Research Team

We are a small research team embedded in the Biological clocks and timers in development lab at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research: FMI in Basel

Leonie Fabbro Burtschell -
PhD student

Leonie obtained a French-German BSc in Human and Molecular Biology from the Universities of Saarbrücken and Strasbourg and a MSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Strasbourg. During her master thesis she focused on understanding the role of BCL7 proteins in SWI/SNF assembly and function. She joined our group in March 2023 to understand the dynamics of heterochromatin, using C. elegans developmental oscillations as a model. Besides doing science, she bikes, hikes, and takes care of her plants.

Fenna Poppelaars -
Research associate

Fenna obtained her BSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Utrecht University and a MSc in Biomolecular Sciences from VU Amsterdam. During her masters internships she acquired significant experience with microscopy techniques, employing smFISH and MS2-tagging to evaluate transcription in situ, and profiling of cell competition in organoids. She joined the Methot group in July 2025 to develop new microscopy tools to study transcription robustness and dynamics in C. elegans larvae. Outside the lab, she knits, hikes, and does triathlons.