Research Interests

Chemical ecology and natural product chemistry

• ­Links between chemistry and microbiology of marine macro- and microorganisms

•  Effects of environmental variability (e.g. increasing sea surface temperature and decreasing seawater pH) on the production of secondary metabolites from holobionts

Research Project

I am participating in the interdisciplinary PhD Research Training Group “EcoMol” (“The Ecology of Molecules”) which is supported by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. Within the EcoMol project, I will investigate the role of bacteria and holobiont signaling molecules in coral settlement processes. The aim of my project is to achieve a deeper understanding concerning the importance of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM), as it serves as signaling compounds among organisms belonging to different kingdoms (e.g. plantae, animalia, bacteria).

Qualifications

Microbiology: isolation and cultivation of bacteria and fungi from marine samples

Molecular Biology: DNA extraction, PCR, sequence analysis

Chemistry: extraction, HPLC-DAD, mass spectrometry, dereplication, bioactivity screening

Biotechnology: fermentation, scale-up, Design of Experiments (DoE)

Experience

2016      

• Research assistant at GEOMAR Kiel, Marine Natural Product Chemistry

2015               

• Employee at MicrobiMaris Biotec GmbH

Education

2015-2016     

• M.Sc. in Biotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Flensburg

• Master thesis at GEOMAR Kiel, Marine Natural Product Chemistry „On Zostera marina associated microbes: Secondary metabolite profiles and biotechnological potential“.

2011-2015     

• B.Sc. in Biotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Flensburg

• Bachelor thesis at GEOMAR Kiel, Marine Microbiology „Biotechnologie mariner Mikroorganismen: Optimierung der Herstellung eines antibiotisch aktiven Naturstoffes mit einem marinen Pseudomonas-Stamm“.