Team Biology

Prof. Dr. phil. nat. Katia Monastyrskaya

Group Leader

Prof. Dr. med. Fiona C. Burkhard

Group Leader

Dr. Ali Hashemi Gheinani

Senior Research Associate
Group Leader

Michelle von Siebenthal

PHD Student

From 2011-2017 Michelle completed the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Health Science and Technology with specialization in Neuroscience at ETH Zurich. Following a technician position at the Department of Neuroscience, University of Fribourg, she started her PhD studies in Cell Biology in the Functional Urology Group, University of Bern, in 2018. Michelle has developed innovative methodology for urodynamic examination in live unanesthetized mice, in agreement with the 3R principles of animal experimentation. She has also established protocols for EMG measurements of urethral sphincter activity in mice. Her PhD thesis dealing with the mouse models of bladder outlet obstruction and spinal cord injury-induced neurogenic LUTD is well underway.

Akshay

PhD student

Akshay is a dedicated bioinformatician with a strong academic background and a passion for deciphering complex biological data. His expertise lies in software development, Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), and analyzing various omics datasets, including bulk/scRNA-Seq, scATAC-Seq, Spatial Transcriptomics, and more.
With a Bachelor's degree in Bioinformatics from Panjab University, India, and a Master's degree in Bioinformatics from the University of Saarland, Germany, Akshay is currently pursuing a PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His research focuses on understanding molecular drivers of bladder remodeling in Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction (LUTD) through integrated analysis of omics data from patient biopsies and animal models, using advanced statistical and ML methods.
In addition to his research, Akshay has contributed to the field by developing various bioinformatics tools, such as Mlme, MLcps, SpheroScan, ShinyMultiome.UiO and ShinyArchr.UiO reflecting his commitment to advancing scientific research.
His current focus involves employing state-of-the-art bioinformatics and ML/DL techniques for multi-omics data integration to identify potential LUTD biomarkers.

Chaimae Bahou

PHD Student

Chaimae earned a Master's degree in Life Sciences Engineering with a specialization in cellular and molecular biology in 2023, and a Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences Engineering in 2020, both from EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. She has experience working as a full-time trainee at AC Immune in Switzerland, where she collaborated with chemists and various teams to profile SME compounds based on their in vitro ADME properties. She also worked as a full-time intern at the Laboratory of Professor Hilal A. Lashuel, where she developed and characterized antibodies used in assessing neuronal models of Parkinson's Disease. In addition, Chaimae conducted protein analysis research for her Bachelor's project in the UPSIM Laboratory at EPFL, focusing on intracellular signaling involved in P-bodies in S.pombe. Chaimae has joined the lab as a PhD student and pursue research in exploring the detrusor overactivity in Multiple Sclerosis.

Pragya Nagar

PHD Student

Pragya holds a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Basel in Switzerland, where she focused on generating and characterizing a new screening platform for deorphanization of G-protein coupled receptors for her thesis project (2020- 2023). Pragya also earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Biotechnology from Delhi Technological University in India (2015- 2019). Pragya has additional research experience as a Student Assistant at ETH Zürich's Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel, Switzerland. Her work included screening for orphan G-protein coupled receptors with CRISPR perturbations, involving skills such as molecular cloning, qPCR, siRNA knockdown, luminescence assay, animal cell culture, and transfection. She joined the Functional Urology Group, University of Bern, in 2023 for her PhD studies. Pragya will research Detrusor Overactivity (DO) following Spinal Cord Injury in mice and humans. She will investigate the potential link between mitochondrial damage, increased Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) levels, PARP-1 signaling activation, and NAD+ depletion in different cell types of the bladder wall. Her research will contribute to understanding of the triggers of DO and developing targeted therapies to prevent bladder overactivity.

Mustafa Besic

Lab Technician

Mustafa’s current position as Biomedical Scientist in our research group implies working closely with the other group members and independent performance of experiments. His areas of expertise are molecular biology techniques (real-time quantitative PCR, molecular cloning, protein and nucleic acid analysis), cell culture and tissue histology. Additionally, Mustafa is an expert of exosome isolation and nanoparticle tracking analysis. He is in charge of the NanoSight NS300 instrument in the FCS facility of DBMR. Since 2020 he holds LTK1 animal experimentation license and is involved in animal experiments including surgery and post-op care of mice. In his function as laboratory manager, he additionally takes care of all the organization tasks including ordering, repairs and maintenances of the lab equipment.

Blenda Gashi

Medi trainee student

Blenda is a medi student training to become a biomedical scientist. The medi school students study the analytic methodologies in the different specialties of laboratory medicine such as hematology, microbiology, histology, chemistry etc. Currently Blenda is working in our lab and writes her diploma thesis, in which she focuses on morphological changes of mouse bladders after a spinal cord injury.