Group Members
Carsten O. Daub - Group Leader
carsten.daub@ki.se - +46852481224 - Twitter: @carsten.daub - Publications - CV
I am an Associate Professor (“Docent” in the Swedish academic system) and group leader for the Clinical Transcriptomics research group at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet. My educational background is in Chemistry (Masters in 2000 at Technical University Berlin) and Bioinformatics (PhD in 2004 at Max-Planck-Institute in Golm). I spent two years as postdoc with Erik Sonnhammer at Karolinska Institutet 2004-2006 after which I went to work with Yoshihide Hayashizaki at RIKEN Yokohama. In 2007 I became Team Leader and was leading the Bioinformatics Core Facility as Facility Director since 2008. In 2012, I moved back to Karolinska Institutet to lead the Clinical Transcriptomics research group to improve the understanding of gene regulation underlying diseases.
Işıl Takan - Post-doc
Publications: Pubmed, Google Scholar
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Daub Lab at Karolinska Institute. I have a background in system biology and bioinformatics, with a focus on cancer biology and evolution. I received my PhD from Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir Biomedicine and Genome Institute, in 2022, where I applied computational biology approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms of cancer across taxonomic groups. During my PhD, I also worked as a visiting research assistant in Pavlopoulou Lab at the IBG Center and gained experience in various bioinformatics tools and techniques, such as phylogenetic analysis, high-throughput data analysis, biological network analysis, text mining, database management, and web design. I am passionate about learning new things and solving challenging problems. I enjoy working in a multidisciplinary and collaborative environment. The idea of searching for answers to questions about life by comparing different taxonomic groups is quite fascinating. I am incredibly excited to be a part of the project called Molecular Origins of Human Psychiatric Disorders: DogGenomeAnnotation Project to understand ourselves and, in essence, nature by looking at nature itself in Daub lab.
Rasha Fahad - PhD Student
I got my master degree in Biotechnology from the University of Queensland, AU in 2015 and joined Carsten’s group in 2019 as a Phd student. In my research I will study the RNA profile of different types of breast cancer tissues using spatial transcriptomics. I’ll investigate breast cancer types based on the pathological characterizations combined with their RNA profiles and I’ll identify breast cancer associated risks using sequencing data (genomic variants) and molecular profiling.
Maria Arceo - Post-doc
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Daub Lab since February 2026. I hold a MSc in statistics (2018) from Central Michigan University, USA; and a PhD in bioinformatics (2025) from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. During my PhD I focused on cancer biology at the single cell level, using computational methods to investigate the molecular mechanisms of neuroblastoma and paraganglioma cells across different ages, clinical stages and metastatic potential. My current research focuses on modelling cancer-associated alternative polyadenylation in a spatial context. In my spare time I enjoy hiking and watching TV series – especially zombie shows.To place an image on the right of text in HTML/CSS, use a simple layout with flexbox or floats.
Tianhui Xu - PhD student
I am a PhD student in the Daub Lab since 2025 autumn. I completed my MSc in bioinformatics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, working a lot on machine learning. Now I focused on breast cancer heterogeneity, integrating multi-modal data including spatial transcriptomics, scRNA-seq, histopathology images. I am also interested in advanced methodology in AI. In my spare time I love to visit museums and galleries, and I am a fan of Japanese pop music and animes.
Sakariye Ahmed - Bachelor student
I am a bachelor student from the university of Skövde in Sweden, majoring in molecular bioinformatics. During this semester I will do my thesis project in the Daub lab, where I will work with spatial transcriptomics data to study immune heterogeneity in breast cancer and estimate immune cell composition within tumor tissue.
Cristina Pineda Menéndez de Luarca - Bachelor student
I am a Biomedicine student from Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid, Spain). During my stay in the group, I will be working on Spatial Transcriptomics and Breast Cancer to complete my Bachelor Thesis. The aim of my project is to gain a deeper understanding of hormone ligand-receptor communication and to explore its potential relationship with the tumor's immune status.
Been here, done that ...
Previous team members
Faezeh Mottaghitalab, Post-doc (2025)
Rijja Hussain Bokhari, Data Manager (2025)
Gabriele Gambero, MSc Student (2025)
Axel Rey, Summer Student (2025)
Lyra Cromwell, Summer Student (2025)
Hilal Peker, Summer Student (2025)
Eric Zhou, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2025)
Yaying Bu, MSc Student (2025)
Yi Li , MSc Student (2025)
Stefan Altendorfer , MSc Student (2025)
Tahmina Akther , PhD Student (2024)
Corentin Meyvaert, Master, Summer intern (2024)
Ilayda Kaytaran, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2024)
Maaike van Rattingen, Master student (2024)
Maxime Hayakawa, Undergraduate (2024)
Kacper Maciejewski, Undergraduate (202)
Meg Mukherjee, Master student (2023)
Cevi Bainton, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2023)
Aleksandra Czerkowicz, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2023)
Marissa Nicole Esteban, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2023)
Molly Murray, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2022)
Ismael Richard Valenzuela, Summer intern (2022)
Maxime Hayakawa, Master student (2022)
Nicolas Stefanelli, Undergraduate, Summer intern (2021)
Anna Kerber, Master student (2022)
Audrey Piraud, Summer intern (2022)
Sabina Gansberger, Master student (2022)
Matthias Hörtenhuber, PhD student (2015-2022)
Abdul Kadir Mukarram, PhD Student (2015-2021)
Enrichetta Mileti, PhD Student (2014-2021)
Fiona Roß, Master Student (2021)
Kelvin Kwok, Postdoc (2017-2021)
Ahmad Ali, Master student (2020)
Filip Runebou Läärä, Master student (2020)
Irene Stevens, Bioinformatics Lab Technician (2018-2019)
Marine Tessarech, Master student (2019)
Michaël Dong, Bioinformatics Lab Technician (2016-2018)
Amitha Raman, Lab engineer (2013-2018)
Niyaz Yoosuf, Postdoc (2014-2018)
Jiarui Mi, Master student (2017-2018)
Marta Dias, Erasmus master student (2015-2016)
Johanna Labate, Erasmus summer student (2015)
Olga Hrydziuszko, Postdoc (2012-2014)
Nancy Yu, Postdoc (2012-2014)
Wenjing Kang, Masters student (Feb-June 2014)
Jacqueline Nowak, Masters student (April-August 2014)
Kubra Altinel, Erasmus summer student (2014)