steroids.

Alfonso (Poncho) Aceves-Aparicio

Poncho joined our team in July 2021. He is interested in the evolution of animal adaptations to the habitats they live in. For his PhD research at Macquarie University and the University of Hamburg he focused on the adaptations of spiders for capture of prey and avoidance of predators. In our team he is researching the antipredator benefits of masquerade in the field, and the information ecology that predators and prey do (or don’t) use about masquerade.

Francesca Protti- Sánchez

Francesca completed her Masters degree in Biology at the University of Costa Rica where she studied aposematism in the poison frog Phyllobates vittatus (Dendrobatidae). She was awarded an IMPRS fellowship in September 2019 and joined the lab in January 2020. Francesca is researching how receiver psychology shapes the evolution of effective warning signals. Francesca is co-supervised by Uwe Mayer, University of Trento.

Elisa Elstermann

Elisa completed her Masters thesis on the isolation and structural elucidation of secondary metabolites from Amigozanthos sp in 2021 at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. She joined our team in October 2021 and is researching the cardenolides produced by Asclepias plants. Elisa is co-supervised by NMR group leader Christian Paetz.

Kati Bartold

Kati joined our group in November 2020 as a Technical assistant. She is a joint member with the NMR Group.