My main research interest lies in Evolutionary Developmental Biology, particularly the evolution of the nervous system.
I obtained my PhD from the University of Innsbruck, focusing on the origin and specification of head sensory epithelia in the simple chordate Ciona intestinalis.
Currently, at the University of Oxford, I am working to expand our understanding of the evolution of vertebrate Cranial Sensory Ganglia (CSG) by studying the deeply conserved Hmx gene family and its conserved non-coding elements. I will combine gene manipulation and next-generation sequencing to identify key players in CSG development and compare them across vertebrate and invertebrate lineages.
