Prof. Dr. Carien Niessen is CECAD´s scientific coordinator.

After studying biology at the Utrecht University, Carien Niessen obtained her PhD on the function of a6b4 in cell adhesion and in skin blistering diseases at The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam in the laboratory of Arnoud Sonnenberg. She received a Dutch Cancer Society fellowship to do her postdoc at Memorial Sloan Cancer Center in New York in the laboratory of Barry Gumbiner. Here she focused on cadherin cell-cell adhesion biology and the mechanisms that control positioning of cells within tissues. She then moved to the University of Cologne as a junior research group leader at The Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne. She presently is a tenured professor in the Department of Dermatology and CECAD Cologne (Cologne Excellence Cluster on Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases). Her group is focused on how regulation of cell architecture controls tissue formation and function in homeostasis as well as in aging and disease.

Deputy Scientific Coordinators are Prof. Dr. Thomas Benzing and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Hoppe.