You've already seen most of us at the Institute coffee round on Thursday and immediately made a positive impression with your cake. You may already know some faces, others are new to you and some were still on vacation, so we would like to put something about you on the Institute's homepage so that everyone has the chance to get to know you.

You were born and went to school in Upper Lusatia. After graduating from the Geschwister Scholl Gymnasium in Löbau, you went on to study "Forensic Science" at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. Forensics sounds like a crime thriller ....

What attracted you to the course?
I liked doing chemical experiments at school, especially when it came to identifying unknown solutions. So there was already a certain tendency to solve the unknown.

Which subject did you particularly like?
Definitely pharmacology and toxicology. Seeing what the body does with drugs and vice versa really impressed me.

What was the biggest adjustment (outside of university)?

Living in a big city, in my case Bonn. I come from a very rural area, so I wasn't used to so many people at first.

What did you miss most in North Rhine-Westphalia?

My family and friends

You came to the HSZG for your Master's degree and are currently writing your Master's thesis in pharmaceutical biotechnology entitled: "Establishment and optimization of a transient expression system in tobacco plants"    -- What is it about?

We want to use tobacco plants to produce recombinant proteins such as antibodies, as conventional production methods are currently quite expensive and inflexible. 

Since January 1, 2023, you have been working as a junior researcher in the ESF project "Effects of tire abrasion on road soils and their ecosystems". 

What attracted you to work on this project?

On the one hand, it was the topic of my work package. It's about plants and their enzymatic stress response. As I have already worked with various plants, I found it very exciting to learn more about this. On the other hand, it was also the fact that I can stay at the university as part of the project and thus keep friends and existing colleagues.

What is the project about?

As the title suggests, the project is about tire abrasion. Many potentially hazardous and toxic substances can escape from this and enter the soil and water. We therefore want to investigate whether and to what extent tire abrasion affects aquatic ecosystems and the plants living in them, for example.

Who is the team?

The project is headed by Professor Fester at ZIRKON. We have a total of four junior researchers and a project coordinator in the operational team. In addition to myself, Tomas Kleint and Faith Chebet Tumwet are currently working on the project. Unfortunately, the fourth junior researcher position has not yet been filled. Ilona Schönfelder is coordinating the project.

What is the aim?

We want to investigate whether and how tire abrasion affects near-road ecosystems. Among other things, we are looking at aquatic systems and want to determine whether, for example, plants take up tire particles and what effects this has on them.

What do you wish for the project (team)?

I hope that we can bring the project to a conclusion with good results. Perhaps it will even be possible to publish the results. I would also be very happy if there was a follow-up project.