Laura de Rooij

Laura obtained her PhD at McMaster University in Canada, where she established in vivo CRISPR screens to study RNA binding proteins in leukemic stem cells. For her postdoctoral studies, she switched gears and joined the lab of Peter Carmeliet’s lab at the VIB-KU Leuven in Belgium, where she rapidly gained expertise in single-cell profiling technologies and heterogeneity of the vascular endothelium. In September 2022, she started her own research group at CeMM in Vienna.

Contact: lderooij(at)cemm.at

Rita Faria

Rita joined the lab in May 2024. During her PhD at VIB-KU Leuven (Belgium), she dove deep into the world of endothelial cell biology, uncovering how shear stress shapes their metabolism. Along the way, she gained profound insights into vascular mechanobiology, metabolomics, intravital imaging, and cancer. Now, her research has taken an exciting turn as she explores circulating endothelial cells in the context of advanced chronic liver disease, pushing the boundaries of our understanding of how the vasculature and liver are in constant conversation.

Lisa Kleißl

Lisa joined the group in February 2024 as a shared project scientist between the Stary, Rendeiro, and de Rooij groups. As part of the CeMM & Angelini Ventures research program on aging and healthy lifespan expansion, Lisa is currently working on setting up spatial transcriptomics methods to explore different cellular niches in the aging human skin.

Thaddaeus Newerkla

Thaddaeus earned his master’s degree in Technical Chemistry from TU Wien, with a thesis in Cancer Immunology. In September 2025, he joined the de Rooij Group as a PhD student. His research centers on exploring the vascular niche in breast cancer, leveraging single-cell and spatial transcriptomic data to uncover potential therapeutic strategies and improve the translation of in vitro models like organoid-on-chip.

Negar Asadi

Negar completed her MSc studies in Biotechnology at MCI in Innsbruck, including an exchange semester at Umeå University in Sweden. After writing her master’s thesis focused on engineering and characterizing bispecific antibodies at Roche, she joined CeMM in September 2025 as a shared PhD student between the Abdel Fattah and de Rooij labs. She investigates repair and interaction dynamics between endothelial and neuronal cells upon and after traumatic cerebral injury using a bioengineered in vitro neurovasculature model.

Hanna Toth

Hanna joined the lab in September 2024, after doing her MSc studies in Biomedical Science at Lancaster University. For her PhD project, she will employ single-cell transcriptomics as well as functional angiogenic assays to dive deeper into the intricacies of senescence heterogeneity of the endothelium in different vascular bed subtypes.

Robert Paxton

After getting his bachelor degree in biology at Elon University, Robert worked as a research technician at the Gomez-Lopez lab (University of Virginia). His training involved a wide range of experimental approaches to map coactivators, histone modifications, and transcription factors of the Renin gene. Currently, he applies his passion for epigenetics research to decipher the transcriptional regulation of endothelial cell senescence.

Sarah Dobner

Sarah obtained her MSc degree in Molecular Biology at the university of Salzburg. Afterwards, she joined the lab of Georg Winter as a research technician  in an international research collaboration between CeMM and Pfizer. Now, her PhD project focuses on large-scale single-cell transcriptomics dissection of human endothelial cells across tissues, organs, and lifespan. Moreover, she works on the characterization of endothelial cell senescence using vessel-on-chip systems.

Vera Belyaeva

Vera earned her PhD at ISTA, where she investigated the transcriptional and cellular mechanisms guiding immune cell tissue infiltration. She is now thrilled to contribute to cutting-edge research on endothelial cell aging and heterogeneity, combining her expertise with responsibilities in both experimental work and lab management.

Fanni Tóth (parental leave)

After obtaining her Bachelor degree at Eötvos Loránd University in Hungary, Fanni’s PhD research at the University of Salford (UK) was focused on the development of in vitro models and flow cytometry/imaging-based methods to investigate cellular senescence and senescence-escape in cancer cells. Now, besides overall lab management, Fanni works on differentiation of tissue-specific endothelial cells from iPSCs, and characterization of their senescence profiles.

Natalie Kochova (former Summer Student, July 2025- August 2025)

Clara Mertel (former MSc student, Feb 2024 – June 2025)

From September 2025: PhD student at the Medical University of Vienna