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.

Olivia joined the lab as technical assistant (TA) mid 2022. She has a broad experience spanning several departments of the University Hospital Cologne. She is well-versed in cell culture and working with DNA, RNA, and novel methods in pathology, neurology, and forensic medicine. She is responsible for the biobank of the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG), improving the lab’s efficiency and keeping everything running.

Michel is a resident in the Department I of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital Cologne. He gained his first scientific experience in the group of Prof. Dr. med. H. Christian Reinhardt (Director of the Department of Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation, University Hospital Essen), working with a mouse model harboring an additional copy of the tumor suppressor gene p21 that was shown to significantly delay carcinogenesis (Torgovnick et. al., Cell Reports, 2019). During his clinical training, he has gained significant experience in the treatment of aggressive B-cell malignancies and is currently principal investigator of several clinical trials in the field. Furthermore, he has been involved in establishing a biobanking program and database for clinical data for all lymphoma patients treated within the Cancer Center Cologne. Since 2020, he is coordinating the center for hematologic neoplasms (certified by the ‘Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft’). In 2022 he has been appointed head of the CNS-lymphoma program. He has been granted a fellowship of the Else-Kröner-Fresenius-Forschungskolleg Cologne under the supervision of Dr. med. Sven Borchmann to study liquid biopsies in aggressive B cell lymphomas with a particular focus on Primary Central Nervous System lymphoma. He is currently working as a postdoc and head of the liquid biopsy team in the lab.

Julia is a resident in the Department I of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital Cologne since January 2022. She gained first research experience especially in statistical analysis working in the Department of Radiooncology on outcome analysis of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer. From the very beginning of her residency, she gained insight into the treatment of patients with B-cell malignancies with a particular focus on cellular and immunotherapeutic approaches. Additionally, she is part of the local lymphoma biobanking program. In 2023, Julia joined the liquid biopsy team of the group and is deciphering patterns of clonal evolution in B-cell lymphomas.

Max is a PhD student and currently leading the multi-specific immune cell retargeting (MUSICER) team in the lab. He spent the first half of 2022 in the lab for his master thesis and quickly won us over through knowledge, technical skill, and his dedication towards solving problems. Accordingly, we were lucky that he accepted our offer for a PhD position after finishing his Master degree in ‘Molecular and Cellular Biotherapies’ at Paris, France. He was born in Germany, raised in the UK and Canada before moving to France. He has a particular interest in developing novel immunotherapeutic approaches to treat lymphomas. His current project is focused on the targeting of novel antigens across lymphomas with multi-specific immune cell retargeting (MUSICER). If not busy in the lab, he serves as a language partner for those lab members who want to improve their French.

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 (Sobesky et. al., Med, 2021). Having started med school, she rejoined the lab as MD student in 2022 and is currently developing a novel targeted gene panel for refined minimal residual disease detection in lymphomas.

Paul is a MD student and currently working on his MD thesis in the MUSICER team. Having announced his interest in cancer, hematology, and specifically immunological aspects of cancer therapy by the end of 2022, he joined the lab in February 2023. After gaining his first wet lab experience, he is now working on the development of novel bispecific antibody constructs for the treatment of lymphomas. Additionally, he is a very talented football player, thus putting pressure on Max status as the lab's top scorer.

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.

Dini holds a Bachelor degree in Bioengineering and is currently seeking to finish her Master degree in Biochemistry. She previously spent some time in the group of PD Dr. med. David Kofler (Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne), which is focused on autoimmune diseases. Fascinated by the human immune system she gained an interest in utilizing its diverse powers for the treatment of cancer. She is currently working in the MUSICER team under Max’ supervision.