Team Renkawitz Lab

(October 2024, from left to right: Mauricio, Nelly Janina, Madeleine, Jörg, Kasia, Haohan)

(June 2024, from left to right: Petra, Jörg, Johanna, Benjamin, Mauricio, Madeleine, Janina, Rifat)

Sarah D`Annunzio. Sarah studied Health Biology at the University of Padua (Italy). Before starting her PhD, she participated in the Erasmus Program as a research trainee at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, where she continued her undergraduate work on the genetics of pituitary tumors. In 2018, Sarah began her PhD in Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Trento (Italy) in the lab of Prof. Alessio Zippo, investigating how chromatin perturbations alter nuclear mechano-responsiveness to external physical forces in the context of the genetic disorder Kabuki Syndrome. Since 2025, Sarah has been a member of the Renkawitz lab, where she studies how chromatin rearrangements during confined leukocyte migration influence immune cell function and their ability to overcome physical obstacles. For this project, she was awarded the Humboldt Research Fellowship.

Mauricio Ruiz. Mauricio studied Molecular Biotechnology and Biochemistry at the Technical University Munich (TUM). During his master he employed intestinal organoids for oncology research during a research stay at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. In his master thesis at the Schmidt-Supprian lab (TranslaTUM) he developed sequential and inducible gene editing strategies. Mauricio joined the Renkawitz lab and the IRTG 914 graduate program for his PhD in 2019, where he is investigating cell shape coordination of migrating immune cells. He also joined the DFG-funded Priority Programme SPP2332 Physics of Parasitism to study the mechanobiology of Toxoplasma gondii dissemination by immune cells.

Astrid Schuster, Paula Stengel, Yuchan Lee. Astrid, Paula and Yuchan are studying medicine at the LMU Munich. In March 2026 they joined the lab to pursue their medical doctoral theses. They are part of the Medical Faculty’s “Funding Program for Research and Teaching (FöFoLe)“. Astrid and Paula are investigating the dynamics of neutrophil granulocytes in different microenvironments while Yuchan’s research focuses on the role of mitochondria in dendritic cell migration.

Maik Späthling. Maik studied Biochemistry in Tübingen before moving to Munich to pursue his Master’s degree in Biochemistry at LMU Munich. During his studies, his interest in cell biology steadily grew, leading him to join the Renkawitz Lab. His research focuses on understanding how a functional cytoskeleton drives cellular motility and shapes dynamic cell behavior.

Kasia Stefanowski. Lab technician

Haohan Zhang. Haohan studied biology at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. During his undergraduate and master's research, he investigated the cAMP pathway in Dictyostelium and identified factors regulating amoeboid migration and aggregation. He later contributed to developing a novel CRISPR knockout method for Dictyostelium during an internship at EMBL Heidelberg. In 2024, he joined the Renkawitz lab with a DAAD scholarship for his PhD. His primary research interest is uncovering the mechanisms maintaining centrosome integrity during cell migration.

Jörg Renkawitz. Jörg studied biochemistry at the LMU Munich and the TU Munich, with research stays at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, the Gene Center, the ETH Zurich and the NIH-US National Cancer Institute. For his PhD research, he investigated the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair in the lab of Stefan Jentsch at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry. In 2014, he joined the lab of Michael Sixt at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria in Vienna for his postdoctoral research to study the principles of cellular navigation through three-dimensional micro-environments. In 2018, Jörg has been awarded with the endowed Peter Hans Hofschneider Professorship for Molecular Medicine (Foundation Experimental Medicine) and established his independent research group at the Biomedical Center Munich. Jörg’s research has further been awarded and supported by the Life Science Award Austria in Basic Research, the Junior Research Award of the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, the EMBO LTF postdoctoral fellowship, the ISTFELLOW postdoctoral fellowship and the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation (BIF) PhD fellowship.

Meet us at these international conferences

Upcoming:

Multiscale Mechanobiology. York, UK, 2027.

Cytomeet. Bern, Switzerland, 2027.

Cell la Vie, French Society for Cell Biology. Paris, France, 2026.

EMBO EMBL Symposium "Microtubules: from atoms to complex Systems". Heidelberg, Germany, 2026.

BioCity Symposium. Turku, Finland, 2026.

Past (past 4 years):

Vascular Immunology. Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2026.

Meeting of the Study Group Dendritic Cells. Waischenfeld, Germany, 2026.

Mechanobiology of the Nucleus. Melbourne, Florida, US, 2025.

Emerging Trends in the Physics of Cells. TU Munich, Germany, 2025.

CellMech 2025. 10th Biennial European Cell Mechanics Meeting. Leuven, Belgium, 2025.

EMBO Cell polarity and membrane dynamics. San Feliu de Guixols, Spain, 2025.

EMBO Immunobiophysics: From fundamental physics to understanding the immune response. Les Houches, France, 2025.

Interact Symposium for Early-Career Researchers. Munich, Germany, 2025.

DGFI Spring School on Immunology. Ettal, Germany, 2025.

BIOENG24 Bioengineering, Biomedicine, & Biomedical AI. Helmholtz Munich, Germany, 2024.

6th Warwick Quantitative Biomedicine Symposium "Nuclear Mechanobiology and Chromatin Dynamics". Warwick, UK, 2023.

EMBO Centrosomes in development, disease and evolution. Istanbul, Türkiye, 2023.

EMBO Cell polarity and membrane dynamics. San Feliu de Guixols, Spain, 2023.

Interact Symposium for Early-Career Researchers. Munich, Germany, 2023.

DGFI Spring School on Immunology. Ettal, Germany, 2023.

Gordon Research Conference "Directed Cell Migration". Galveston, US, 2023.

Abercrombie Meeting. Oxford, UK, 2022.

EMBO I EMBL Symposium: Mechanobiology in Development and Disease. Heidelberg, Germany, 2022.

Alumni Team Members

Senior Scientists / PostDocs

Petra Kameritsch. Petra joined our lab from 2018 to 2022 as a senior postdoc ('Privatdozent') to establish custom-made micro engineered assays to study macropinocytosis and cell migration. She is now a researcher in the lab of Prof. Andreas Dendorfer (Walter Brendel Center for Experimental Medicine, LMU Munich). During her time in our lab, Petra contributed to the review article Kameritsch & Renkawitz, Trends in Cell Biology 2020 and to the primary manuscripts Braun et al, ResearchSquare preprint 2024 and Schmitt et al, Science Advances 2025.

PhD Students

Janina Kroll. Janina joined us from 2019 to 2026 to perform her PhD and postdoctoral research on the principles of nuclear positioning and nuclear mechanobiology during immune cell biology. During her time in our lab, Janina first-authored the primary and review publications Kroll et al, EMBO Reports 2024, Kroll et al, EMBO Journal 2023, and Kroll et al, Current Protocols 2022. Further, she constributed to Renkawitz et al, Nucleus 2026, Schmitt et al, Science Advances 2025, and Ishikawa-Ankerhold et al, Cells 2022.

Madeleine Schmitt. Madeleine joined us from 2019 to 2025 to perform her PhD research on centrosomal integrity during rapid immune cell motility. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Florian Gärtner. During her time in our lab, Madeleine first-authored the manuscript Schmitt et al, Science Advances 2025, and contributed to Braun et al, ResearchSquare preprint 2024, Clausen et al, European Journal of Immunology 2022, and Holtkamp et al, Nature Immunology 2021.

Malte Benjamin Braun. Benjamin joined us from 2019 to 2024 to perform his PhD research on how extracellular fluid uptake by macropinocytosis is modulated by the local cellular microenvironment. Now, he works at Bio-Rad. During his time in our lab, Benjamin first-authored the manuscript Braun et al, ResearchSquare preprint 2024 and contributed the methods protocol Kroll, Ruiz, Braun et al, Current Protocols 2022.

Master Thesis Students

Maria Schickert. Maria joined us in 2024 for a research internship and her master thesis (Biology, LMU Munich) to perform research on organelle positioning during immune cell migration.

Gamze Naz Öztan. Gamze joined us in 2022 for her master thesis (Biology, LMU Munich) to perform research on centrosomes during immune cell migration. She is now at 2NA FISH. During her time in our lab, Gamze contributed to the to the manuscript Schmitt et al, Science Advances 2025.

Bingzhi Wang. Bingzhi joined us in 2021/22 for an internship and for his master thesis (Biochemistry, LMU Munich) to perform research the hijacking of immune cells by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Bingzhi is now doctoral researcher with Dr. Andre Stiel (Helmholtz Center Munich). During his time in our lab, Bingzhi contributed to the to the manuscript Ruiz-Fernandez et al, bioRxiv preprint 2026.

Rifat Ara Reza. Rifat joined us in 2020/21 for her master thesis (Biology, LMU Munich) to perform research on the mechanisms of macropinocytosis by immune cells. She is now doctoral researcher with Prof. Nicolai Siegel, Biomedical Center, LMU Munich. During her time in our lab, Rifat contributed to the protocol guideline article Clausen et al, European Journal of Immunology 2022 and to the manuscript Braun et al, ResearchSquare preprint 2024.

Medical Doctoral Thesis Students

Nelly Gotting. Nelly is studying human medicine at LMU Munich. She joined us in 2024/2025 to perform her doctoral research on how neutrophils behaviour is regulated by microenvironmental confinement.

Johanna Schmid. Johanna is studying human medicine at LMU Munich and joined us in 2023/2024 to perform her doctoral research. She investigated how neutrophils are influenced by the microenvironment. During her time in our lab, Johanna contributed to the to the manuscript Schmitt et al, Science Advances 2025.

Artur Kuznetcov. Artur joined us in 2022/2023 as a dent. med. student to perform his doctoral research on the mechanisms of immune cell migration. During his time in our lab, Artur contributed to the research articles Kroll et al, EMBO J 2023 and Ruiz-Fernandez et al, bioRxiv preprint 2026.

Internship Students

Rüya Aslan. Rüya joined us in 2025 for a research internship during her master course (Biology, LMU Munich). During her time in our lab, Rüya contributed to the to the manuscript Ruiz-Fernandez et al, bioRxiv preprint 2026.

Nil Karaarslan. Nil joined us in 2025 for a research internship during her master courses (Lyon, Claude Bernard University, Master in Molecular and Cell Biology).

Florian Leymarie. Florian joined us in 2021 for an internship during his Master Immunology (University of Paris).

Monika Hermann. Monika joined us in 2020 for an internship during her Master Biochemistry (Gene Center, LMU Munich). She is now doctoral researcher with Prof. Peter Murray (MPI of Biochemistry, IMPRS). During her time in our lab, Monika contributed to the research article Kroll et al, EMBO J 2023.

Maximilian Götz. Max joined us in 2019 for an internship during his Master Biochemistry (Gene Center, LMU Munich). He is now doctoral researcher with Prof. Julian Stingele (Gene Center, LMU Munich).

Guest Visiting Researchers

Michaela Mayr. Michaela from Hesso Farhan's lab (Innsbruck, Austria) joined us in 2026 for a short collaborative research visit.

Samantha Roesch. Samantha from Christoph Schneider's lab (Zurich, Switzerland) joined us in 2024 for a short collaborative research visit.

Meng Pan. Meng from Kay Oliver Schink's lab (Oslo, Norway) joined us in 2023 for a 2-weeks collaborative research visit.