I was born and raised in Switzerland, a place where chocolate feels like it flows in rivers and cheese is celebrated like a national treasure.

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At just 12 years old, I took on my first role as a swim instructor at my mother’s SeaStar Swim School. Whenever I was in Switzerland, this job was a constant thread throughout my journey and you could always find me in the pool with my mom on Saturday mornings. I quickly learned that storytelling and imagination were the best tools to help children understand the water and overcome their fears. These early teaching skills continue to serve me to this day.

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At 16, I moved to Basel to begin working in the Roche laboratories as a biology lab technician. After completing my apprenticeship, I was awarded a research stay abroad at the Stanford labs in Mountain View, California—my first exposure to international science.

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Driven by a deep curiosity about what processes govern life in our universe, I went on to study biology. RNA biology captivated me ever since I heard a talk at Roche about its astonishing range of functions. As an undergraduate in Bern, Switzerland, I focused my research on noncoding RNA and its epigenetic roles in unicellular organisms. During my Master's at the University of Amsterdam, I explored the presence of these noncoding RNAs, like text messages delivering information, in blood as potential biomarkers for diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration.

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I continued this work during my PhD in Switzerland and was awarded a fellowship to pursue my research at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The fresh, expansive way of thinking I encountered in the U.S., paired with my imagination and drive, led me deeper into the biophysical properties of RNA. At the Whitehead Institute at MIT, I investigated how RNA contributes to biomolecular condensation and liquid–liquid phase separation within cells. Where charges interactions, rather than exact sequences hold information, important to form non-membraneous little compartments which are biochemically active within our cells. I was honored with the prestigious Hope Funds Fellowship to carry out my postdoctoral research at MIT.

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While at MIT, I met Silvia Miotti, and together we co-founded Flowers on Mars, a creative teaching initiative built on imagination and storytelling. We brought together seemingly unrelated fields: she specialized in ancient Greek mythology, while I focused on the physics of biomolecules. Our collaboration showed how creativity can bridge even the most unexpected disciplines. In a world increasingly driven by technology, we must begin asking where humans fit in and what unique superpowers we must protect so that we’re not simply replaced by machines.

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Having faced personal challenges throughout my academic career, and having seen others around me struggle with mental health, I was inspired to write The Survival Guide for the Research Jungle. It's a practical, honest guide for young scientists navigating the demanding and often isolating world of academia. We cannot function like machines without consequences. The book offers new perspectives and strategies for thriving in challenging conditions.

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Currently, I’m exploring quantum biology and cognition. At the University of Arizona in Tucson, I study ring structures in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, and how their interaction with photons might influence behavior in unicellular organisms. My broader ambition is to bridge RNA biology and quantum behavior, laying the groundwork for a new understanding of both our cells and our minds.