Staff

Iris studied Pharmacy from 2006-2011 and received her Master of Science in Molecular Pharmacology from 2011-2013. She received her PhD in Pharmacology in 2016 from the University of Athens. Iris joined the Institute for Vascular Signalling, in the Medical Faculty of the Goethe University as a post-doctoral fellow in 2016 after being granted the European Society of Cardiology research grant. In 2021 she received the Emmy Noether Research grant and was appointed a W1 Professor for Cardiovascular Surveillance within the Excellence Cluster ‘Cardiopulmonary Institute’ at the Medical Faculty of the Goethe University. In 2024 she joined the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University as the Head of the Vascular Dysfunction Department. Her research is focusing on vascular fate decisions and molecular mechanisms that drive endothelial cell transitions.

Ioanna Georgiadou has graduated from the department of International Trade in 2012 in Greece. From 2022 she is a member of Professor Bibli´s Team, first in Frankfurt and now in Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. She is responsible for all administrate issues within the Department of Vascular Dysfunction.

Britta Heckmann completed her apprenticeship as a biology laboratory assistant at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2001, she has gained over 20 years of professional experience at Heidelberg University Hospital. In 2022, she moved to the working group of Prof Bibli. With the move to Mannheim, she started working as a laboratory manager. In addition to her full-time position, she is married and the mother of three children.

Natalie Klinger completed her apprenticeship as a biology laboratory assistant at Heidelberg University. Since 2020, she has gained six years of professional experience at Heidelberg University Hospital. In 2025, she joined the working group of Prof. Bibli.

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Fredy Delgado Lagos studied Biochemistry at the Universidad Austral de Chile (2005–2010) and obtained his professional title with distinction in 2014. He later held research assistant positions in Valdivia, focusing on molecular biology and CRISPR-Cas vector design. In 2015, he commenced his PhD in Vascular Biology at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he investigated the role of SMOC1 in inflammation resolution and platelet function using molecular, in vivo, and multi-omics approaches. From 2021 to 2024, continued his research at Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Ingrid Fleming, studying SMOC1 in cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases while developing bioinformatics pipelines for bulk and single-cell transcriptomics. Since January 2025, he has been a member of the Vascular Dysfunction group at the European Center for Angioscience (ECAS), University Medical Center Mannheim. His current projects focus on diet-induced transgenerational effects and endothelial cell ageing, employing large-scale omics and integrative bioinformatics to uncover mechanisms of vascular dysfunction.

Tamara Flohr studied Molecular Cell Biology and received her Bachelor and Master of Science degree at the university of Kaiserslautern. She completed her PhD in the department of Cell Biology at the same university, where she investigated how the localization of mitochondrial proteins within mitochondrial subcompartments changes under conditions of mitochondrial stress caused by energy depletion. In 2025, she joined the lab of Prof. Dr. Bibli where she is studying mechanisms that maintain endothelial cell fitness by focusing on mitochondrial function and the regulation of mitophagy.

Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo graduated with a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, Brazil (2011-2015). He completed his PhD in Pharmacology at the State University of Campinas, Brazil (2015-2020), which included one year of training at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany (2018-2019). He served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo and the Biobank for Aging Studies (2021-2025), where he investigated the association between neuropathological lesions of dementia and alcohol consumption. In 2025, he joined the lab of Prof. Dr. Bibli, where his research centers on the metabolic rewiring of amino acids in endothelial epigenetic control.

Christian Koch completed his PhD at the University of Kaiserslautern in 2023. During his time as a Phd student in the department of Cell Biology he worked on interorganellar communication and its involvement in the biogenesis of mitochondrial proteins. In 2024 he joined the lab of Prof. Dr. Bibli where he is currently trying to understand how local metabolic processes, e.g. processes taking place within specific organelles, lead to epigenetic modifications in the form of acetylated histone tails.

Anastasia Kyselova completed her PhD in 2019 from the Medical Faculty of Goethe University. She joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2022 and she is working on the metabolic rewiring of glutamine in endothelial epigenetic control.

Huihui Li earned both her MD and PhD from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in 2024. That same year, she became a licensed Cardiovascular Physician in China. Her doctoral work investigated the pathogenesis of inflammatory cardiomyopathy. In January 2026, she joined Professor BIBLI’s research group to explore how endothelial injury and metabolic reprogramming drive cardiac immune regulation.

PhD Candidates

Yunyun Chen received her undergraduate degree in Clinical Medicine from Jiujiang College, and her master's degree in Oncology from Xiamen University. During her master's degree, her research interests were mainly in the pathogenesis and treatment of oesophageal squamous carcinoma. She joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2023 and currently she is investigating how folates regulate vascular regeneration through affecting mitochondrial turnover rates and epigenetic marks.

Maria-Kyriaki Drekolia received an integrated Bachelor's and Master's in Pharmacy from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, she furthered her studies with a Master's thesis in Gene Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined in 2020 the lab of Prof. Bibli at the Goethe University and now in the Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg after receiving a PhD scholarship from Onassis Foundation. She currently focuses on how metabolism impacts endothelial cell fitness and how impaired endothelial cell function impacts on cardiomyocyte function.

Zehao Lin obtained his bachelor’s degree in Clinical Medicine with a minor in Finance from Xi’an Jiaotong University, and his master’s degree in Internal Medicine from the same institution. During his master’s and doctoral training, his research has focused on the role of metabolites in cardiovascular diseases, with particular interest in vascular biology, inflammation, aging, and regeneration. He is consistently passionate about both scientific research and clinical medicine, and aspires to become a clinician-scientist.

Ioannis Theodorou graduated at the top of his class with an integrated Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Pharmacy from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He completed his master’s thesis at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, where he investigated the role of endogenous H₂S in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). He joined the Department as an intern in 2024, and since May 2025, he has been pursuing his PhD under Prof. Dr. Sofia-Iris Bibli, investigating the mechanisms controlling cysteine metabolism and mapping the spatial organization of H₂S-producing enzymes in endothelial cells across different metabolic states and during aging.

Janina Wittig received her bachelor of science in Biosciences at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg in 2015. During her master studies in Molecular Medicine at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main she joined the group of Prof. Dr. Bibli and completed her master of science under Prof. Dr. Bibli’s supervision in 2018 investigating the role of hydrogen sulfide-generating enzymes in stem cell metabolism during cardiac differentiation. Thereafter she started her PhD in Prof. Dr. Bibli’s group where she is currently focusing on the flux of carbons from metabolites to specific histone marks which regulates stem cell identity and commitment to the mesodermal lineage.

Ran Xu completed her undergraduate studies in Clinical Medicine at Ningbo University between 2013–2018, where her research focused primarily on the reparative role of stem cells. From 2018 to 2021, she pursued her Master’s degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tongji University, China. Her graduate research investigated the impact of clinical surgical procedures on reproductive capacity. In 2021, Ran Xu joined a top-tier hospital in China as a resident physician, where she carried out fundamental clinical diagnostic and therapeutic work. In 2024, she became part of Prof. Dr. Bibli’s lab, where her research focuses on the role of amino acid metabolism in stem cell fate determination.

Boran Zhang got his undergraduate degree in Clinical Medicine from Hubei Polytechnic University, and his Master’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Basic Medicine investigating Huntington’s Disease (HD) and protein functions. He joined Prof. Bibli’s lab in 2024 and he is working on the endothelial cell pericyte communication in the regulation of vascular stability.