Director
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Nicole Fischer
Nicole Fischer is the director of the Institute for Molecular Virology and Tumorvirology (MVTV).
Learn more about Nicole Fischer .
Upon out of office reply, please reach out to Vanessa van Rahden for all administrative inquiries.
Scientists
Silvia Albertini, PhD
Silvia Albertini joined Nicole Fischer's team as a postdoc in 2019, where she developed the first in vitro model supporting MCPyV infection and persistence in hair-bearing skin organoids. By exploiting this model, she is unraveling the mechanisms behind viral persistence and the events leading to transformation.
Silvia studied biotechnology for her bachelor’s degree and medical biotechnology for her master’s degree at the University of Piemonte Orientale in Novara (Italy). During her master thesis, she investigated the role of the interferon inducible IFI16 protein as DNA sensor and novel restriction factor against viral replication of Human Papillomavirus. She subsequently looked into the crosstalk between host and pathogens in human Papillomavirus and Polyomavirus infection within her PhD thesis.
Dr. rer. nat. Veronika Brinschwitz
Veronika Brinschwitz is a postdoc at the MVTV which she joined in 2018 as a PhD student. Her scientific work focusses on the structural charactarization of the MCPyV tumor antigens thus bridging the gap between molecular and structural virology. Her work is funded by DFG‘s research group FOR5200 Deep-DV .
Veronika studied pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Freiburg (Breisgau) for her bachelor‘s and pharmaceutical biotechnology at the University of Halle (Saale) for her master‘s degree. For her master thesis, she moved to the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (Hamburg) and worked on the expression and purification of the SFTS virus L protein and ist fragments.
Alexis Robitaille, PhD
Alexis Robitaille has been supporting the MVTV team as a postdoc since April 2026. His work focuses on developing in silico methods for analyzing clinical metagenomic samples for pathogen detection.
He received his PhD in Bioinformatics from the Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, France. His research took place in the Infections and Cancer Biology Group (ICB) at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization. He implemented bioinformatic solutions for the detection of novel HPV using Amplicon NGS data. He was also involved in the analysis of genome, transcriptome, epigenome, and protein/DNA interaction data for numerous projects of the groups. Since April 2020, Alexis has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV) in Hamburg.
Alexis studied at the University of Auvergne and the University of Poitiers, France, where he earned degrees in Biology and Bioinformatics and Biology and Computer Sciences (B.Sc.). He then pursued his Master's degree in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France.
Dr. med. Hannes Roggenkamp
Hannes Roggenkamp is a qualified specialist in microbiology, virology and infection epidemiology and part of Nicole Fischer‘s group since 2019.
Hannes' research interests include the development of a kidney-organoid infection model for BKPyV to understand the life cycle, persistence and in particular the pathogenesis of the virus. His work is part of MVTV's DZIF funded projects.
Hannes Roggenkamp studied human medicine at the UKE and started his clinical training at the institute of medical microbiology, virology and hygiene. In his doctoral thesis, he worked on the elucidation of the NAADP signalling pathway at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology (UKE, Guse lab).
Mukundan Shaju, PhD
Mukundan started as a postdoctoral researcher at MVTV in January 2026. As part of CRC 1648 project D02 , he is developing metagenomics software tools to detect novel pathogens based on sequence, structure and gene expression derived patterns.
He completed his PhD in Biology from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, India, where he developed algorithms to query and engineer local neighborhoods of protein structures.
For his integrated 5 Year MSc in Biology, he studied at the National Institute of Science Education and Research Bhubaneswar, India. During his master's thesis, he analyzed the effects of mutations in the auxin-binding protein (ABP1) on the development of Arabidopsis thaliana.
Dr. rer. nat. Ute Westerkamp
Ute Westerkamp is a postdoc at the MVTV which she joined in 2020 as a PhD student.
During her PhD, Ute conducted a comprehensive analysis of extracellular vesicles from virus-positive Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) cells to elucidate their potential functions in MCC development, tumor microenvironment dynamics, and MCPyV infection and persistence. Ute's PhD work was funded by the Landesforschungsförderung, City of Hamburg and was an associated PhD project of the DFG research training group RTG 2771: Humans and Microbes .
Ute received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology from the University of Münster where she studied the activation and recruitment of the nucleation-promoting factor WASH during HPV16 infection during her master thesis (Schelhaas lab).
Doctoral Candidates
Benjamin Harder, M.Sc.
Benjamin Harder is a PhD student at the MVTV.
As part of his PhD thesis, Benjamin is using different kidney organoid models to characterize the antiviral mechanisms of molecular, BKPyV-specific inhibitors in more detail. His work is funded by the DFG as part of the research training group RTG 2771: Humans and Microbes .
Benjamin received his bachelor‘s and master‘s degree from the University of Braunschweig where he worked on establishing and optimizing the Kasumi-3 model to study the impact of bone morphogenic proteins on human cytomegalovirus latency for his master thesis.
Benjamin joined the MVTV team November 2025.
Clara Husser, M.Sc.
Clara Husser is a PhD student at the MVTV.
For her PhD thesis, she is investigating BKPyV life cycle by applying different labeling approaches and characterizing the molecular antiviral mechanisms BKPyV specific inhibitors. Her work is funded by the DFG as part of the research training group RTG 2771: Humans and Microbes .
Clara received her bachelor‘s degree in cell biology and her master‘s degree in immunology from the University of Aix-Marseille (France). For her master thesis, she moved to the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (Sweden, Mirazimi lab) where she worked on increased SARS-CoV-2 infection linked to cell cycle arrest.
Clara joined the MVTV team in 2022.
Tommaso Mari, M.Sc.
Tommaso Mari is a PhD student at the MVTV.
By generating recombinant viruses for proximity labelling experiments at the Leibnitz Institute of Virology (LIV, Brune lab), Hamburg, he contributed to the characterization of the proteome present in the replication compartments of HCMV for his master thesis. During his PhD thesis at the MVTV, he further expands his knowledge of this method by applying an innovative proximity labelling approach to study the Large T antigen interactions with the host proteins during MCPyV infection. His work is funded by the DFG as part of the Graduate School RTG2887: VISION .
As a student of the University of Bologna (Italy), he studied biotechnology for his bachelor’s degree and molecular and cell biology for his master’s degree.
Tommaso joined the MVTV team in 2023.
Vishakha Ramamurthy, M.Sc.
Vishakha Ramamurthy is a PhD student at the MVTV.
Her project explores the interactions and tethering between the host cellular chromatin and Merkel Cell Polyomavirus (MCPyV) genome (mediated by the MCPyV large T antigen), and its implications in MCPyV persistence in the host. Her work is funded by the DFG as part of the Graduate School RTG2887: VISION .
As a student of the PES University (Bengaluru, India), she received her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology and completed her master studies at the University of Bonn where she received her master's degree in Medical Immunosciences and Infection. During her master thesis, she studied the potential involvement of guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) in the antiviral response against poxvirus infections in the human skin.
Vishakha joined the MVTV team October 2025.
Lisann Marie Röpke, M.Sc.
Lisann Marie Röpke is a PhD student at the MVTV since 2024.
Within her PhD work, she uses the skin organoid based MCPyV infection model, established by the MVTV team, to investigate different immune evasion strategies of the virus. Her work is funded by DFG‘s FOR5200 Deep-DV .
Lisann studied medical nutrition science at the University of Lübeck for her bachelor's degree and molecular life sciences at the University of Hamburg for her master's degree. As part of her master's thesis at the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, UKE, she established an auxin-induceble degradation system to control MCPyV oncogene degradation.
She joined Nicole Fischer‘s group in 2022.
Louis Roland Tioka, M.Sc.
Louis Tioka is a PhD student at the MVTV.
His doctoral project aims to develop and utilize advanced human kidney organoids as infection models to assess antiviral compounds, with a focus on opportunistic polyomavirus infections, particularly BK polyomavirus, and their role in kidney disease. His work is embedded in the thematic translational unit "Infection of the Immunocompromised Host" of the DZIF – German Center for Infection Research.
He studied at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Molecular Medicine. His Master's thesis investigated the influence of a Wnt/β-catenin pathway inhibitor on the circadian clock.
Louis has been part of the MVTV team since April 2026.
Master Students
Johanna Gutsmann, B.Sc.
Johanna Gutsmann started her master's thesis within the MVTV team in February 2026. She receives support from Dr. Silvia Albertini within the team.
Johanna is studying human biology at Philipps University of Marburg for her master's degree. She completed her bachelor's degree in in 2024.
Allison Hanf, B.Sc.
Allison Hanf has joined the MVTV team for her master's thesis in October 2025.
Her work focuses on the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) large tumor antigen (LT) and its potential involvement in liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), which Allison investigates using live-cell imaging techniques. She receives support from Dr. Veronika Brinschwitz within the team.
Allison completed her dual Bachelor's degree in Chemistry/Biology at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in 2023. Her Bachelor's thesis, written in the Neurogenetics research group (PD Dr. rer. nat. Anna-Maria Hartmann), focused on "Production of targeted mutations of putative K+ binding sites in KCC2".
Merdisa Hujdur, B.Sc.
Merdisa Hujdur has joined the MVTV team in January 2026, where she completed an internship as part of her Master’s studies. In June 2026, she will continue with her master's thesis, where she uses a skin organoid based infection model to investigate the role of the MCPyV protein ALTO in regulating the innate immune response. She receives support from Lisann Röpke within the team.
Merdisa obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the Leibniz University Hannover in 2024. She conducted her Bachelor’s thesis at the Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, focusing on the actin interaction properties of Myosin-18A and Myosin-18B.
Technical Assistance
Claudia Schmidt
Claudia Schmidt works as a research technician in the MVTV team.
She is responsible for the cell culture of primary cells and stem cells, the general work processes in the laboratory and its administrative management.
Claudia joined Nicole Fischer's team in 2006. She completed her training as a medical technical assistant in Schwerin in 2001 and subsequently started in the diagnostics team of the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene (UKE).
FSJW
Lydia Lenakaki
Lydia Lenakaki joint the MVTV team for her voluntary social year in September 2025.
She supports the team in carrying out general laboratory tasks, while acquiring basic molecular biology techniques such as PCR and DNA minipreparations.
Planning and Coordination
Dr. rer. nat. Vanessa van Rahden
Vanessa van Rahden joined the MVTV team in 2025 as a research project manager. Her tasks range from assisting in the preparation and reporting of grant applications to coordinating tasks within the institute and the FOR5200: Deep-DV , as well as website maintenance, schedule management and event organization.
After her PhD working on the role of the 5-phosphatase OCRL in intracellular trafficking and her PostDoc at the Institute of Human Genetics (UKE) she was engaged in contract research organizations for > 10 years. She headed the service department and validation team executing digital PCR- and NGS-based lab-developed tests. As Principal Investigator she supervised MSD-ECL assay development for pharmacokinetic and immunogenicity assessments during drug development.
Vanessa studied biology at the University of Braunschweig.