If you threw a dart at a map of Europe and hit the heart, then you would hit the Saarland. It is a small federal state in South West Germany on the French border. The capital of the federal State of the Saarland is Saarbrücken.

I live in the City of Mannheim, the heart of the historical region called the Palatinate. Known as the 'City of Squares', Mannheim owes its unique design to the same Dutch architect who planned Manhattan. Today, Mannheim presents itself as a prime example of modern German urban life, offering a unique blend of cultural and economic activities. Surrounded by many world-famous tourist attractions like the city of Heidelberg and Speyer, Mannheim allows visitors to get both a realistic picture of German life as well as enjoy the beauty of its historical sites.

• Ph.D. in Life Sciences (focus on microbiology, molecular biology and bioinformatics).
• Microbiologist by training at the Institute for Microbiology, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken.
• My investigations concerned the genetics of the purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. In particular, I studied enzyme evolution in this bacterium and the organization of the genes responsible for the utilization of polyols in this microorganism (Ref. 1, Ref. 2)

5+ years: Project manager, SAP consultant, Senior Scientist and Team Leader in several companies in the fields of biotechnology (e.g. Cellzome AG, LION Bioscience AG), as well as pure IT (Quantum.Logistics GmbH).

My qualifications include a Ph.D. in Life Sciences, State of the art knowledge of computational biology and bioinformatics (e.g. indepth analysis of drug targets), work experience on different computer platforms (DOS, Windows, UNIX and Linux based computer systems), hands-on programming skills and scripting (Perl, Java, C++) for data conversion, professionality in relational databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL) and web server interfaces (HTML, Apache, Perl/CGI, XML).

Managed several projects focusing on bioinformatics and proteomics:

• Mapping and expansion of disease pathways to enable the efficient discovery of new medicines for chronic human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and the human TNFa/NF-kB signal transduction pathway. (Ref. 3)
• Integrated genomics projects (e.g. for the development of new broad-spectrum anti-infectives against diseases caused by an animal pathogen).