P9: cGMP signaling and its role in autistic and cognitive auditory processing disabilities

Joana Ibrahim-Bacha completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology Engineering at Aleppo University in Syria, focusing her thesis on the genetics of hearing loss. Following her graduation, she relocated to Turkey, where she gained two years of experience in marketing.
In 2020, she was awarded the Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship, which enabled her to pursue a master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology with a specialization in Molecular Biology in Budapest, Hungary. This program was a joint effort between Pázmány Péter Catholic University and Semmelweis University. Her master’s thesis at Semmelweis University investigated the effects and roles of immune modulation on sensorineural hearing loss through various experimental applications of medications.
She is now set to begin her PhD studies at the GRK 2381 with Marlies Knipper’s group, “Molecular Physiology of Hearing,” at the Hearing Research Center in Tübingen. Her research will focus on cGMP signaling in hearing impairments and models for autism spectrum disorders.

Philine Marchetta studied biology at the University of Tübingen and earned her Bachelor’s degree in 2016 in the department of Animal Physiology. She went to Marburg to study Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience for her master’s and earned her degree in 2018. Her thesis was in the field of molecular neurophysiology with cooperation to the University Hospital of Tübingen. During her doctoral studies in the laboratory of Marlies Knipper in the department of Molecular Physiology of Hearing she will focus on the influence of cGMP pathways in the brain, especially the auditory processing but also cognition, plasticity and disorders such as autism spectrum. She is interested in electrophysiological methods as well as imaging and behavioral tests.

Philine is the first doctoral fellow who graduated from the GRK 2381. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the field of sensory neuroscience in the University of California, San Francisco, USA.

Dila studied Bioengineering and Genetics at Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey for her Bachelor’s degree and she completed her Master’s degree in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience with Specialization of Drug Development & Neurohealth in Maastricht University from Netherlands. During her bachelor thesis she investigated the neuronal basis of behavioral despair at Bogazici University. For her master thesis she worked on the vulnerability to stress disorders at Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Canada. She started her PhD in Marlies Knipper’s group which is “Molecular Physiology of Hearing” at the Hearing Research Center in Tübingen where she will study cGMP signaling in hearing impairments and models for autism spectrum disorders.

Morgan Hess obtained her B.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina. She then obtained her M.Sc. in Neural and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Tübingen, where she pursued research on the auditory system. During her first lab rotation with Prof. Dr. Marlies Knipper, her project focused on stress, cGMP, and hearing. In her second lab rotation, she worked on genetic epidemiology of hereditary hearing loss under the supervision of Dr. Barbara Vona. She completed her master thesis in the lab of Prof. Dr. Marlies Knipper, where she investigated sound enrichment on a mouse model with autism-like characteristics. For her ongoing doctoral studies in the lab of Prof. Dr. Marlies Knipper, she will examine the role of cGMP at the crossroads of hearing, stress, and autism.