Dr Christiane Iserman

Driven by her interest in science, Christiane Iserman studied Electro- and Information Technology and Biology and was selected to join the Biology PLUS/International Program at the University of Düsseldorf, which included a year of research at Michigan State University. She was awarded the “Deutschlandstipendium” for three consecutive years. Following her B.Sc., she entered the IMPRS PhD program at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology with a fellowship for a fast-track PhD. During her PhD under Prof. Simon Alberti, she investigated how cells measure stress signal intensity and adjust their response. She demonstrated how yeast proteins condense in response to stress, triggering downstream gene expression through translational regulation. This work, now published in Cell, was a key achievement during her academic training.

She later pursued postdoctoral research at UNC Chapel Hill with Prof. Amy Gladfelter, where she explored RNA-based condensation in viral packaging and was recognized with a Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard fellowship. Her work that was published in Molecular Cell and recognized with a NIH Fast Grants Award for its impact on coronavirus biology.

As Head of Condensate Biology for Infectious Diseases at Dewpoint Therapeutics, she led cross-disciplinary teams working in oncology, nephrology, and virology, advancing programs from hypothesis generation to high-throughput screening (HTS) and hit-to-lead processes. Her collaborative work with Pharma partners honed her expertise in drug discovery. At the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, she later on worked with Anne Grapin-Botton and Tony Hyman to set-up organoid systems for condensate biology research.

Since October 1, 2025, Christiane Iserman has headed the HUMAN (Human Microbe Alliance for Universal Health) junior research group “Biomolecular Condensates in Infection” at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. Her group is dedicated to the research of biomolecular condensates in infection in order to develop innovative antiviral strategies.