Team
The lab has hosted people from the following countries and open mindsets and is looking to expand:
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Principal Investigator
Daniel Schindler
Short bio: Daniel studied biology at Ruhr University Bochum, undertaking several periods of study abroad in Brazil, South Africa and Singapore. He completed his PhD at the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) at Philipps University Marburg. He then joined Yizhi (Patrick) Cai’s team at the University of Edinburgh, later moving with the group to the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. In 2020, he was recruited as a group leader and Head of the MaxGENESYS biofoundry at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. In 2024, he was appointed as a full professor of synthetic microbiology at Heidelberg University. He is affiliated with the Center for Synthetic Genomics (Center SynGen) at Heidelberg University, the MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology, and the Center for Synthetic Microbiology in Marburg.
ORCID: 0000-0001-7423-6540 and Google Scholar
Team Members
– please note this section is currently updated –
 | Dr. Sally Louise Jones Role: Scientific Coordinator Representing: Great Britain Short bio: Sally completed a BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Bath and a PhD in Plant & Microbial Sciences at the John Innes Center before moving to Heidelberg to work as a Scientific Coordinator, supporting the Center for Synthetic Genomics and Schindler lab. |
 | Karin Klingmann Role: Administration Representing: Germany Short bio: In preparation… |
 | David Alberto Velázquez Ramírez Role: Lab manager Representing: Mexico Short bio: David completed his studies in Mexico, obtaining a degree in Biology from the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas and a Master of Science degree from the University of Guanajuato. He then worked as a research assistant at the Irapuato Unit of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV-IPN) and as a curator for RegulonDB at the Center for Genomic Sciences (CCG), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). After moving to Germany in 2019, he joined the MOSLA Consortium at the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Philipps University of Marburg, before continuing his research at the Technical University of Darmstadt and later at Hannover Medical School. His research interests include synthetic biology, the human microbiome, high-throughput technologies, Oxford Nanopore sequencing, and data analysis. In 2026, he joined the team as lab manager. |
 | María del Carmen Sánchez Olmos Role: PhD candidate Representing: Mexico Short bio: Maria made her undergraduate studies in Mexico at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. After that she moved to Marburg to start a PhD in synthetic yeast and bioinformatics at the Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. Now she is at the Center for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University doing exciting yeast science! |
 | Kavya Sunil Role: PhD candidate Representing: India Short bio: Kavya completed her integrated Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram, India. Later, when Daniel moved the group to Heidelberg, she began her PhD here, researching the effect of transcription on neighbouring genes in yeast. |
 | Paula Manuela Siaucho Unriza Role: PhD candidate Representing: Colombia Short bio: Paula is a PhD student working on biotechnology applications of Vibrio natriegens. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. During her Bachelor’s she completed an internship in the Computational and Systems Biology department at the University of Pittsburgh, and her Master’s focused on understanding information flow through the chemotaxis system in E. coli. After graduating, she joined a genetics diagnostics company, working in both the wet lab and bioinformatics. In 2024 she completed an internship at SYNMIKRO in the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. In 2025, she joined Schindler lab to start her PhD. |
 | Nayla Aurelia Ayala Usma Role: PhD candidate Representing: Colombia Short bio: Aurelia Ayala Usma is a transgender non-binary PhD candidate developing software solutions for the design and assembly of synthetic genomes. They hold a Master’s degree in Computational Biology from Universidad de los Andes, where they conducted comparative and population genomics research on oomycete plant pathogens. Their research experience spans paleobotany, environmental molecular microbiology, and synthetic biology, including participation in the iGEM Colombia teams in 2011 and 2012. Aurelia also has six years of experience in data science and analytics, having worked at Twilio, Unity, Bunny Studio, and Factored.ai. Their industry work includes building business intelligence and analytics platforms, developing cloud-based machine learning applications and APIs, and applying statistical modeling to support product research and decision-making. |
 | Mahsa Rahnama Role: MSc candidate Representing: Iran Short bio: Mahsa did her B.Sc. in Biotechnology at Alzahra university in Tehran. She decided to continue her education in Germany to study the MSc program Molecular Biotechnology at Philipps University in Marburg. To be able to work on her favorite microrganism, Vibrio natriegens, she moved to Heidelberg in 2025 to carry out her master’s thesis working on small regulatory RNAs in Vibrio nateriegens. |
 | Laura Ruiz De La Torre Rosselló Role: MSc candidate Representing: Spain Short bio: Laura studied BSc in Biotechnology and a BSc in Biochemistry and molecular biology in Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain. And a MSc in Human Genomics in the International University of La Rioja, Spain. Doing a BSc Thesis in Molecular Virology in the Center for Integrative Infectious Disease in Heidelberg, Germany and a MSc in Synthetic biology and synthetic genomics at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University. |
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