My main scientific interests are the development of advanced molecular and sequencing strategies and the integration of multiple types of data in an attempt to comprehensively understand complex biological paradigms.

Having studied biology and biochemistry, I started to address part of this big challenge in my PhD by systematically evaluating the effects of genomic variations on pre-mRNA splicing. Thereafter, I have been working on the establishment of high-throughput NGS approaches, development of novel bioinformatics solutions, and on multicenter miRNA studies of human diseases and longevity.

My current research focuses on the employment of advanced analytical techniques and the exploration of novel tools to uncover the (genomic and proteomic) contents of and roles played by circulating exosomes (extracellular microvesicles) as molecular cargo-nanocarriers in chronic inflammatory and cancer diseases. I am a member of the Cluster of Excellence Inflammation at Interfaces, Kiel Life Science and of EU collaborative projects (e.g., READNA and INTERREG4A Hit-ID).

In addition, I am an active member of the recent innovative EV-TRACK Consortium for transparent reporting and centralizing knowledge in EV and exosome research (Nat Methods, 2017;  Feb 28).

Dissertation - 2008, IKMB

Habilitation - 2016