People

Ana received her PhD in Cancer Biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She carried out her pre-and postdoctoral research studies at the Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms of bone cancer progression and metastasis, identifying the key regulatory components as well as finding novel innovative therapeutic approaches. Later on, Ana initiated a new research field in the lab and was directly leading PhD students. The group was investigating the functional relevance of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles and microRNAs in metastatic sarcoma and their potential use as diagnostic and prognostic factors.

Prior to joining the Corn lab, Ana was working as a Clinical Scientist at ARTIDIS AG, a clinical stage health-tech start-up founded in Basel, Switzerland, that has developed the first nanomechanical biomarker for cancer diagnosis and treatment optimization.

Ana joined the Corn lab as a Program Manager in September 2022.

Tabea received her MSc in Cell Biology from ETH Zurich in June 2024, where she studied signaling pathways that regulate nucleolar integrity and organelle homeostasis in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Matthias Peter. After continuing her research there until April 2025, she joined the Corn Lab in October 2025 as a PhD student investigating the interplay between epigenetics and the DNA damage response. Her research interests include DNA repair, functional genomics and genome editing technologies.

Kasandra Balzaretti obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) in 2024. She is currently enrolled in the Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Master’s program at ETH Zurich. In the spring of 2025, Kasandra carried out a semester project in the Corn Lab, where she investigated cell cycle activation following DNA damage in mature neurons. In October 2025, she returned to the lab to begin her Master’s thesis, which focuses on characterising the mechanisms and kinetics of the DNA damage response in mature post-mitotic neuron.

Marija received her Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Rijeka in 2015. She worked with Prof. Antonija Jurak Begonja on the role of Vps34 in proplatelet formation. She received her PhD in Genome Biology from ETH Zürich in 2024, working with Prof. Jacob Corn to identify mediators of erythroblast enucleation by CRISPR screening. She continued working in the Corn Lab as a postdoc in June 2024 and is currently studying the role of the exocyst complex in erythroblast enucleation.

Lilly van de Venn received her PhD in October 2024 from the Corn Lab, where she developed a high-throughput platform for detecting DNA double-strand breaks and characterizing off-target effects of CRISPR/Cas enzymes. In December 2024, she was awarded the ETH Pioneer Fellowship to support the formation of an ETH spin-off company based on her doctoral research. She previously earned her Master’s degree in Biochemistry from ETH Zurich, where she worked in the lab of Prof. Dr. Gerald Schwank on CRISPR-based DNA barcoding tools. Lilly’s work focuses on translating genome editing technologies into therapeutic applications, bridging fundamental DNA repair research with the development of clinically relevant tools for precision medicine.

Markus received his PhD in Computational Infection Biology from University College Dublin, Ireland, working with Prof. Geraldine Butler and Prof. Des Higgins on comparative genomics in human fungal pathogens, focusing on uncovering the population structure and characterizing transcriptional networks in Candida species. Markus joined the Corn lab staff as a Bioinformatics Scientist in May 2019 from Genentech, South San Francisco, where he worked on large scale cancer genomics and familial data sets. At ETHZ, he works on CRISPR- and NGS-related computational approaches and is part of the NCCR RNA & Disease.

Kinga received her Phd in Biology/Autoimmune diseases from the University of Freiburg (Germany) in 2012, working with Dr. Cassian Sitaru and Stefan Martin PhD on autoimmune skin diseases, focusing on autoantibody-mediated pathomechanisms. During her postdoc in Basel (Switzerland), she continued her research in complement-involved autoimmune pathomechanisms in SLE. Kinga joined the Corn lab as a laboratory manager and technical assistant in May 2019.

Matthias received his PhD in Molecular Biology from the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna in 2018, working with Prof. Johannes Zuber on the development of genetic- and transcriptomics tools for the study of gene regulation in leukemia. In July 2019 Matthias joined the Corn Lab as Postdoc to study the genetic basis of selective protein degradation. His research interests include protein homeostasis and exploratory genetics, with a special focus on protein quality control.

Zac received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Crete in 2011, working with Dr. Michalis Averof on establishing genetic tools for functional developmental studies in emerging model organisms, focusing on gene trapping and site directed recombination.  He then moved to Prof. Didier Stainier Lab, initially in UCSF and later in the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung research in Germany, where he worked on non-coding RNAs during development and regeneration using new reverse genetics tools.  After delving into inconsistencies between different reverse genetic approaches, Zac’s interests shifted to more fundamental questions like why some mutations cause a phenotype while others don’t.  Zac joined the “Corn Lab” as Head of the Genome Engineering and Measurement Lab in August 2019.  Amongst his research interests are regulation of gene expression during physiology and disease, with a special focus on understanding penetrance and expressivity, two classical Genetics terms that are often collectively used to describe the black box that lies between genotype and phenotype.

Lena Kobel received her Master’s degree in Cell Biology from the ETH Zürich in 2017. In her Master thesis she focused on generating stable mammalian cell lines using CRISPR-Cas9 in the lab of Prof. Martin Jinek at the University of Zürich, where she then worked for another 1.5 years as a technician. After that, she worked as an intern at Caribou Biosciences, Inc., in Berkeley for 6 months on a project focused on the development of CAR-T cell therapies. Lena joined the Corn lab as a Cell Line Engineer in March 2020.

Fedor Gorbenko received his Master’s degree in Molecular biology from Moscow state University in 2018 in Russia. He worked in the laboratory of professor Pavel Georgiev and focused on Polycomb-mediated repression of gene expression in a Drosophila model. Fedor joined the Corn Lab as a PhD student in January 2020. He is working on discovering principles that regulate functioning of CRISPR-Cas systems with a special focus on Cas14-related systems. Fedor’s research interests include evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems and implementation of the technology in therapy.

Moritz Schlapansky received his Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Vienna in 2020. He worked in the laboratory of Professor Michael McManus at UCSF, focusing on the development of a novel genetic screening paradigm and targeted sequencing approaches in order to decipher cell state transitions. Moritz joined the Corn Lab as a PhD student in July 2020. He is using the CRISPR toolbox to delineate genetic interactions that could inspire new cancer therapeutics. Moritz’ research interests include functional genomics, therapeutic gene editing and cancer biology, with a special focus on technology development.

Sebastian Siegner received his MSc in Biochemistry from ETH Zurich in December 2020 with his work on the therapeutic potential of CRISPR Base- and Prime-Editors for the genetic disease Fanconi Anemia. In 2021 Sebastian returned as a PhD student, focusing on genetic interactions in the human DNA damage response. His researches interests include functional genomics, DNA repair and therapeutic gene editing. 

John received his PhD in Oncology from the University of Oxford in 2020, working with Prof. Kristijan Ramadan on the molecular mechanisms of DNA-protein crosslink repair. John joined the Corn Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2020, where he is using CRISPR-Cas9-based screening approaches to identify genetic interactions that can be exploited in cancer therapy.

Eric received his PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics from the University of Minnesota in 2020 in the lab of Dr. Wendy Gordon developing improved genome editing technologies, including a Cas-DNA tethering platform. In November 2020, Eric joined the Corn Lab as a postdoc interested in studying synthetic lethalities and viabilities in DNA repair utilizing CRISPR.

Danielle received her B. Sc. in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from Marshall University, where she did research on secondary metabolite production in plants. In 2021 she received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University where she worked with Dr. James Haber to characterize the mechanisms of gene editing via single strand template repair. Danielle joined the Corn lab in April 2021 as postdoctoral researcher with interests in further understanding the mechanisms of DNA damage and utilizing these insights to develop tools to edit the genome.

Xiaojing received her bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2020, Xiaojing received her Ph.D. from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Science, working with Dr. Scott Keeney on the mechanism to regulate meiotic DSB formation. Xiaojing joined the Corn Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in March 2021 with interests in studying DNA damage repair and implementation of therapeutic gene editing.  

Martina received her MSc in Biology from ETH Zurich in September 2022. She worked in the Corn lab, focusing on the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in an autosomal dominant form of cerebral palsy. Martina returned to the Corn lab as a PhD student in December 2022, investigating how chemical modification of the protein backbone affects protein stability. Her research interests include protein homeostasis and functional genomics, as well as the potential application of protein engineering in biotechnology.

Marie received her PhD in Life Sciences jointly from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute in January 2025, where she worked with Dr Stephen West. Her research focused on uncovering and characterising novel synthetic lethal interactions of structure-specific endonuclease complexes, providing new insights into the regulation of genome stability and revealing a previously unrecognised pathway of lagging-strand DNA replication. In October 2025, Marie joined the Corn Lab as a postdoctoral researcher to apply gene-editing technologies to explore the dark genome. Her broader research interests include protein homeostasis in human health and genetic approaches to study protein quality-control mechanisms.

David received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Steve Jackson. His work focused on identifying functional genetic interactions within the DNA damage response through CRISPR-Cas9 screens. David joined the Corn Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2022. His research interests include DNA repair, CRISPR-Cas9 technologies, genetic screening, and therapeutic gene editing.

Iryna Vykhlyantseva completed her master's degree in Biotechnology at Instituto Superior Técnico in late 2022. In July 2023, she joined the Corn Lab's GEML team as a research assistant. Her current work involves the application of genome editing tools and the analysis of editing outcomes in mammalian cells.

Marwa Peters Al-Bayati received her MSc in Biology from ETH Zurich in February 2023. She worked in the lab of Prof. Dr. Yves Barral, with the focus on developing an inducible gene-knockout system to investigate the role of Slx5 in chromosome segregation in budding yeast. Marwa joined the Corn Lab as a PhD student in March 2023. Her work is on how chemical modification of semi-synthetic model protein affects protein degradation and finding the cellular machinery mediating this process. Her research interests include functional genomics, protein quality control, protein homeostasis as well as potential application in protein engineering for therapeutic purposes.

Benedetta Bellinazzi received her MSc degree in Medical Biotechnology from San Raffaele University (Milan, Italy) in 2023. She worked on the use of base editors for the treatment of a rare neurodevelopmental genetic disease and on viral vector delivery to the brain. Benedetta joined the Corn Lab as a PhD student in January 2024, to acquire new knowledge on DNA damage repair mechanisms after genome editing. Her research interests include CRISPR evolution and its applications across various fields, ranging from basic research to molecular medicine.

Irene received her MSc degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), where she worked on the characterization of the epidermal stemness regulatory network in Epidermolysis Bullosa. Later on, she joined Vector BioPharma AG as a research associate with a focus on immunology and genome editing in the development of adenovirus-based gene therapies. Irene joined the Corn Lab as a technical specialist in March 2024; her research interests focus on the therapeutic translation of genome editing technologies.

Carolyn received her PhD in molecular oncology from The University of Melbourne in 2021, working with Professor Frédéric Hollande on tumour and immunological heterogeneity in the context of metastatic colorectal cancer.  She then completed a 3-year postdoc at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne, Australia) with Dr Mohamed Fareh, where she leveraged mismatch tolerance within the CRISPR-Cas13 system to selectively target point-mutated oncogenes with single-nucleotide precision. Carolyn joined the Corn lab as a postdoctoral researcher in June 2024. Her ongoing research interests include functional cancer genomics and harnessing next-generation genome editing tools for precision medicine.

Carolyn received her PhD in molecular oncology from The University of Melbourne in 2021, working with Professor Frédéric Hollande on tumour and immunological heterogeneity in the context of metastatic colorectal cancer. She then completed a 3-year postdoc at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne, Australia) with Dr Mohamed Fareh, where she leveraged mismatch tolerance within the CRISPR-Cas13 system to selectively target point-mutated oncogenes with single-nucleotide precision. Carolyn joined the Corn lab as a postdoctoral researcher in June 2024. Her ongoing research interests include functional cancer (epi)genomics and harnessing next-generation genome editing tools for precision medicine.

Luca received his Master’s degree in Biological Chemistry from the ETH Zürich in 2024. In his Master thesis he was working with Dr. Zacharias Kontarakis on establishing a pipeline for in-depth investigation of transcriptional adaptation in mammalian cells. Luca joined the Corn Lab as a Research Assistant in July 2024; his research interests are focused on the application of the gene editing tool CRISPR to further the understanding of gene expression and the possible influence on the medical field.

Young earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Seoul National University (South Korea) in 2023, where he worked in Dr. V. Narry Kim’s lab, focusing on the molecular and structural insights of siRNA and miRNA production by human Dicer. In November 2024, he joined the Corn Lab as a postdoctoral researcher, with a research focus on leveraging CRISPR technology to address fundamental biological questions.

Tijana Nikic received her MSc in Human Biology from LMU Munich, completing her thesis in 2022 with Prof. Dr. Stefan Stricker on understanding astrocyte cell identity and optimizing their reprogramming to neurons. She then joined Roche pRED for a 10-month internship focused on novel cancer immunotherapies, followed by a year in the Rogulja Lab at Harvard Medical School, where she studied sleep regulation. In November 2024, Tijana joined the Corn Lab as a PhD student to investigate the mechanisms of organelle clearance during reticulocyte maturation. Her research interests include functional genomics, unraveling molecular mechanisms driving cellular processes, and advancing genome editing technologies for therapeutic applications.

Dominic Mailänder received his Master's degree in Molecular Health Sciences from ETH Zurich in 2024. During his Master's thesis in the Corn Lab, he focused on investigating determinants of DNA double-strand break repair. Dominic returned to the Corn Lab as a Research Technician in April 2025. His current work centers on the development and automation of a high-throughput CRISPR off-target detection protocol.

Dora obtained her Master’s degree in Chemistry from ETH Zurich in 2019, where she conducted research on the Synthesis of trypanothione reductase inhibitors in the Diederich group (Chem. Eur. J., 2019) and Templated length-controlled oligomerization in the Wennemers group (Faraday Discuss., 2023). During her master's studies, she joined the Roche Innovation Center Zurich as an intern, working on antibody purification and quality control. She then transitioned into a Research Associate role, supporting research across multiple therapeutic areas by developing 2D and 3D genetically engineered disease models using advanced genome editing technologies for in vitro and in vivo studies. In May 2025, Dora joined the Corn Lab as a PhD student to investigate how cells sense and respond to genetic perturbations. Her research focuses on uncovering how transcriptional adaptation shapes phenotypic variability and contributes to disease-relevant traits.

Lan Wang received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from ETH Zurich in 2025. She is currently enrolled in the Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Master’s program at ETH Zurich. Lan joined the Corn Lab in September 2025. For her Master’s thesis she is investigating the mechanisms of multiple organelle clearance in human red blood cells.

Charles Yeh received his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2024 wherein he developed a novel high-sensitivity in situ/in vivo system (RaPID-seq) for monitoring homology search during DNA double-stranded break homology-directed repair (DSBR/HDR). A major theme of Charles' research is furthering our understanding of basic genome biology and applying this knowledge in a translational context through a combination of cutting-edge next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and computational analysis. This research has not only included understanding how basic DNA repair mechanisms lead to different genome editing outcomes, but also how we can modulate these pathways to specifically enrich for desired outcomes.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Charles conducted research at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a member of the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program. Therein, Charles developed and applied novel human stem cell-derived disease models and high-throughput screening technologies to identify potential therapeutics for rare lysosomal storage disorders, including Farber and Wolman diseases.

Jacob Corn is the Professor of Genome Biology at ETH Zürich. His research aims to bring about the end of genetic disease through the development and application of next-generation genome editing technologies. Jacob is committed to the improvement of human health through the fundamental understanding of disease mechanisms. Over the last fifteen years he has bridged academia and industry, working in therapeutic areas that include infectious disease, neurobiology, and oncology. His graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley redefined our understanding of DNA replication and his postdoctoral work at the University of Washington computationally designed protein inhibitors from scratch. Jacob was a group leader at Genentech where he discovered biological mechanisms for challenging therapeutic targets. Prior to joining ETHZ, Jacob was the founding Scientific Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute and faculty at UC Berkeley. In his spare time, Jacob enjoys long backpacking trips and rock climbing

You can find Jacob on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Santiago Molina received his Bachelor's degree in History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science from the University of Chicago in 2012 and is currently working towards the completion of his PhD in Sociology at UC Berkeley.  His research focuses on the structure of scientific practices and patterns of technology adoption in relation to their organizational and institutional contexts.