Andreas trained as a veterinarian at the University of Veterinary Medicine​ in Vienna. Following doctoral and postdoctoral work with Dr. Hans Hengartner and Nobel laureate Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel at the University of Zurich, with Dr. Daniel Pinschewer at the University of Geneva, Switzerland and with Dr. Alan Aderem at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, US, he was group leader at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences from 2011-2021. Since 2022, he is Professor of Molecular Immunology and Head of the Institute of Hygiene and Applied Immunology at the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. He is also Adjunct Principal Investigator at CeMM. Andreas is co-founder of the clinical-stage immunotherapy company Hookipa Pharma.

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In his leisure time, Andreas enjoys time with his family and hunts for mushrooms.  

Anna did her undergrad studies in molecular biology at the Technical University of Graz. After finishing her bachelor’s degree, she moved to Vienna to study molecular biology with a focus on molecular medicine at the University of Vienna. She performed her master thesis work in the field of medical imaging at the Medical University of Vienna. After finishing her master’s, she started her work as a lab manager / research assistant in the Bergthaler lab. Besides administrating and maintaining the lab, she’s happy to help colleagues with work in the wet lab. Since this year she is collaborating with the VetMeduni on a project focused on transmissible cancers in Tasmanian Devils.

In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading and meeting good friends.

Anna completed her studies in Cognitive and Molecular Neurosciences at the University of Vienna, Austria and has been working in the pharmaceutical industry in Quality Assurance and Data Integrity. She works both in the Lab and in the bioinformatics team and is part of the national surveillance project for detecting pathogen in wastewater and the citizen science project about airborne pathogen monitoring in the air in high school classrooms.

She enjoys playing tabletops RPGs in her free time. 

Aubrey completed her bachelor studies in Zoology at Colorado State University, USA. She joined the Bergthaler lab in April 2023, and is working on her research thesis for her Master’s degree in Molecular Microbiology, Microbial Ecology and Immunobiology at the University of Vienna. 
Her project is focused on understanding the role the gut microbiota plays in driving hyperammonemia during viral infection.

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In her free time she enjoys hiking, yoga and being silly with her children.

Bethany is a computational biologist and data scientist who uses genomic epidemiology and phylodynamic modelling to characterise how viruses evolve and spread through populations. She obtained her DPhil in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford, UK, and previously conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the US Military HIV Research Program.

Bethany has particular interest in engaging science communication for actionable public health response, data visualisation and reproducible research.

Away from the lab, Bethany can be often be found gaming, doodling, exploring and baking.

During his undergrad, Felix studied molecular and human biology at the Saarland University (Germany) and at the University of Strasbourg (France) in a French-german double degree focusing on the antiviral immune response in Drosophila. Following this, he moved on to the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) for his Master’s degree in Biomedicine researching the role of lncRNAs in cancer cells. For his PhD thesis, Felix joined the University of Oxford to study the role of adipocyte autophagy in controlling intestinal inflammation. Since 2022, Felix joined the lab of Prof. Bergthaler investigating the role of CD8+ T cells in cachexia in mice and humans. He is also co-founder of the Preprint Club, which aims establish a community-based approach to peer reviewing.

In his leisure time, he likes to play tennis and enjoy being in nature.

Henrique was trained as a Pharmacist at the University of Lisbon and obtained his PhD from the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) in Portugal. During his PhD he studied how changes in mitochondrial function and metabolism influence tissue damage during sepsis. In 2020, Henrique joined the Bergthaler lab to study how metabolites serve as communication signals between organs during viral infection. 

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Outside of the lab, he is passionate about music, travelling and food (preferably all combined).

Jakob is working on identifying new metabolic regulators of antiviral T cell immunity.

He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Heidelberg University, Germany.

His Master’s degree was attained at Imperial College London, United Kingdom.

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Joel studied Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He subsequently went on to work for a year as a Research Officer in A*STAR IDLabs – joining the Singaporean national effort in the fight against COVID-19 through vaccine immunomonitoring and antibody discovery. He then moved to Vienna to commence his PhD with CeMM. He is currently working on circadian immunometabolism and cachexia. He enjoys meeting new people and exploring new hobbies. 

Laura completed her doctoral studies in the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico. She is a postdoctoral researcher interested in the areas of viral infection, immunology, metabolism and interorgan communication.

In her free time, she enjoys reading all sorts of books and going for long walks.

Lukas studied Biochemistry at the University of Vienna and completed his doctoral thesis on dynamical models of biological networks at the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry.

After a few years working for the BioModels Database project at the European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK, he came back to Vienna first as a postdoc and then as general Bioinformatics support at the Institute of Population Genetics, Univ. of Veterinary Sciences. 

He joined the Bergthaler Lab in 2020 on a project to sequence SARS CoV2 genomes.

Apart from that, he is working on viral evolution and helps with analyzing biological data.

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Outside work he tries to spend time in nature hiking with his kids and enjoys reading.

Magdalena studied molecular biology at the University of Vienna. These studies included a number of shorter research stints covering different topics, including internships at the Medical University Vienna studying food allergies, at the Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI) Vienna studying the development of Ewing sarcoma, a bone cancer predominantly affecting children and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna studying the genetic stability of different cell lines. She finished her undergraduate studies with a master thesis in the research group of Reinhard Hinterleitner at the University of Pittsburgh in the USA, where, supported by a scholarship from the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, she studied the role of a commensal gut protozoa in promoting oral tolerance to dietary antigens. She joined the Bergthaler Lab in September 2021 as a PhD student and is working on investigating the role of gut-derived metabolites in anti-viral immune responses.

In her free time, Lena enjoys painting, hiking, badminton and trying out different new hobbies. 

Orsi is an evolutionary biologist using transdisciplinary approaches to develop pathogen surveillance programs that provide a deeper understanding into their evolutionary patterns and population dynamics. She works within the international network of scientists developing different aspects of the DAMA protocol, the policy extension of the Stockholm Paradigm framework for emerging infectious diseases. She obtained her DPhil from the Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, and has conducted postdoctoral research at Dartmouth College, USA and UFRN, Brazil and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, AT. Orsi works on the interface of public health policy and pathogen evolution to advise preventive measures, and is actively engaged in science communication.

Outside the lab, Orsi enjoys family-time, outdoors, and geeks out about tabletop RPG and Nordic mythology.

Susanne was trained as a teacher in biology and PuP (Psychology and Philosophy) at the University of Vienna, Austria.

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She assists the team in secretarial matters and provides support in various other areas.

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In her leisure time, she likes to paint and create items for cosplay.

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Theresa studied technical chemistry at the Technical University of Vienna, specialising in biotechnology and bioanalytics. She conducted her master’s thesis at the Medical University of Vienna, studying a recently discovered apolipoprotein. She supports the team by assisting in experiments and by the general maintenance of the laboratory.

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Besides work, she enjoys reading different books and exploring nature.

Zsofia finished her BSc in Biology at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, and her MSc at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, at the laboratory of Professor Didier Picard.

In 2019, she joined the Bergthaler lab as a CeMM PhD student and a Marie Curie fellow within the international training network “INITIATE,” studying viral immunometabolism. 

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Zsofia is currently on maternity leave.

Eva is a Biomedical Analyst since year 2000.

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She has a lot of experience in antibody-isolation, experiments with cellular immunity as well as with lab management.

She is a passionate cineast, mountain-lover and skier.

Matthew received his BSc. in Biology from Pennsylvania State University, and his MSc in Ecology from the University of Vienna. He is currently working as a research assistant involved in developing sequencing-based methods for pathogen surveillance and characterization from environmental samples.

Outside of the lab he enjoys playing basketball and piano.