I graduated in 1995 with a degree in biology from the University of Bremen (Germany). I then did my doctorate at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg from 01/1996. During that time I studied gene regulation mechanisms. From 06/1999 I started as a research associate at the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research BIOMAT at the University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen (Germany). During that time I studied differentiation of human mesenchymal stromal cells and interactions of cells and materials. After 7.5 years I left the university in 2008 and started working in the industry as Head of R&D at Spintec Engineering GmbH in Aachen (Germany). During this time I was responsible for the development of transgenic silkworms and the development of medical devices from silk fibroin. In 2015, I left the company and took up a position as a research associate at the Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology at the TUD Dresden University of Technology (Germany) in the bio/medical textiles research group. My main topics of research are isolation and characterisation of silk fibroin, spinning of endless fibers from regenerated silk fibroin, and using these to develop a textile intervertebral disc replacement.

Molecular biology and cell culture techniques, cellular assays, cytotoxicity, cell/material interactions, human MSCs and in vitro differentiation, tissue engineering, biomaterials, sericulture, silkworms and moth from bombyx mori, transgenic silkworms, generation of regenerated silk fibroin, wet spinning, textile design of scaffolds, fiber-based additive manufacturing (FAM)

0000-0002-5405-0981