Joanna Kalucka, Associate Professor
Joanna is a Associate Professor at the Departmnet of Biomedicine, Aarhus University and a former COFUND II Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS). She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from TU Dresden, Germany and is a graduate of the International Max Planck Research School in Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany.
More about Joanna
Prior to being appointed in Aarhus, Joanna was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) to pursue her project on endothelial cell metabolism in health and disease at the KU Leuven, Belgium. Her involvement in the venture resulted in advancing our understanding of endothelial cell heterogeneity in health and disease.
Since August 2019, she has been leading her Laboratory of Angiogenesis and Inflammation at the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University. Supported by LundbeckFonden Fellowship and Carlsberg Foundation Young Researcher Fellowships together with her group she aims to unravel the features of endothelial biology. Specifically, her group addresses the questions on endothelial cell dysfunction and tissue inflammation in obesity and cancer.
Joanna aims to create a vibrant and international scientific environment filled with active discussion, hard work and enthusiasm. Joanna has a proven track record in mentorship and supports junior researchers. She is a board member of The Danish Society for Women in Science, DANWISE, member of steering committee for the Inflammation Network, and a scholar at Leadership Academy at German Scholars Organization (GSO).
Joanna believes that sharing methodology and knowledge through collaboration is fundamental in scientific life, and only by empowering each other can we bring forward the best of science.
Julie Nelly Christensen, Postdoc
Julie is a PhD with a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Molecular Medicine from Aarhus University.
During her PhD Julie has been working in the field of cancer cell biology with specific focus on cellular dedifferentiation mechanisms driving metastatic behavior.
Julie finished her PhD in September 2020 and currently works as a PostDoc in the group.
Julie leads the project on how inflammation alters the metabolic signature and function of endothelial cells.
Lolita Dokshokova, Postdoc
Lolita has joined the lab in October 2022. She is currently explorly endothelial cell inflammation in tumor endothelial cells.
Olivia Wagman, PhD Student
My name is Olivia, I am from Belgium and I have a bachelor and Master degree in pharmaceutical sciences from KU Leuven, Belgium. I joined Joanna’s lab I 2019 as a Erasmus Master student and worked on the role of endothelium in mediating inflammatory responses. I will continue to work on my project as a PhD student.
Ibrahim Alzaim, Research Assistant
Ibrahim became a part of our group in September 2021, initially joining as an exchange Master's student. Due to his exceptional performance and dedication, he transitioned into the role of a Research Assistant in 2022. Ibrahim's unwavering passion for adipose tissue is evident, and he is currently focused on unraveling the underlying causes of endothelial cell dysfunction in obesity.
Mohamed Nabil Talaat Aly Hassan, Research Assistant
Mohamed got his bachelor's degree in science after studying in the Molecular Biotechnology program at Helwan University in Egypt. Then he obtained his Master's degree in Bioinformatics at the autonomous university of Barcelona in 2020.Currently, Mohamed is a part of Joanna Kalucka's lab at Aarhus University. He is working as a Research Assistant to develop single-cell omics pipeline to understand the role of endothelial cells and their impairment in health and disease.
Paul Cornil, Erasmus+ Master Student
Paul is a master student from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) where he studies biomedical sciences. His interests has always been in the liver and NAFLD since he has done a short internship in Brussel investigating hepatic stellate cells during NAFLD. Here at Joanna Kalucka her lab, he is finishing his master thesis project focussing on liver sinusoidal endothelial cells during the progression of steatosis. Besides research, he loves go and explore in nature and climbing at the bouldering gym in Aarhus.
Paul Cornil
Erasmus+ Master Student
Department of Biomedicine
Aarhus University
Høegh-Guldbergsgade 10
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
paul.jules.cornil@biomed.au.dk
Namarta Tolani, Master Student
Namarta Tolani is an international student from Spain. She did her bachelor's in Biomedical Science at the University of Barcelona (2018-2022) and is currently a Master's student in Biomedicine at Aarhus University. She joined our lab in September of 2022 and is working on how the endothelium contributes to inflammatory responses.
Namarta Tolani
Master Student
Department of Biomedicine
Aarhus University
Høegh-Guldbergsgade 10
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
namarta.tolani@biomed.au.dk
Frederik Skov, Research Year Medical Student
Frederik is studying medicine in the fifth semester at Aarhus University. Currently, he is writing his bachelor’s thesis at Kalucka-lab. Here, he is looking into how endothelial cells in the liver are affected by obesity.
Frederik Skov
Research Year Student
Department of Biomedicine
Aarhus University
Høegh-Guldbergsgade 10
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Bettina Hansen, Laboratory Technician
I started working at Department of Human Genetics February 2005 as laboratory technician trainee.
I got my diploma the year after and have been working at the Department of Human Genetics, now Department of Biomedicine, ever since.
I was a part of associated professor
Bjørn Andersen Nexøs group for 9-10 years and after Bjørns retirement Magdalena Laska continued his work with endogenonus retroviruses and there role in autoimmune disease.
I have been a part of Joanna Kaluckas group since August 2019. I take care of all the administrative work to make the lab running. I know a broad numbers of laboratory analysis. Iam in charge of isolating endothelia cells from various human and mouse tissues.
Lab Alumni
Katarina Dragicevic
Katarina was a part-time Research Assistant in Bioinformatics with a Master's degree in Molecular Biology from University of Zagreb.
She joined Joanna Kalucka's lab in May 2020 and is focused on the analysis of single-cell and bulk RNA-seq datasets of mouse and human endothelial cells from obese individuals.
Currenly Katarina is a PhD Student in the lab of Konstantin Khodosevich at the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC) in Copenhagen.
Katarina Dragicevic
Research Assistant
Department of Biomedicine
Aarhus University
Høegh-Guldbergsgade 10
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Group Picture Spring 2023
Monja Müller, Erasmus Master Student
Monja was a ERASMUS+ Master student doing her master thesis at Joanna Kalucka's lab (2021-2022). She was working on a project that aims to assess the immunoregulatory functions of endothelial cells in order to finish her master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University Albstadt-Sigmaringen.
Monja Müller
Erasmus Master Student
Department of Biomedicine
Aarhus University
Høegh-Guldbergsgade 10
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark