Dr. Stefanie Grosswendt
Systems Biology of Cell Interactions
Systems Biology
Development
Computational Biology
Cell-Cell Communication
Stem Cell Biology
Cells communicate with their neighbors to shape gene expression and cellular decisions. Our team of wet lab and computational biologists aims to decode the language of cells by addressing four central questions: Which cells are neighbors? How do they communicate? What are the consequences? Can we build cell interactions?
We develop single-cell-based genomic strategies to investigate how cells interact. Recently, we have developed CellMate-seq (in revision, available upon request), a method to transcriptionally profile neighboring cells and uncover their ligand-receptor dialogues. Combined with imaging-based spatial transcriptomics, we investigate the communication patterns that instruct neural crest cells, which interact with diverse cells as they migrate through the mouse embryo and give rise to a variety of cell types in response to signals. Furthermore, we develop strategies in complex in vitro systems and reconstruct interactions bottom-up to dissect how the same signal activates distinct genes in different cell types, and how cells integrate inputs from multiple neighbors. Ultimately, we aim to understand how cell interactions are organized and collectively instruct cells.
My group will move from Berlin to the MPI in Münster in summer 2026. We recruit students with experimental and/or computational expertise. If you seek an interdisciplinary environment, a project to build and identify with, and a great team, we would love to hear from you.
Vita
- 2006 - 2009 BSc in Biology, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
- 2009 - 2011 MSc in Cell Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- 2011 - 2015 PhD student, Max Delbrück Center Berlin, Germany
- 2016 - 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany,
and visiting researcher at Harvard Department of Stem Cell and
Regenerative Biology, Cambridge, USA - 2021 - 2026 Independent Research Group Leader, Berlin Institute of Health and
Max Delbrück Center Berlin, Germany - From 07/2026 Independent Research Group Leader, Lise Meitner Excellence Program,
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine
Selected references
Uncovering ligand-receptor dialogues between individual cells with CellMate-seq.
Tobias Christaller, Philipp Stachel-Braum, […] Stefanie Grosswendt*
*corresponding author
in revision, available upon request
Grosswendt S, Kretzmer H, Smith ZD, Kumar AS, Hetzel S, Wittler L, Klages S, Timmermann B, Mukherji S, Meissner A. (2020). Epigenetic regulator function through mouse gastrulation. Nature 584(7819):102–108.
Links