Experience
Microbiologist
Apr 2019 — Sep 2020Leonyte Biosystems · Berlin
- Developed a rapid food-pathogen detection system from wet-lab validation through to first prototype.
- Designed and 3D-printed custom microfluidic sample-prep devices when off-the-shelf hardware did not exist.
Lab Manager
Feb — Nov 2017iGEM Competition · Groningen
- Ran the wet-lab side of the Groningen iGEM team — multidisciplinary group of ~15 students, shipping experiments toward the Boston jamboree deadline.
- First experience managing scientific work as a delivery problem, not just a research project.
Operational Data Analyst → Marketplace Operations Coordinator
Mar 2021 — Feb 2022Uber · Berlin · Berlin
- Started as Operational Data Analyst (Mar 2021); promoted to Marketplace Operations Coordinator (Aug 2021).
- Supported marketplace operations for Uber Eats with a strong data focus — supply–demand dynamics, courier availability, delivery-performance KPIs.
- Built SQL-driven dashboards used by ops teams to monitor KPIs, identify bottlenecks, and drive real-time decision-making across the EMEA marketplace.
- Developed a lightweight forecasting tool incorporating weather-linked behavioural patterns to anticipate demand fluctuations.
Data Scientist & Automation Engineer
Sep 2025 — PresentAustralian Genome Foundry · Sydney
- Architecting an end-to-end data and automation platform integrating 31 lab instruments into an AWS event-driven cloud infrastructure (Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, CloudFormation, Cognito).
- Built intelligent workflows, standardised reporting, and LIMS integrations that turn raw instrument output into queryable scientific data.
- Designed and shipped AI-agent scientific tooling: MCP servers for lab equipment, Claude Code skills for biofoundry workflows, multi-agent hypothesis generation systems.
- Designed, built, and ship agflive.com — the public face of the national facility.
Publications
6 peer-reviewed papers. Plain-English summaries below each citation — full PDFs linked. Plus 3 manuscripts under review (BackUpYourYeast, PulseALE, RAIN).
Building synthetic chromosomes one yeast at a time: insights from Sc2.0
Nature Biotechnology · 43, 1911–1918 · 2025 · Contributing author
Consortium retrospective on the international Sc2.0 project — what 15 years of writing yeast chromosomes from scratch taught us about genome design, debugging, and how synthetic chromosomes recover when you break them on purpose.
Construction and iterative redesign of synXVI, a 903 kb synthetic S. cerevisiae chromosome
Nature Communications · 2025 · Co-author
Building chromosome XVI from scratch and then redesigning it when it didn't work the first time. Reports the debugging loop — phenotype, mutation map, rational fix — that turned a sick synthetic chromosome into a working one.
Welly: a web tool for visualising growth curves from microplate data
Bioinformatics Advances · 2025 · First author
An open-source web tool that turns plate-reader CSV exports into publication-ready growth-curve plots in under a minute. Solves the daily pain of every lab doing 96/384-well kinetics. Live at synbioexplorer.pythonanywhere.com.
Navigating the frontier of synthetic biology: an AI-driven analytics platform
ACS Synthetic Biology · 2023 · First author
NLP analysis of 23,000+ synthetic-biology papers to map how the field is actually moving — what topics rise, which institutions cluster, where the funding goes. A landscape view of a field by reading everything it has ever published.
Trimming the genomic fat: minimising and re-functionalising genomes using synthetic biology
Nature Communications · 2023 · Co-author
Review of strategies for genome minimisation — cutting organisms down to their essential gene set, then adding back only what new function you want. The argument that "less is more" can be engineered.
Parallel laboratory evolution and rational debugging reveal genomic plasticity to S. cerevisiae synthetic chromosome XIV defects
Cell Genomics · 2023 · Co-author
When a synthetic chromosome breaks the cell, you can either re-engineer it or let evolution find its own fix. This paper does both in parallel and shows yeast adapts faster than humans engineer.
Education
Abitur
Ev. Stiftisches Gymnasium · Gütersloh · Incl. 2010 high-school exchange in Boston, US
B.Sc., Biology
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck · Studied biology in the Austrian Alps
M.Sc., Molecular Biology & Biotechnology
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Research Internship
National University of Singapore
Data Analytics Bootcamp (400+ hours)
Ironhack · Berlin
PhD, Synthetic Biology
Macquarie University · Sydney · Chancellor's Commendation
Awards & Grants
iMQRES — international Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship
2022 — 2025Macquarie University
Full PhD scholarship covering tuition + stipend for international research candidates. Funded the synthetic-chromosome work in the Paulsen & Williams Group.
PGRF — Postgraduate Research Fund
2022 — 2025Macquarie University
Internal PhD-research grants supporting consumables, sequencing runs, and conference travel across the doctorate.
Chancellor's Commendation
2025Macquarie University
Awarded on completion of the PhD.
Marco Polo Scholarship
2018University of Groningen
Mobility scholarship funding the 6-month research internship at the National University of Singapore.
Skills
Languages
Python · TypeScript · SQL · R
Frontend
React · Next.js · Astro · Electron · Tailwind
Backend
FastAPI · PostgreSQL · Redis · Node.js
Cloud / DevOps
AWS Lambda · DynamoDB · S3 · CloudFormation · Cognito · Cloudflare Pages
AI / ML
Claude Code · MCP · LangGraph · LangChain · OpenAI / Anthropic SDKs · scikit-learn
Domain
LIMS design · Bioinformatics (NGS, NLP) · Lab informatics · Microfluidics · Synthetic genomics
Languages
- German Native
- English C2 — Fluent
- Dutch B2
- Spanish Elementary
Interests
Kitesurfing · DJing as Dr. Dissonance · Drone cinematography · 3D printing & CAD · Geopolitics & defence.