Dresden International Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Life Sciences

Madina Karimova

Head of laboratory Gene Editing and Transgenic Core Facility at Georg Speyer Haus Institute of Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy

Madina leads teams of scientists and technicians in Gene Editing and Transgenic Core to develop and deliver genetically engineered mouse models. Previously, she worked as a Senior Research Scientist in AstraZeneca, developing CRISPR/Cas technology and project-based in vitro/in vivo applications. Madina did her PhD in the Buchholz group at the MPI-CBG/TUD medical faculty, working on recombinases, TALENs and CRISPR for genome engineering.

Václav Navrátil

Founder and CEO/CTO at DIANA Biotechnologies

Václav has 10 years of experience in biochemistry, molecular biology, and computational chemistry. Two years ago, he founded a rapidly growing startup company which commercialized DIANA platform technology for biomarker detection and drug discovery. The technology is based on Václav’s previous academic work at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague.

Jane Pulman

Director of bioinformatics operations at Genevia Technologies

Jane manages bioinformatics projects and leads the R&D efforts at Genevia Technologies (Tampere, Finland), which provides tailored bioinformatics analyses to a wide range of clients in industry and academia. After a PhD in functional and comparative genomics at the University of Liverpool, she furthered her experience in bioinformatics with a postdoc at the Center for Genomics-Enabled Plant Science, Plant Science Department, Michigan State University. Then, she worked as a software developer and bioinformatician for the Eukaryotic Pathogen Database at the University of Liverpool.

Maria Grazia Magro

Head of strategy and scientific affairs at Human Technopole

Maria Grazia is Head of Strategy and Scientific Affairs at Human Technopole, where she manages activities in the areas of scientific strategy, institutional policy, and scientific management and administration. She obtained a PhD in Cell Biology from the DIGS-BB, working in the area of pancreatic beta-cell biology. After working as a postdoc at the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden, she took up a position in Strategy and Analysis at EMBL, working at the intersection of strategic planning and communication, institutional policy, analysis and reporting.

Vinciane Grimard

Advisor on research and innovation at the Walloon Government (Belgium)

Vinciane works at the cabinet of the minister of economy and vice-president of the Government of Wallonia (Belgium). Before that, she was a scientific advisor at the department of research and tech development of the same region. After a PhD in regulation of lipid metabolism from the IMPRS for Biomedicine and Bioengineering and the TUD, she secured a postdoc fellowship from the National Fund for Scientific Research of Belgium, she worked as a trainee in the European Commission and as a visiting scientist at ETH.

Massimo Caine

Communications officer at University of Geneva. Founder and editor at TheScienceBreaker

Massimo, molecular biologist (PhD in the University of Geneva), is constantly on a mission to inspire scientists and laypeople around him with his passion for science. During the time spent on the bench, he followed his natural all-around curiosity, investigating several topics from medical diseases to plant physiology. Head of TheScienceBreaker, Massimo proudly chases his naïve dream of an engaged society where scientists and citizens are facing together the upcoming challenges for human civilizations. At the University of Geneva, Switzerland, Massimo works for BiOutils – an academic and laboratory-based platform for outreach in life sciences.

Joeri Kint

Head of business development at ExcellGene

Joeri is currently Head of Business Development at ExcellGene, a Swiss company that develops mammalian cell lines for pharmaceutical companies. Before this, he headed the contract development and manufacturing division of Biotype GmbH in Dresden. Joeri started his career at Merck Animal Health in The Netherlands where he was responsible for development and troubleshooting of large-scale production of vaccines. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wageningen on the innate immune response against coronaviruses. During his talk, Joeri will try to show you what (not) to expect when moving from academia to industry.

Isabell Weber

Consultant at Boston Consulting Group

Dr. Isabell Weber is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). From 2010–2014 she did her PhD in the Norden lab at the MPI-CBG working on neuronal development in zebrafish. In 2015, she moved to the University of Cambridge (UK), where she joined the lab of Dr. Kristian Franze as a postdoctoral researcher and EMBO fellow, working on the biophysical impact of spinal cord injury on neuronal cells. After her time in Cambridge, she joined BCG as a junior consultant in 2017, where she advanced to her current position in 2019. Within BCG, Isabell is working on strategic questions mostly for clients in the industrial goods and energy sector. She has a great interest on operational and sustainability questions.

Carina Ehrig

Patent lawyer at Kailuweit & Uhlemann

Dr. Carina Ehrig is a patent attorney and partner at Kailuweit & Uhlemann since April 2020. She is mainly involved with drafting and prosecuting patent and utility model applications in the field of physics, material science and medical technology. Further, she also focuses on trademark law. Carina studied physics at TU Dresden and specialized in biophysics. She did an internship in the group of Patricia Bassereau at the Institut Curie in Paris and her diploma physics in the group of Petra Schwille at BIOTEC. In 2011, she started her PhD at the Corporate Technology section of Siemens AG in Erlangen. After completing her PhD, Carina started a patent attorney training in 2016 at Kailuweit & Uhlemann and studied ‘Law for Patent Attorneys’ at the FernUniversität Hagen. In February 2020 she successfully passed the qualifying examination and was sworn in as a patent attorney. Carina is a member of the Federal Association of Patent Attorneys, the Saxon Patent Attorney Association and the German Physical Society.

Amani Said

Career coach and founder at Success Beyond the Lab

Amani Said is on a mission to empower Ph.D. students and young researchers in launching their dream careers and leveraging their Ph.D. to make a real impact.

She completed her Ph.D. studies in Developmental Biology at the Max-Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany. Today, she is applying 16 years of experience as a scientist and educator to train, coach and empower scientists in achieving their career goals.

Amani has designed an online career coaching program specifically designed to support students and postdocs to make a successful career transition. As a result of taking the program, scientists create a strong professional identity, gain clarity about their skills, values, goals and which career path is ideal for them via learning all the necessary career development tools.