During the stages of my academic career in Germany and the UK, I acquired a strong background in RNA biology and functional genomics. Starting as a group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz in 2013, I established a very successful research group for RNA Biology. My work is focused on understanding the molecular code of RNA splicing and RNA modifications in mammalian cells. To achieve my goals, I collaborate with local, national, and international partners in highly interdisciplinary projects that bridge my expertise in molecular biology and functional genomics approaches with structural biology, bioinformatics, mathematical modeling, and clinical research. This unique setup enabled me to make major scientific contributions in the field, including detailed mechanistic reports on the importance of intrinsically disordered domains and cofactors in splice site recognition, the impact of genomic mutations on alternative splicing in cancer progression and therapy resistance, and a hitherto unknown role of m6A RNA modifications in X-to-autosome dosage compensation in mammals.

Positions held

Since 2013    
Group Leader, Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Mainz, Germany

2008-2013    
Postdoctoral Researcher, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK

Education

2008  
PhD in Biology, Phillipps University, Marburg, Germany 

2003  
Diploma in Biology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany