Group

Dr. Farnoush Farahpour, Principal Investigator

Farnoush studied physics in Tehran and received her Ph.D. from Sharif University of Technology. Her Ph.D. research focused on modeling the electro-hydrodynamic behavior of charged polyelectrolytes in non-uniform electric fields. In 2014, she joined the Bioinformatics and Computational Biophysics group at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). By 2020, she became a principal investigator, establishing her group with DFG Eigene Stelle funding. Currently, she is a faculty member of the University Hospital Essen and a lecturer at the Biology Department at UDE.

Email: farnoush.farahpour[at]uni-due.de

Lara Schmalenstroer

Lara studied Molecular Biology (B.Sc.) with a focus on bioinformatics at the Westfälische Hochschule in Recklinghausen. She completed her master's degree in Life Science Informatics at the University of Bonn in 2022. After graduating, she became a member of our group and is working on the mathematical modeling of radiation-induced immune responses after targeted radiotherapy in pancreatic cancer as well as on a pharmacokinetic model for the distribution of the radiotherapeutical.
Lara enjoys swimming, rowing, playing boardgames, and spending time with her dog.

Linkedin: Lara Schmalenstroer

Alireza Doustmohammadi

Alireza started his academic journey in Computer Software Engineering and received his MSc degree in Bioinformatics from Tarbiat Modare University. During his master's, he focused on protein engineering, analysis of biological sequencing data, and application of machine learning models to biological data.
In 2023, he joined our group as a PhD candidate in computational biomedicine. His research focuses on the interaction between the tumor microenvironment and the lesional microbiome, using methods such as cell-cell communication, TCR repertoire and functional analysis.

Email: alireza.dostmohammadi[at]uni-due.de

Ahmed Atta

Ahmed received his bachelor's degree in clinical pharmacy from Minia University in Egypt. With a keen interest in bioinformatics and model-informed drug development, he completed his master's degree in bioinformatics at the Freie Universität Berlin in 2023. During his master studies, he worked as a student research assistant at the Charité University Medicine Berlin and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment.
Ahmed joined our group as a PhD student and focused his project on quantitative systems pharmacology modeling of immune responses after radiation.
Aside from research, Ahmed enjoys cooking, running, reading, and video editing.

Sina Roshandel

Sina studied Physics in Iran and completed his master’s in Statistical Physics and Complex Systems at Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran. During his master’s degree, he researched critical thresholds of complex systems and explored how topological measures (Persistent Homology) and information theory-based measures (Kolmogorov-Sinai Entropy) can be used to determine phase transitions in different systems prior to the transition as interpretable early warning signals (EWS).
In 2024, Sina joined our group as a PhD candidate in Computational Biology. His research will focus on the association between abundance structure and biodiversity patterns as a signature of deterministic processes, using stochastic analysis and complex network methods.

Paula

Paula is a volunteer member of our group, working part-time with a focus on creating a playful spirit while being a quiet supporter to ensure everyone's morale stays high. To our group, she's not just a pet; she's a reminder that sometimes the best stress relief comes with a wagging tail and a friendly woof.