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Career: Early on the fields of genetics and microbiology caught my special interest during my studies at the University of Kassel from 2010 to 2015. More and more, I focused my attention on the field of RNA dependent gene regulation and its expanding influence on different physiological aspects. Hence, during my years of study I worked on different topics regarding RNA interference (RNAi) in Dictyostelium discoideum and the ubiquitin related modifier 1 (Urm1) pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The latter provided a scientifically promising fusion of two distinct regulatory arms of gene expression: the ubiquitin related protein modification by Urm1 and the tRNA modification by wobble uridine thiolation. Modification of transfer RNAs (but also other RNA species) is a conserved event known since the 1960´s but moved more into focus by scientists in the last years, establishing the field of the epitranscriptome. Hence, I got highly interested in this field and decided to work for my PhD thesis on the physiological relevance of functionally cooperating tRNA modifications in bakers yeast under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Raffael Schaffrath and Dr. Roland Klassen in the frame work of the SPP1784 “Chemical Biology of native Nucleic Acid Modifications”. After finishing my PhD, I decided to change subject to further dig into other aspects of the RNA world and now focus on the importance of mobile RNA molecules during infection by facultative pathogenic fungi.