Group leader
E-mail: meret.huber@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 30260
Meret Huber received her master’s degree in biology from the University of Zürich in 2011. She then moved to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena for her PhD, in which she studied how plants defend their roots against herbivorous insects. After a short postdoctoral employment at the Max Planck Institute, she established a junior research group at the University of Münster to elucidate transgenerational stress memory in clonal plants. In 2022, she received funding from the DFG Emmy Noether Programme to study the epigenetic basis of transgenerational stress memory. In 2023, Meret Huber became a professor in plant evolutionary ecology at the University of Mainz. She also serves as a director of the botanical garden of the University of Mainz.
Administrative Management
Martina Galloway
E-mail: galloway@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 30868
Following certification from Wifa Mainz business school in 2023, Martina Galloway pursued her current administrative role at the Johannes Gutenberg University.
Having obtained her B.A. in Communication Design from the University of Applied Sciences Mainz in 2017, she went on to work in the retail industry and as a yoga entrepreneur before focusing on commercial matters and Human Resources.
Postdoc / junior group leader
E-mail: mschaefer@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 29159
Martin Schäfer received his PhD from the University of Jena for his work at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPI-ICE, Prof. Ian Baldwin) on the role of growth and development-related phytohormones in plant-herbivore interactions in 2015. He continued working at the MPI-ICE until 2018, then moved to the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity in Münster, before moving to the Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (IomE) in Mainz in 2022. He has extensive experience in chemical ecology and analytical chemistry, in particular the LC-MS based analysis of small metabolites, and he's interested in studying the mechanisms and functions behind diverse plant interactions.
Dr. Amanda Lopes
E-mail: adesanta@uni-mainz.de
Amanda Lopes received her PhD in 2018 from the Federal University of Vicosa (Brazil) for her work on Plastid Genomics of several plant species. In 2021, she moved to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology for her postdoctoral research granted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, in which her research focused on Plastid Biotechnology for the development of a plant-based hyaluronic acid production platform. In April 2023, she worked as a Technology Development Specialist at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials where she studied the engineering of yeasts for biofuel production. In November 2023, she joined the Huber group for postdoctoral research focusing on the development of protocols to engineer the nuclear and plastid genomes of duckweed and their biotechnological applications.
PhD student
Alexandra Mireya Chávez Argandoña
E-mail: chavezaa@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 26866
Alexandra joined the Huber group in October 2020. She is a biologist from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru, and received her M.Sc. degree in Evolutionary Biology from the Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chile. Alexandra is interested in explaining the role of non-genetic transgenerational inheritance in clonal evolution.
Enrico Diniz Rodrigues Batista
E-mail: enrico.diniz@usp.br
Tel: +49 6131 39 26866
Enrico is a Biotechnology Engineer graduated at the State University of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2022. In August 2023, he completed his a master's degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Enrico started his Ph.D. in the Huber group in September 2023. Throughout his doctoral studies, he will investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in giant duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza).
MSc student
Vivianne Hell
E-mail: vhell@students.uni-mainz.de
Vivianne will join the group in September 2024 to work on stably transforming duckweed to express the phenolamide defense pathway. She received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology at the Saarland University and her interest focuses on Molecular Plant Biology.
BSc student
Selin Akdogan
E-mail: sakdogan@students.uni-mainz.de
Selin is a B.Sc. Biology student at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Starting in April 2024, she will be conducting her Bachelor thesis in the Huber lab. She will investigate the transgenerational stress response in duckweed as part of her project.
Sofie Rutenbeck
E-mail: srutenbe@students.uni-mainz.de
Sofie is a Biology student at Johannes Gutenberg University. In October 2024, she will join the Huber Lab to work on her Bachelor's degree. Her project will focus on studying the non-genetic inheritance of stress responses in duckweed.
Vladimir Schmakov
E-mail: vschmako@students.uni-mainz.de
Vladimir is a Biology student at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Starting in October 2024, Vladimir will work in the Huber Lab on his Bachelor's degree, with the subject of intergenerational plasticity in Giant Duckweed Spirodela polyrhiza.
Technical assistant
Manuela Rathgeber
E-mail: marathge@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 23091
Manuela Rathgeber worked at Böhringer Ingelheim after her training as TA until she took time off to raise her children.
In her following positon, she gained experience with a wide variety of responsibilities in the microbiology laboratory of a service laboratory for almost 25 years. Since June 2023, she has been supporting AG Huber as a TA.
Former members / Alumni
Laura Böttner (PhD student)
Fiona Brurein (MSc student)
Barbara Eppard (BSc student)
Lisa-Marie Laick (BSc student)
Anne Schreyer (BSc student)
Marina Hölter (MSc student)