About me
I am from a small town near Bremen, the home of the famous town musicians from the brothers Grimm’s fairy tales. However, I move to Heidelberg in the south of Germany to attain both my bachelor’s and master’s degree. During that time, I also spent one semester in Umeå. I came to like Sweden a lot which contributed to my decision to return. Finally, I moved here in January of 2020 to join Laura Baranello’s group as a PhD student.
During my master’s studies in Heidelberg, I got into working with RNA-sequencing. In my master’s thesis specifically, I aimed to quantify tRNAs by sequencing. I do not only like to work in the lab, but also enjoy working on the computer, writing my own bioinformatical scripts. I would like to keep up this duality in my future research. Here at KI I work with sequencing data from different sources such as SlamSeq for the quantification of nascent RNAs.
In our group the research is focused on DNA torsional stress. One source of this is the unwinding of DNA during transcription. The moving polymerase causes the DNA to be more tightly wound in front of and less tightly wound behind it. Topoisomerases are enzymes which help to return the DNA to its natural state to prevent damage and enable cellular processes to proceed correctly. We are especially interest in how these enzymes are regulated e.g. by interacting with other factors involved in transcription such as the global transcription factor MYC.