Short CV

Since May 2022 Staff Scientist, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona (Spain)
2020 - 2022 Postdoctoral researcher, Københavns Universitet, Copenhagen (Denmark)
2018 - 2020 DFG Postdoctoral fellow, University of Melbourne, Melbourne (Australia)
2017 - 2018 Postdoctoral researcher, B CUBE, TU Dresden, Dresden (Germany)
2016 PhD in Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden (Germany)
 

Summary

We are studying how the internal structure of cells self-organizes. We want to understand how the different parts of the internal scaffold of the cell - the cytoskeleton - work together to form distinct architectures and how these architectures change as the cell divides or differentiates. In other words, we aim to find out how complex biological structures can be created from simple, smaller parts.

In many of our experiments, we are constructing a mini version of the cytoskeleton from a limited set of purified components. Using fluorescence microscopy, quantitative analysis and modelling, we can elucidate how the components of the mini-cytoskeleton come together and organize themselves into different structures. We want to understand how self-organizing scaffolds change in response to changing conditions inside the cell. These changing conditions can be caused by normal cell cycle activity changes, by signals stimulating differentiation, or by factors causing disease.

By combining approaches from engineering, chemistry and biology we aim to discover the design principles underlying intracellular order and mechanics, revealing new information about the fundamental physical properties of living cells.