Meet the Organisers

This symposium is made possible by the work of our organising team. We are a group of PhD students from different fields and labs across Munich, bringing diverse academic and cultural backgrounds and ambition to take our passion beyond academic research.

InPharma is a recurrent event. If organising a career symposium sounds fun to you, watch out for emails from your graduate school about the future InPharma symposiums.

Content Team 

Nandika Sanjog Sahani

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Contact: sahani@biochem.mpg.de
Research: Phage biology (RNAs in phages)

”I love the process of turning a bunch of ideas into something that actually comes alive. It’s like assembling a giant puzzle, finding the right speakers, the right balance of topics, and watching it all click together.”

Anastasiia Gonchar

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Contact: gonchar@biochem.mpg.de
Research: Translational repression

”The people who are organising this event are very responsible and enthusiastic, they are really driven by the idea.”
 

Pavel Kravchenko

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry 
Research: Transcription regulation and chromatin architecture

“I was inspired to join the organizing team because I truly enjoyed coordinating the Interact Conference and saw how impactful a well-organized event can be. I’d like to apply what I learned there to make InPharma even better.”

Bhavna Menon

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Contact: menon@biochem.mpg.de
Research: Non-canonical RNAP of bacteriophages

“[Something I learned from organizing InPharma is] multitasking. Balancing different responsibilities for the event has helped me get better at managing my time and staying organized, which definitely carries into research.”

Katerina Slanska

Affiliation: Center for Functional Protein Assemblies (CPA), TUM
Contact: katerina.slanska@tum.de
Research: Structural and functional characterization of molecular chaperones

”I joined the Content Team because I was excited about shaping the scientific and career-related program — finding inspiring speakers, exploring their stories, and making sure we include a wide variety of career paths so that the attendees get the most out of it.”

Finance Team

Alexa Wachtler

Affiliation: Walther Straub Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Contact: a.wachtler@lmu.de
Research: Proteomic analysis of enzyme adducts

”[What I enjoy the most about organizing InPharma is]  being part of a group of highly motivated people, working on something new and learning together as we put it all together.”

Hanna Nagel

Affiliation: Physiological Chemistry, Biomedical Center, LMU
Contact: h.nagel@bmc.med.lmu.de
Research: Regulation of glucose-responsive transcription factors

”Time management and meeting deadlines have been crucial. As part of the finance team, we need to secure funding early and communicate clearly so that other teams can plan effectively. Predicting budgets and staying organised are key to keeping everything on track.”

Jure Povšin

Affiliation: Max planck Institute of Biochemistry
Contact: povsin@biochem.mpg.de
Research: Immunoregulation

“The thing I enjoy the most about organizing InPharma 2026 is seeing how the whole process  looks like and evolves behind the scenes. From forming sub-teams to everyone playing an important role to make the event as successful and engaging as possible.”

Logistics team

Nele Dierlamm

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Contact: dierlamm@biochem.mpg.de
Research: Protein design

”[I joined the InPharma organizing team because] I really liked the idea of getting to know some more people while working on something meaningful.”

David Andreu Sanz

Affiliation: LMU University Hospital
Contact: david.andreu@med.uni-muenchen.de
Research: Cancer immunotherapy

“I hope this event will help PhD students and young researchers gain a clearer understanding of the wide range of career paths available in the pharmaceutical industry and feel more confident exploring opportunities beyond academia.”

Subhasree Dutta

Affiliation: Comprehensive Pneumology Centre, Hemholtz Centre Munich, LMU
Contact: subhasree.dutta@helmholtz-munich.de
Research: Lung fibrosis and mechanisms of mesothelial cell differentiation

”I hope the event will empower students and young researchers to explore new opportunities, gain confidence, and feel part of a supportive scientific community.”

Kathrin Halter

Affiliation: LMU
Contact: kathrin.halter@lmu.de
Research: tRNA modifications in a protoribosomal translation system

“[I decided to join the organizing team because] I like attending such events myself, so I was very interested to look behind the scenes and be part of the organisation. I hope everyone gets good insights and makes a lot of contacts.”

Marketing team

Jiyeong Ryu

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Contact: jiyryu@biochem.mpg.de
Research: Structures and functions of mRNPs (structural cell biology)

“My PhD has trained me to manage time, plan ahead, and solve problems creatively - all of which have been essential in organizing this event. And thanks to countless figure-making sessions with Adobe Illustrator, I've also found some unexpected design skills coming in handy.”

Camille Barro 

Affiliation: Institute of Lung Health and Immunity, Helmholtz Munich & TUM Graduate Center of Medicine and Health
Research: Disease and gene repair therapy in lung organoids

“An interesting skill that I learned from InPharma is working with teams that handle different aspects of the project, but still depend on each other. In the PhD, I often do everything myself, while here I learned to coordinate with others.”

Susanne Hermann

Affiliation: Department of Medicine V, LMU University Hospital
Contact: hermann.su@lmu.de
Research: Lung cancer immunology

“I decided to join the marketing team because I am a visual person. I truly believe that colors, fonts, wording and overall design shape how people feel about an event. Good marketing isn't just promotion but it's about telling a story and building excitement.”

Aleksandra Kurova 

Affiliation: LMU
Contact: aleksandra.kurova@med.lmu.de
Research: Role of placenta-derived peptide PIF in perinatal immune cell regulation 

“I hope this event will help other students and young researchers gain a clearer understanding of the diverse career paths available in the biotech industry. Many of us spend years focused on academic research, so I want this event to open doors, showing that our scientific skills are highly valuable beyond the lab.”