Dr. Emily Melisa Ullrich Gavilanes

Dr. Emily Melisa Ullrich Gavilanes completed her doctorate in Neuroimmunology in Munich with a focus on mechanisms of grey matter pathology in multiple sclerosis. Since May 2026 Dr. Ullrich Gavilanes has been a patent attorney trainee at the law firm WR.

Dr. Ullrich Gavilanes holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in biochemistry and cell biology from Jacobs University Bremen and a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in cellular and molecular neuroscience from Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen with a focus on neuroimmunology, pharmacokinetics and microscopy. During her doctorate at the Institute of Clinical Neuroimmunology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in the working group of Prof. Dr. Martin Kerschensteiner, she focused on investigating the mechanisms of grey matter pathology in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) using transcriptomic analysis, microscopy and gene editing approaches. Following her PhD, she worked for two years as a post-doctoral researcher in neuroimmunology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Since 2026

Patent attorney training at WR

2023-2025

Post-doc in neuroimmunology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

2018-2023

Doctorate at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

2016-2018

Study of cellular and molecular neuroscience at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (M.Sc.)

2013-2016

Study of biochemistry and cell biology at Jacobs University Bremen (B.Sc.)

• Ullrich Gavilanes EM, Bartos LM, Gernert JA, Carral CA, Ruiz Navarro D, Havla J, Gerdes LA, Gnörich JS, Kunze LH, Dorneich JS, Pakula V, Tagnin L, Zimmermann H, Seelos K, Franzmeier N, Frontzkowski L, Pedrosa de Barros N, Ribbens A, Zwergal RM, Zwergal A, Vollmar C, Remi J, Picon C, Reynolds R, Merkler D, Wattjes MP, Kümpfel T, Brendel M, Kerschensteiner M. SV2A-PET imaging uncovers cortical synapse loss in multiple sclerosis. Science Translational Medicine 2025 Oct;17(818):eadt5585.

• Mezydlo A, Treiber N, Ullrich Gavilanes EM, Eichenseer K, Ancău M, Wens A, Ares Carral C, Schifferer M, Snaidero N, Misgeld T, Kerschensteiner. Remyelination by surviving oligodendrocytes is inefficient in the inflamed mammalian cortex. Neuron. 2023 Jun 7;111(11):1748-1759.e8.

• Jafari M, Schumacher AM, Snaidero N, Ullrich Gavilanes EM, Neziraj T, Kocsis-Jutka V, Engels D, Jürgens T, Wagner I, Weidinger JDF, Schmidt SS, Beltrán E, Hagan N, Woodworth L, Ofengeim D, Gans J, Wolf F, Kreutzfeldt M, Portugues R, Merkler D, Misgeld T, Kerschensteiner M. Phagocyte-mediated synapse removal in cortical neuroinflammation is promoted by local calcium accumulation. Nature Neuroscience. 2021 Mar;24(3):355-367.

• Uhlmann RE, Rother C, Rasmussen J, Schelle J, Bergmann C, Ullrich Gavilanes EM, Fritschi SK, Buehler A, Baumann F, Skodras A, Al-Shaana R, Beschorner N, Ye L, Kaeser SA, Obermüller U, Christensen S, Kartberg F, Stavenhagen JB, Rahfeld JU, Cynis H, Qian F, Weinreb PH, Bussiere T, Walker LC, Staufenbiel M, Jucker M. Acute targeting of pre-amyloid seeds in transgenic mice reduces Alzheimer-like pathology later in life. Nature Neuroscience. 2020 Dec;23(12):1580-1588.