CIBSS - Centre for integrative Biological Signalling Studies CIBSS

· People· Press Release

New leadership team for CIBSS

Sonja-Verena Albers joins as new spokesperson – Claudine Kraft officially confirmed in her role

Effective from 1 August, 2025, Sonja-Verena Albers, Professor of Microbiology and Dean of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg, has become a spokesperson for CIBSS. Claudine Kraft, Professor of Biochemistry, who has co-led the Cluster through its recent successful renewal as designated spokesperson, has now been officially confirmed in her role. Both were elected by the Cluster’s members of the Cluster during the Cluster'its General Assembly meeting in July 2025, and have now been officially appointed by the University Rectorate. Alongside Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn, who already joined the Cluster’s leadership in December 2023, Albers and Kraft will jointly guide CIBSS into its next funding period, starting on 1 January, 2026. The team follows in the footsteps of the former spokespersons, Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Driever, who co-led the Cluster during its first funding period and the decisive phase of the renewal application, and are now handing over leadership to a new team formed to guide CIBSS through its next chapter.

“Wolfgang Driever and Carola Hunte have led CIBSS with strategic finesse, dedication, and vision. Their contributions have laid the foundation for our continued success and we are utterly grateful for their tireless commitment, scientific leadership, and the strong collaborative spirit they have fostered throughout the Cluster. We are particularly pleased that they will continue to contribute their scientific and leadership expertise to CIBSS and remain active members of our community,“ say Claudine Kraft and Jürgen Kleine-Vehn. “With Sonja-Verena Albers, we are gaining a highly experienced and visionary scientist who will bring fundamental biological expertise and strategic perspective to the CIBSS leadership. Her research impact and engagement within the university and beyond make her an ideal addition to our team.”

“I am honoured by the trust placed in me and thrilled to be joining the CIBSS leadership team at this pivotal moment,” says Sonja-Verena Albers. “With renewed funding secured, we have the exciting opportunity to shape the future of cutting-edge signalling science in Freiburg and define new frontiers in the field.”

About the CIBSS spokespersons

Prof. Dr. Sonja-Verena Albers
Microbiologist and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg

Sonja-Verena Albers is a renowned microbiologist whose research focuses on the molecular biology of archaea. She explores the structure and function of the archaellum, archaeal cell division, and the role of cyclic nucleotides. She was appointed as Professor of Microbiology at the University of Freiburg in 2014 and she has received numerous distinctions, including a Momentum Grant (2019), an ERC Advanced Grant for the project ARCHCELLORG – Organisation of the Archaeal Cell (2024) and was elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology (2023), the European Academy of Microbiology (2019) and as an EMBO fellow (2017). She has been Dean of the Faculty of Biology since 2021, a member of CIBSS since 2022, and a member of the Leopoldina – the German National Academy of Sciences – since 2022.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
Chair of Molecular Plant Physiology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg

Jürgen Kleine-Vehn’s research explores how plants interpret and integrate environmental and hormonal signals to control growth. His work focuses on the plant hormone auxin and its role in morphogenesis and signal interaction. In 2024, the European Research Council (ERC) awarded him an ERC Synergy Grant for the project STARMORPH, which investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of intracellular auxin distribution. He has been a professor at the University of Freiburg since 2020, a member of CIBSS since 2021 and a spokesperson for the Cluster since 2023. Kleine-Vehn is also a board member of the university’s Signals of Life research profile and a principal investigator at the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine. Prior to joining Freiburg, he held research and leadership positions at BOKU Vienna and VIB Ghent.

Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft
Biochemist and leader of the research group „Molecular machinery of autophagy“ at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Freiburg

Claudine Kraft investigates the molecular mechanisms of autophagy, the fundamental recycling process within cells. Her group studies how cells identify and degrade internal components, contributing to insights into diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. She has been a professor at the University of Freiburg since 2017 and a member of CIBSS since 2019. She has also had research positions in Vienna, Zurich and Manchester. Kraft holds a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant for the project AutoClean (2018–2025) and is a principal investigator in several collaborative research initiatives, including CRC 1177 Autophagy, CRC 1381 Dynamic Organization of Protein Machineries, and the Research Training Group RTG 2606 ProtPath.