PD Dr.rer.nat. Mirjana Kessler

Dr.rer.nat Mirjana Kessler, Head of the Lab since March 2021, is one of the investigators who shaped the field of human organoids cell culture models, developed from progenitor cells from adult tissues. Her seminal work with human fallopian tube primary tissue, at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin (2006-2018), resulted in the establishment of the first-long term organoid culture from this tissue and provided the basis for the development of the first chronic in vitro infection model of Chlamydia infection. Dr. Kessler also identified specific changes in growth factor requirements that are needed for the long term cultivation of ovarian cancer organoids the finding of substantial relevance for the understanding of ovarian cancer development. Her expertise in Stem cell biology proved invaluable during the Covid pandemic as she developed an organoid culture of alveolar organoids while working at the Charité (2019-2021).

Dr. Kessler graduated in Molecular Biology and Physiology at the Belgrade University in Serbia, and completed her Doctoral thesis at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, at the Institute for Developmental Genetics.

She is married and mother of three children.