Meet the Team
Research Group Leader
Daniel Dunkelmann
Daniel is a native of Switzerland. He studied at ETH Zurich (CH), where he worked with Donald Hilvert. As an exchange student, he conducted research in the labs of Alan Spivey at Imperial College London (UK), Brad Pentelute at MIT (US), and Hiroaki Suga at the University of Tokyo (Japan).
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​He pursued a PhD with Jason Chin at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) as a Boehringer Ingelheim Fellow and became a Junior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge.
In 2023 he joined Ralph Bock’s group at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (DE) as a Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Actions and Branco Weiss Fellow.
Daniel started his own lab in June 2025 and now leads the international SyncSol consortium within the ARIA Programmable Plants programme.
Lab Manager
Anne Schadach
Anne Schadach is a technician in our group with more than 10 years of experience in chloroplast transformation and tissue culture. She grew up in Germany and began her career at the Max Planck Institute for molecular genetics where she supported the work on hormonal regulation of longevity in C. elegans.
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The next step in her career led her to the Max Planck Institute for molecular plant physiology. Here Anne learned the craft of chloroplast transformation in the Bock group.
PhD Student
Yuhan Liu
Yuhan Liu is originally from China and joined the AG Dunkelmann group in January 2025 as a PhD candidate. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Tianjin University and a Master's degree from Wuhan University.
His research interests focus on chloroplast development, genome maintenance, and the genetic enhancement of photosynthesis. He is now particularly enthusiastic about manipulating the Small Single Copy (SSC) region of the chloroplast genome and is dedicated to constructing a minimal plastid genome in Nicotiana tabacum.
PhD Student
Mac Flanagan
Mac Flanagan is a PhD student from the United States researching plant synthetic biology. He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Plant Sciences (focusing in Biochemistry) and a Distinction in Research.
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Mac has prior experience in viral vector engineering, plant specialized metabolism, and plant systematics. He has conducted research in the labs of Gaurav Moghe (Research Honors Thesis) and Arjun Khakhar (ASPB SURF Award Internship).
Student Worker
Rebecca Reiprich
Rebecca studies biotechnology at Technical University of Berlin. She joined the Group of Ralph Bock (MPI-MP) in April 2024 during an internship under the supervision of Vanessa Loiacono and stayed at the institute as a student worker.
In April 2025 she began her bachelor's thesis with Daniel as her supervisor and continued the project from October onwards again as a student worker. She is especially drawn to the development of methodologies for synthetic biology in Escherichia Coli and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Marianna Boccia
Marianna completed her Master’s thesis at the CNR Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources (IBBR), focusing on plant physiology.
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She then moved to Germany to pursue her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, working in the group of Sarah O’Connor. Her research focused on the elucidation and metabolic engineering of plant alkaloid and terpene biosynthetic pathways.
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In August 2025, Marianna joined Daniel’s group as a Postdoctoral Researcher. She is excited to explore plant synthetic biology, with a particular interest in genetic code expansion.
Predoc Student
Yasoo Morimoto
Yasoo is currently finishing his master's degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Marburg (Germany), where he studied carbon metabolism in the phyllosphere of oak trees. He also participated in several plant synthetic biology projects as a member of the Marburg iGEM team, including the development of chloroplast cell-free systems.
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He strongly believes in the potential of synthetic biology to strengthen food security and joined the lab with the intention of expanding the Synbio toolbox to make plants easier to engineer.
Technician
Catalina Arancibia
Catalina is originally from Santiago, Chile, and moved to Berlin in 2019. She completed her Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Potsdam, conducting her thesis work at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology under the guidance of Dr. Joachim Forner.
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Now, as part of the Dunkelmann lab, she is excited to broaden her research skills and contribute to cutting-edge scientific work.
PhD Student
Johanna Alz
Johanna received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and completed a research internship in Stephan Wenkel’s lab at the University of Copenhagen. She then began her master’s degree in Plant Breeding as part of the emPLANT+ intake 3 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. She continued the programme at the Technical University of Valencia and carried out her master’s thesis at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Jim Haseloff.
Johanna joined the Dunkelmann Lab in October 2025 and is looking forward to exploring the opportunities and obstacles on the path towards synthetic chloroplast genomes.
Technician
Karoline Ziesecke
Karoline completed her B.Sc. in Horticultural Sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin. As a student assistant in the VertEXcillium project, she gained experience in plant cultivation, in vitro techniques, and experimental research.
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She further expanded her perspective on sustainable agriculture through volunteer projects abroad. She is now excited to deepen her understanding of plant genomics and contribute to the project’s research as a technician at the Dunkelmann Lab.
PhD Student
Jakob Wimmer
Originally from Austria, Jakob obtained his bachelor’s degree at the University of Vienna. He then moved to Zürich, completing his master’s in Molecular Plant Biology at ETH Zürich, building on his biological research skills and enjoying life in the city. Now, to complete his journey through the German-speaking world, Jakob is excited to be part of the Dunkelmann group as a PhD student!
For his PhD project, Jakob will be working on deciphering and modelling the regulatory elements of chloroplasts to enable precise engineering and to unlock exciting opportunities for chloroplast biotechnology!
Postdoctoral Researcher
Alicia Clarke
Alicia completed her PhD and MSc at the Forestry, Agricultural and Biotechnology Institute (FABI) University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her doctoral research centred around plant immune systems, with a particular emphasis on the molecular interactions between Nucleotide-binding Leucine-rich Repeat (NLR) proteins and pathogen effector proteins. She specializes in bioinformatics and has experience in applying artificial intelligence approaches for decoding complex biological systems.
Alicia joined the Dunkelmann Lab at the Max Planck Institute in October 2025, where she is now focused on designing a fully synthetic chloroplast genome and on understanding the molecular interplay between nuclear-encoded proteins and the processes underlying chloroplast maintenance and function.
Alumni
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Predoc Student
Ege OkumuÅŸ
Ege is a molecular biologist with a master's degree in Plant Sciences from LMU Munich. For his thesis, he developed an R Shiny app focused on the analysis and visualization of proteomics data.
Outside the lab, he loves exploring nature and staying active, especially through water sports. Kitesurfing is his favorite - there’s nothing like the feeling of being in sync with the wind and waves. Life is short, stunt it!
Student Worker
Marina Zakher
Marina graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in science from Minya University, Egypt, and is currently pursuing a Master's in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Potsdam.
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She worked as a student assistant at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology on a project to build a synthetic chloroplast, focusing on molecular cloning and gene expression. Marina is preparing for a PhD in synthetic biology, driven by her interest in plant systems and sustainable agriculture.​