Luxembourg
Experimental biologist with an interdisciplinary mindset and a strong interest in integrating multi-omics and clinical data for precision medicine. Research experience at the intersection of functional genomics and patient-derived cellular disease models, aiming to understand the underlying causes of complex diseases. Having managed clinical research studies on COVID-19 and neurodegenerative diseases, I now work as a strategic program manager driving the standardization of research and clinical data at the institute — bridging scientific needs, clinical operations, and data infrastructure. My goal is to enable scalable, reusable, and impactful translational research, aligned with open data principles and emerging European health data initiatives.
Non-coding variantion in the human genome contributes to no small part in the manifestation of complex phenotypes and the manifestation of complex diseases. I am interested in the mechanisms that shape control of gene expression during both development and degeneration in the nervous system. Using different cell types such as dopaminergic neurons, astrocytes and microglia derived from induced pluripotent stem cells from healthy individuals and Parkinson's disease patients I apply functional genomics approaches to investigate the impact of genetic variation on the manifestation of disease phenotypes in Parkinson's disease.
As a postdoc I worked with transgenic mice on circadian gene expression changes in the endothelial cell layer of the mouse blood brain barrier. Using an in vivo mRNA tagging paradigm I generated endothelial cell specific gene expression time series data showing daytime dependent differential expression of barrier related genes.
After my studies in Freiburg, I moved to Edinburgh to work in Prof. Catherina Becker's lab on injury and regeneration models in zebrafish. Here I extended my knowledge on working with and generating transgenic animal models. I established an inducible, genetically targeted motor neuron ablation paradigm to investigate the plasticity of stem cell populations residing in the Zebrafish spinal cord and their ability to generate motor neurons after injury and targeted motor neuron ablation. In addition, I have been involved in candidate compound treatment approaches aiming to aid motor neuron development and regeneration in larval and adult zebrafish.
During my Diploma studies I worked in Wolfang Driever's Lab at the Institute for Developmental Biology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. For my thesis titled "Combinatorial Overexpression of Dopaminergic Transcription Factors in Zebrafish" I utilized viral 2A peptides to establish a genetic tool to co-express up to three different proteins from a polycistronic transcript under control of a specific promoter. Developmental Biology, Neurodevelopment, Developmental Genetics, Molecular Biology, Zebrafish.