Jessica is a PhD student, who joined the liquid biopsy team in the beginning of 2023 after finishing her Master degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences Bonn Rhein-Sieg. She has gained broad knowledge and lab experiences working on microbiology and high-throughput compound screening for Parkinson disease during her studies. By now she is focused on cancer research and is currently working on improving minimal residual disease detection in lymphomas through ctDNA sequencing. Jessica works with great expertise and reliability in the lab, making a significant contribution to the optimal workflow of the lab. She not only contributes to a positive atmosphere with regular treats but also with her supportive attitude.

Julia is a MD student and currently working on her MD thesis in the liquid biopsy team. After training as technical assistant (TA) in the laboratory of molecular and hematologic diagnostics of the department, she was the first TA in the lab, thus literally knowing everything. She was primarily involved in the liquid biopsy projects of our former MD students Sophia Sobesky and Laman Mammadova. Having started med school, she rejoined the lab as MD student in 2022 and has since not only made significant contributions to several projects but is also the mastermind behind the development of LymphoVista - our contemporary ctDNA sequencing platform.

Michel is a consultant in the Department I of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital Cologne. As a specialist in Internal Medicine, Hematology, Oncology, and Intensive Care Medicine, his clinical focus lies at the intersection of hematology, oncology, innovative therapeutic approaches, and toxicities management. He specializes in the treatment of aggressive B-cell malignancies and serves as the Principal Investigator for several clinical trials in this field. Furthermore, he is the head of the CNS lymphoma program and coordinates the Center for Hematological Malignancies (Zentrum für Hämatologische Neoplasien), which is certified by the German Cancer Society (Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft). He acquired his initial research experience in the group of Christian Reinhardt (now Director of the Department of Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation at the University Hospital Essen). Supported by clinician-scientist fellowships from the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung and German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe) under the supervision of Sven Borchmann, he currently leads projects aimed at improving molecular risk stratification for lymphoma patients.

Paul is a clinician scientist in the Department I of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital Cologne. He first joined the laboratory in February 2023 as an MD student, focusing on the development of novel bispecific antibody constructs for the treatment of lymphoma. As a member of the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) he is focused on emerging targets for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.

Sophie is a MD student and currently working on her MD thesis. She started her educational adventures with her physiotherapy training in 2017 and afterwards joined the University of Cologne to study Medicine. Sophie is part of our group since October 2023 and gained her first wet lab experiences. She is currently working in the liquid biopsy team focussing on the improvement of clinical risk stratification and the genetic characterisation of B-cell lymphoma. Sophie is a highly dedicated and valuable member of our team as well as a part-time competitive athlete in a cheerleading team. If not busy in the lab or with training, she is up for any sports and adventures with the other lab members.

Sven is PI of the group and started it in 2020. Sven studied economics in St. Gallen, Switzerland and Perth, Australia from 2006-2011 and medicine in Cologne, Germany from 2009–2015. He completed his doctorate in 2016 in the group of Prof. Elke Pogge von Strandmann. In his doctoral thesis he focused on the development of new bispecific antibody therapies for colon cancer. In 2015 Sven joined the Department of Internal Medicine I at the Cologne University Hospital under the direction of Prof. Michael Hallek. During his clinical training, he worked as a study physician in the German Hodgkin Study Group under the direction of Prof. Andreas Engert and published several papers on clinical issues in Hodgkin lymphoma, including a translational paper on vitamin D deficiency in Hodgkin lymphoma and its effect on chemotherapy efficacy (Borchmann et. al., JCO, 2019). For this research, he has been awarded the Else-Kröner-Fresenius Publication Prize. In 2016, Sven undertook part of his training at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York under the direction of Prof. Anas Younes. From 2017-2019, Sven was a Fellow of the Else Kröner Fresenius Research College Clonal Evolution in Cancer and joined the laboratory of Prof. Ullrich in Cologne, Germany as a postdoctoral researcher. During this time, he focused on the development of combination immunotherapies in various cancer mouse models, which have been difficult to treat with conventional immunotherapeutic approaches. In the last few years, Sven has developed a keen interest in liquid biopsies and particularly the analysis of ctDNA and made it a focus of the lab’s work. The laboratory’s current research agenda in this area includes developing new algorithms to detect minimal residual disease in lymphoma and predicting outcome with dynamic response modeling. Sven currently serves as the program director of the Hodgkin lymphoma MRD consortium.