I was initially interested in Astronomy but then became fascinated by molecular biology and studied Biochemistry in Berlin. Our university allowed us to visit and work in labs outside university and so I went to also work in Tübingen and Heidelberg (virology) as well as at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin (electron microscopy). I then went to Cambridge for my masters work in neuroscience and a PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg in cell biology but using a virus to understand how cells move. This led to my interest in host pathogen interactions and after some interviews I moved to the Pasteur Institute to Paris to work on malaria causing parasites. Since 2005 I lead my own group at the University of Heidelberg, where I became professor in 2014. My team works towards a better understanding of the biology of malaria parasites during transmission to and from mosquitoes. We also aim at developing new tools for intervention studies.

In a video conferencing call...

...I am happy to talk about my research.

...I am happy to answer questions about university and career-related questions.

...I am happy to moderate a discussion.