I am a virologist and have completed my Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at Freie Universitat Berlin, focusing on herpesviruses. My postdoctoral research was at Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Germany and focused on SARS-CoV-2 and endemic human coronaviruses. My master thesis was conducted in consultation with Prof. Zheng Xing at the University of Minnesota in USA with research on highly pathogenic influenza viruses H5N1.