I obtained my Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Applied Sciences FH Campus Wien (Vienna, Austria). From my different laboratory experiences, I developed an interest in a wide variety of scientific areas. In the laboratory of Prof. Michael Freissmuth at the Medical University of Vienna (Vienna, Austria), I investigated the potential of pharmacochaperones to rescue misfolded mutant variants of the dopamine transporter that occur in patients with infantile/juvenile parkinsonism. As part of my Bachelor's degree, I joined the laboratory of Prof. Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg at the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) to study how drugs affect the liver, one of the key organs involved in drug metabolism. During a summer school programme on epigenetics at the Institute of Molecular Biology (Mainz, Germany), I joined the laboratory of Prof. Beat Lutz to investigate the impact of stress on endocannabinoid signalling in the hippocampus. Finally, as part of my Master’s degree, I worked in the laboratory of Dr Mark Petronczki at Boehringer Ingelheim (Vienna, Austria) to investigate potential synthetic lethal gene-gene interactions as a strategy to selectively kill cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
In September 2019, I joined Dr Alex Gould’s laboratory to pursue my scientific interest in the effects of early environmental nutrition and stress on the metabolism and development of complex organisms. In my PhD project, I will be investigating the structure and function of lipid droplets that accumulate in glia cells to protect the developing brain during hypoxia. In the future, these findings may help to develop approaches to treat patients with intrauterine growth restriction, a condition where the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the foetus is restricted.
