Team

Our Team

Jan Haaker, PhD
Principle Investigator

I am trained as a pharmacist and obtained my PhD in pharmacological neuroscience at the University of Hamburg (Dept of Chemistry) and University Medical Center (Dept. of Systems Neuroscience). My PhD-project focused on dopaminergic processes in extinction of fear in humans.
A DFG research stipend enabled me to investigate neuropharmacological processes in social fear learning in Andreas Olssons` Lab at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
In 2016 I started my own research group „Systems Neuropharmacology of aversive learning„ at the Department of Systems Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.  Moreover, I am PI within the Collaborative Research Grant (SFB TRR 58): „Fear, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders“, Project B10, working on neuropharmacological ways to enhance Fear Extinction.
​Since 2018, I am member of the Young National Academy of Science, ("Junge Akademie"), which provides an excellent, interdisciplinary forum to connect with science and society. 

Roland Eßer, PhD

Post-doc
​I studied psychology at the Westfälische-Wilhelms Universität in Münster and obtained my PhD in neuroscience at the Department of Systems Neuroscience at the Medical University Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. 
During my PhD I worked on applied basic research in respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). More precisely, I investigated how the chronic experience of breathlessness (dyspnea) impacts brain structure and function in patients with COPD and how brain changes interplay with disease-specific characteristics (e.g., disease-specific fears, depression, anxiety, physical condition). I also examined the neural processing of dyspnea in healthy individuals mainly focused on the interaction between psychological factors such as affective states, personality traits but also genetics. 
In December 2016 I joined the group on Systems Neuropharmacology Research as a Postdoc to work on the SFB-TRR58 (link:https://campus.uni-muenster.de/sfbtrr58/the-project/ ) sub-project B10. This project investigates the neuropharmacological mechanisms of the dopaminergic and the endocannabinoid neurostransmitter system on extinction learning processes. The major aim is to delineate the separate effect of the two transmitter systems as well as their interaction within the neural circuits mediating extinction learning and retrieval.

Madeleine Müller, M.A.

PhD Student

Tahmine Fadai, MD 

Study Physician

Smilla Weisser

Student Assistant

Alumni

Saregül Subasi, Student Assistant
Franziska Leimeister (Trainee Psychology)
Stefanie Böckmann (Trainee Pharmacy)
Merlin Litke (Student Assistant)
Florian Ganzer, MD (Study Physician)