Prof. Dr. Emma Slack

Group Leader

Emma is a British/Swiss scientist who trained in Cambridge, London, Hamilton (Ontario) and Bern before joining the ETH Zürich. She is now a Professor of Mucosal Immunology at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology, as well as at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, at the University of Oxford. She believes that difficult scientific problems, like understanding how the immune system in the intestine can influence microbiome composition and function, require a creative team of individuals collaborating closely across disciplines to solve them. These brilliant scientists need a safe, happy space to push the boundaries of knowledge, where they know that we are all there to support each other. So, while she still likes to get into the lab and get involved, she is also committed to leading a research group that reflects these values.

Dr. Noëmi Rebecca Meier

Clinical Study Manager (BIIE)

Noëmi is a scientist with a background in infectious disease research, having worked both in Switzerland and internationally. She initially joined ETH Zürich as a project manager, where she supported the Microbiota Engineering project by coordinating research efforts across a team of multiple investigators. She has now rejoined the Slack Lab as a Clinical Study Manager within the Botnar Institute of Immune Engineering.

Dr. Yagmur George Turgay

Senior Scientist

Yagmur studied biochemistry in Frankfurt, Germany, before completing his PhD at the Institute of Biochemistry at ETH Zürich. After having worked in a biotech company developing glycodesigned antibodies, he joined Emma’s lab as a senior scientist. In his current role he is interested in modalities of antibody-glycan interactions for the development of oral vaccines.

Dr. Markus Arnoldini

Senior Assistant

Markus wants to understand how the ecology of the gut microbiota and host physiology influence each other, and how we can use this understanding to improve health outcomes. He trained at ETH Zürich and UC San Diego in evolutionary microbiology/quantitative biology.

Dr. Tim Keys

Senior Scientist and CSO (Baxiva)

Tim studied in Brisbane and worked at the Institute for Glycomics on the Gold Coast (Australia) and the Hannover Medical School (Germany) before joining the Institute of Microbiology at the ETH Zürich. His research projects cover the intersections of protein biochemistry, enzyme engineering, microbial glycan biosynthesis and synthetic biology. In 2020, Tim joined the Mucosal Immunology lab as junior group leader. He is now working as a CSO at the newly funded startup Baxiva.

Dr. Louise Larsson

Head of Preclinical Development (Baxiva)

Louise completed her M.Sc. in Biotechnology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden before moving to Switzerland in September 2020 to pursue her PhD. As a part of the Microbiota Engineering Project, she tried to develop tools for precise engineering of the gut microflora. After completion of her PhD she now continues in the lab working with Baxiva to develop a vaccine against urinary tract infections caused by E.coli.

Selma Aslani

Lab Manager / Technical Specialist

Selma studied Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich. After her graduation she worked as a research associate in the pharmaceutical industry. In 2021 she re-joined the lab as a technical specialist for oral vaccine production and took over the role of lab manager.

Niina Ruoho

Technician

Before joining the mucosal immunology group, Niina studied environmental sciences and worked as a research technician at the University of Helsinki. She enjoys the international & collegial atmosphere of the group and is fascinated by the connection between microbiomes and health. In her freetime Niina enjoys exploring the great Swiss outdoors (as long as it’s safe) and filling her apartment with succulents.

Dr. Cheickna Diawara

Postdoctoral Researcher

Cheickna is a Malian/German Postdoctoral Researcher who trained at Goethe-University Frankfurt (BSc) and at ETH Zurich (MSc). He recently finished his Phd in the Slack group. His background is in microbiology, immunology and biochemistry. He is passionate about public health in low-income countries and investigates the role of secretory IgA in combating bacterial gut infections.

Tom Kloter

PhD Student

Tom is a swiss PhD student who completed his Bachelor and Master degree at ETH Zurich. After a year of brain tumor research at the Children's Hospital Zurich, he returned to ETH to pursue his doctoral studies in the mucosal immunology group. His project focuses on elucidating the mechanism behind surface antigen focusing in bacterial infection of the gastrointestinal tract and the lung.

Dr. Elisabetta Cacace

Postdoctoral Researcher

Elisabetta Cacace is a shared postdoctoral fellow between the groups of Emma Slack and Shinichi Sunagawa at ETH Zurich since 2023. She obtained her MD and MSc from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, and her PhD from EMBL Heidelberg. She currently focuses on host-commensal interactions, using a combination of computational and experimental approaches to study nitrogen metabolism in the human gut microbiome.

Dr. Annika Hausmann

SNSF Ambizione Group Leader

Annika studied Molecular Medicine in Bonn and Freiburg (DE). She trained in Zürich (CH) and Copenhagen (DK) in mucosal immunology, host-microbe interactions and epithelial repair mechanisms in intestinal inflammation. Annika is fascinated by how our intestinal mucosa manages to maintain a stable relation with commensal microbes, while protecting us against enteropathogen infections at the same time. Annika´s Epithelium-Microbiota Crosstalk subgroup joins the Mucosal Immunology lab in Fall 2024.

Nicola Realini

PhD Student (Hausmann Group)

After completing a Bachelor's degree at the University of Lausanne and a Master's degree at ETH Zurich, Nicola joined the Hausmann subgroup in the Slack Lab to conduct his doctoral studies. His project focuses on the complex interactions among the intestinal epithelium, microbiota, and immune system, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms of antigen sampling within this context.

Sharon Dreier

Technician (Baxiva)

Before joining the Slack lab, Sharon studied Biotechnology and worked as an associate scientist in the field of environmental microbiology. Her current focus is the purification of capsular polysaccharides from E.coli for next generation vaccine production at Baxiva.

Christoph Rutschmann

Technical Specialist (Baxiva)

Christoph is a technical specialist that brings years of experience in research and industry within the field of glycobiology. He specializes in advancing early-stage glycoprotein-based prototypes into pre-clinical stages. Christoph possesses a high level of expertise in the production, purification and biochemical characterization of proteins and polysaccharides, with a specific focus on E. coli O and K antigens vaccines. He recently cofounded Baxiva and acts as head of R&D.

Dr. Julian Harrison

Senior Scientist

Julian obtained his PhD at the University of Wollongong before moving to the Zenobi group at ETH Zurich. He joined the Slack group in 2024, where his research focuses on the application of various mass spectrometry techniques, such as native mass spectrometry, to help develop better vaccines, as well as methods for bacterial detection and metabolomics.

Etienne Hösli

Master Student

Etienne obtained his Bachelor degree at UNIL and is doing a Master in Immunology and Microbiology at ETH Zurich. He joined the Slack lab in September 2024 for his second semester project and will continue working on the BRCCH project for his Master’s thesis under the supervision of Elisa and Mateusz.

Dr. Erick Sanchez Salguero

Postdoctoral Researcher (Oxford Lab)

Erick's MSc and PhD research have been focused on B cell biology and characterisation, antibody production, specificity evaluation and microbiota composition analyses. He joined the Slack group as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. He is working on two main projects: 1) Studying the influence of bacteriophage abundance on IgA priming in the gut lumen using an E. coli K1-like bacteria model and exploring the consequences of phage-modulated immune responses on bacteria multidrug resistant and 2) Establishing a rapid assay to determine the amount of lipopeptides required to give activation of 50% of cells in a blood or PBMC-based assay to study TLR1/2/6 sensitivity linked to asthma subtypes.

Dr. Sarah Woodward

Postdoctoral Researcher (Oxford Lab)

Sarah is a Canadian microbiologist and science communicator specializing in infection ecology. She earned a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of British Columbia (Canada), studying how pathogenic microbes sense and respond to regional gut barriers and signals. Afterward, Sarah worked at the BC Centre for Disease Control to explore cross-reactive immunity to endemic coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2. Her current work in the Oxford Slack group focuses on the impacts of antibody cross-reactivity on gut community ecology and vaccine immunogenicity.

Alisia Borri

Scientific Assistant (Hausmann Group)

Having completed her MSc in Biotechnology at Wageningen University, Alisia joined the Hausmann and Slack group to investigate the molecular wiring of subpopulation-specific responses to cytokine exposure in intestinal epithelial cells using organoid models.

Stella Greuter

PhD Student

Stella did her Bachelor and Master degree at ETH Zürich. After a year of working as a research assistant on various gut-microbiome related projects, she joined the Arnoldini and Slack lab for her PhD. Her research focuses on quantitative understanding of the vaginal microbiota-host physiology in health and disease.

Alexandra Brecht

PhD Student (Hausmann Group)

Alexandra completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Basel and following her interests in infection biology she also pursued her Master’s degree at the Biocenter. She joined the Hausmann group to work on unraveling the interplay between gut microbiome, host epithelial cells and the immune system. Alexandra is passionate about using novel in-vitro systems to more accurately model the host physiology and immune response. Further, she aims to elucidate how these complex interactions contribute to various disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease.