Associated Professorships
Prof. Dr. Maria Rosenthal
Maria Rosenthal is a W3 professor appointed jointly by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), and is supported by the Leibniz Women Professorship Program . Since June 2026, she is leading the “Structural Virology” research group at the BNITM; large parts of her lab will be relocated to the Center for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) on the DESY campus in the near future. At the same time, her team works closely with the Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (ITMP). She holds a Ph.D. in virology and biochemistry from the University of Bremen. Her research focuses on the molecular investigation of viral genome replication and protein production in rare and tropical viruses with high epidemic potential, and on the development of antiviral strategies based on these findings. Among other methods, her team uses cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), reverse genetics, and virology (including work with pathogens at the highest biosafety levels), biophysical interaction analyses, and assay development for high-throughput formats to investigate the architecture and function of macromolecular viral complexes and to identify small molecules capable of inhibiting specific functions. Through various collaborative projects, she also investigates protein-protein interaction networks, employs mass spectrometry techniques, and utilizes computational and AI-based analyses to shed light on essential host factors and the interplay of the different components involved in viral replication. Prior to her current position, she was a BMBF Junior Research Group Leader and a postdoc at BNITM, and episodes as a visiting scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble. She is a co-organizer of the regular international Bunyavirus Meeting and a member of the German Society for Virology. She is also involved in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center “Emerging Viral Infections” ( CRC1648 ) and the VISION Graduate School ( GRK2887 ).
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Prof. Dr. Maya Topf
Maya Topf is a W3 Professor jointly appointed by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV). Since October 2020, she has led the research group “Integrative Virology” at the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) on the DESY campus in Bahrenfeld. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on developing integrative modelling methods that combine data from techniques such as cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) and structural mass spectrometry (MS) with computational approaches to study the architecture of large macromolecular complexes, particularly viruses. Her team also analyzes protein–protein interaction networks, employs AI-driven predictions to generate and refine structural models, and designs targeted experiments to validate these predictions. A key focus is on resolving viral–host interaction interfaces critical for infection mechanisms, using hybrid structural data to overcome the resolution limitations of individual techniques. Prior to her current role, she was Professor of Structural and Computational Biology at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology at Birkbeck/UCL, University of London, where she began as a Career Development Fellow of the Medical Research Council in 2006. Earlier in her career, she held postdoctoral positions at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Australian National University. Her team is actively involved in international community challenges and initiatives such as CASP (Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction), where she is one of the organizers, and CCP-EM (Collaborative Computational Project for Electron Microscopy), for which she serves as Chair. Since 2024, she has also served as Deputy Research Director at the Leibniz Institute of Virology and co-speaker of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre on Emerging Viral Infections ( CRC1648 ).
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