People

Marlen Lauffer

Marlen Lauffer is a physician-scientist trained in medicine, biochemistry, and human molecular genetics. After completing her doctorate at the University of Munich in 2019, she held research positions at Erasmus MC Rotterdam and the University of Cologne before joining the Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics in Leiden as a senior postdoctoral researcher. From 2021 to 2026, she contributed to establishing the Leiden team and developing its research programme. Since February 2026, Marlen leads the Interventional Precision Genomics Lab at the Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on identifying patients who may benefit from emerging genetic therapies, including antisense oligonucleotides, gene editing, and gene replacement approaches. To achieve this, her team develops international consensus frameworks and computational pipelines that enable systematic and rapid assessment of therapeutic opportunities. Marlen is actively involved in national and international initiatives aimed at advancing individualised genetic therapy developments and plays a leading role in several projects within the globally active N=1 Collaborative. Her work integrates genomic analysis, clinical translation, and community collaboration to help accelerate the path from genetic diagnosis to therapeutic intervention.