Members
Group Leader
Rory Johnson
2016- : NCCR ‘RNA & Disease’ Junior Group Leader / Medical Faculty, University Hospital, Bern
2010-2016: Ramon y Cajal Fellow, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona (with Roderic Guigó)
2007-2009: Postdoc, Genome Institute of Singapore (with Lawrence W. Stanton)
2002-2007: Wellcome Trust PhD scholarship, University of Leeds (with Noel J. Buckley)
1996-2000: MSc Physics and Biophysics, Imperial College London
Postdoctoral Scientists
Panagiotis Chouvardas
Education: BSc in Informatics (University of Piraeus, Greece); MSc in Information Technology in Biology and Medicine (Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens); PhD in Computational modeling of epigenetic regulation of gene expression during chronic inflammation (Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Field: NGS analysis and interpretation.
Projects: Design of bioinformatic pipelines for lncRNA discovery and prioritization
Links: Google Scholar, ResearchGate
Contact: panagiotis.chouvardas@dbmr.unibe.ch
Roberta Esposito
Education: BSc in Biology (University of Federico II, Italy); MSc in Molecular Diagnostics (University of Federico II, Italy); PhD, Institute of Genetics and Biophysics – CNR of Naples.
Field: CRISPR/Cas9 and Genome editing in lncRNAs
Project: CRISPR/Cas9 screening for the identification of lncRNAs in drug resistance
Links: ResearchGate, Google Scholar
Contact: roberta.esposito@dbmr.unibe.ch
Hugo Guillen-Ramirez
Education: BSc in Computer Systems Engineering (Instituto Tecnológico de Tepic, Mexico); MSc in Computer Science (CICESE Research Center, Mexico); PhD in Computer Science (CICESE Research Center, Mexico).
Field: ncRNA annotation and machine learning applied to RNA data.
Projects: Annotation of lncRNA elements
Links: Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ORCID, ReasearchGate
Contact: hugo.guillenramirez@dbmr.unibe.ch
Tina Uroda
Education: BSc in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research (Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Croatia); MSc in Pharmaceutical research and development (Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Croatia); PhD, European Molecular Biology Laboratory- EMBL, Grenoble (France) and Universite Grenoble Alpes .
Field: CRISPR/Cas9 and Genome editing in lncRNAs, lncRNA localization.
Projects: The elements of long noncoding RNA function
Contact: tina.uroda@dbmr.unibe.ch
PhD Students
Núria Bosch
Education: BSc in Human Biology (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain); MSc Genetics and Genomics (University of Barcelona, Spain)
Field: CRISPR/Cas9 and Genome editing in lncRNA
Projects: Optimization of CRISPR/Cas9 system for efficient genomic deletion
Contact: nuria.bosch@dbmr.unibe.ch
Taisia Polidori
Education: BSc in Biology (University of Roma Tre, Italy); MSc Biology for Molecular, Cellular and Pathophysiological Research (University of Roma Tre, Italy)
Field: CRISPR-Cas9 lncRNA screens and Cancer
Projects: CRISPR screens for discovery of novel cancer-related lncRNAs
Contact: taisia.polidori@dbmr.unibe.ch
Carlos Pulido
Education: BSc in Biology (Balearic Islands University, Spain); MSc in Bioinformatics for Health Science (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain)
Field: RNAseq analysis and CRISPR/Cas9 bioinformatic designs for lncRNA discovery and validation
Projects: Design of bioinformatic pipelines for accurate lncRNA discovery and RNAseq analysis. Bioinformatic design and analysis of CRISPR/Cas9 libraries
Contact: carlos.pulido@dbmr.unibe.ch
Adrienne Vancura
Education: BSc in Biology (University of Bern, Switzerland); MSc in Biochemistry and Cancer Biology (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Field: RNA biomarkers in Cancer
Projects: Cancer LncRNA Census v2
Links: LinkedIn
Contact: adrienne.vancura@dbmr.unibe.ch
Staff
MSc Students

Dominik Meise
Education: BSc in Biology (University of Bern in Switzerland); MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (University of Bern in Switzerland)
Field: CRISPR screens interpretation and LncRNA priorization
Project: Integrative prioritization of long non-coding RNA drug targets from CRISPR screens
Links: linkedin
Contact: dominik.meise@students.unibe.ch

Mario Moser
Education: BSc in Biomedical Sciences (University of Fribourg, Switzerland); MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Field: lncRNA function analysis
Project: Determination of cis- and trans-acting lncRNA
Links: Linkedin
Contact: mario.moser@students.unibe.ch
Visiting Scientists
Lia Mela
NCCR Predoc Programme
Education: BSc in Biological Sciences (University of Catania, Italy); MSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology (Univerisy of Catania, Italy)
Field: CRISPR/Cas9 and Genome editing in lncRNA
Projects: Validation of cancer driver lncRNAs with CRISPRa
Contact: lia.mela@students.unibe.ch
Former Members

Andrés Lanzós
Education: BSc in Biology (University of Vigo, Spain); MSc in Bioinformatics for Health Science (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain); PhD in Biomedical Sciences (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Field: Cancer genomics and LncRNA drivers identification
Projects: Bioinformatic analysis of lncRNAs implicated in cancer
Links: Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ORCID, Publons, ResearchGate, Twitter
Contact: andreslanzos@runbox.com
Where is he now? Bioinformatician at Biognosys

Alessandra Stuerchler
NCCR Predoc Programme
Education: BSc in Biology (University of Lausanne, Switzerland); MSc in Molecular Biology (ETH Zürich, Switzerland); NCCR RNA&Disease Predoc Program (University of Bern, Switzerland).
Field: Bioinformatics of lncRNA features and functional domains
Project: Relationship between exons and functional domains in lncRNAs.
Links: Linkedin
Contact: ale.stuerchler@gmail.com

Bernard Merlin
Education: BTech in Biotechnology (Anna University, India); MSc in Molecular Life Sciences (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Field: Bioinformatics of lncRNA features and functional domains
Project: Validation of cancer driver lncRNAs with CRISPRa
Contact: bernard.merlin@students.unibe.ch

David Mas
MSc student

Kyriakos Schwarz
MSc student
Education: BSc in Computer Science (University of Applied Sciences FHNW, Switzerland); MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Field: Cancer genomics and LncRNA drivers identification
Projects: Bioinformatic analysis of lncRNAs implicated in cancer
Links: LinkedIn
Contact: kyriakos.schwarz@students.unibe.ch