Biography

As an undergraduate, I became fascinated by the complex biochemical apparatus that controls the immune system and how dysregulations lead to severe diseases like autoimmunity or cancer. Through training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, I soon focused my research on metabolic programs in immune cells, such as T cells, which are essential for a properly functioning immune system. Upon activation, T cells undergo rapid clonal expansion and differentiation, and these energy-expensive processes require lots of iron. Iron is essential for life and activated T cells have to ensure that iron can be rapidly taken up from the circulation and incorporated into enzymes that support metabolism. Although it is well established that dysregulated iron metabolism in T cells results in severe immunological pathologies, we still lack many mechanistical insights. With my PhD project, I hope to shed more light into these poorly understood mechanisms and ultimately provide new genetic factors that can be explored for therapeutic intervention of T cell-driven pathologies. It is a great honor to be joining the Gates Cambridge community and I look forward to working with fellow scholars to unlock the potential of future science-driven innovations.

Previous Education

Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubingen Biochemistry 2022
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Biochemistry/Molecular Biology 2019