I studied veterinary medicine in Berlin (Germany) and although I often still identify myself as a vet, I have always been most interested in research. After spending a few months at the University of Cambridge and Cornell University for research projects, I pursued a PhD in quantitative genetics at the University of Edinburgh. For my PhD project I studied how telomeres, the ends of linear chromosomes, change their length with age in a population of dairy cattle. I learned very valuable quantitative skills including statistical modelling and programming. Now I am working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in a neuroscience group lead by professor Anna Williams. I Investigate how gene expression in single cells of the central nervous system (CNS) varies with CNS region, donor sex and donor age with the aim to better understand heterogeneity of oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells in the CNS. I am also involved in a imaging mass spectometry lipidomics projecs with the aim to better understand changes in the fatty substance of the brain when a person is affected by the demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis. Lastly, I am interested in how cellular senescence contributes to disease progression in multiple sclerosis.