Experience

Saiba Animal Health AG

• Switzerland
• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Research And Development Scientist

  • Sep 2021 - Present

  Scientist in R&D team at Saiba Animal Health, a spin-off biotechnology company of University Hospital of Zürich, dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative therapeutic vaccines for companion animals. Similarly to humans, domestic animals also suffer from chronic diseases such as allergy or inflammation, but state of the art therapies specially designed for pets are often not available. Saiba Animal Health is addressing this deficiency in the care of our pets by developing precision, cutting-edge technology that instructs the animal's body to make its own antibodies which are capable of ameliorating chronic diseases such as allergy, inflammation, pain and cancer. https://www.saiba-animalhealth.com/ Show less



ETH Zürich

• Switzerland
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Postdoctoral Research Scientist

  • Jun 2017 - Sep 2020

  The major focus my postdoctoral research was electron cryo-tomography, applied in an interdisciplinary approach to study pathogenic organisms. Projects: 1) Bacterial type 6 secretion system and its role in host-pathogen interactions. 2) High resolution 3D imaging of intestinal organoids across the scales: from single cells to the tissue. I wrote and was awarded an ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship (01/2018 – 12/2019). The major focus my postdoctoral research was electron cryo-tomography, applied in an interdisciplinary approach to study pathogenic organisms. Projects: 1) Bacterial type 6 secretion system and its role in host-pathogen interactions. 2) High resolution 3D imaging of intestinal organoids across the scales: from single cells to the tissue. I wrote and was awarded an ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship (01/2018 – 12/2019).



Utrecht University

• Netherlands
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Assistant

  • Nov 2011 - Apr 2017

  I believe that the mission of science is to protect and improve the quality of human life. This is the reason I started my PhD project, focused on the development of a Campylobacter jejuni flagellin-based vaccine". Campylobacter jejuni is a food-borne human bacterial pathogen, which heavily colonizes chickens' intestinal tract. The majority of human infections can be attributed to the consumption of C. jejuni-contaminated poultry meat products. Reduction of Campylobacter in the chicken reservoir is therefore considered an effective strategy to reduce the public health burden. Throughout my project, I designed the vaccination study, purified and analyzed the quality of vaccines and performed animal experiments to verify the efficacy. I worked on flagellin-based subunit vaccines. It was challenging since C. jejuni flagellin is heavily glycosylated. Hence during my study I also engineered the vaccine producing strain. To achieve it, I explored more of C. jejuni biology, namely the post-transcriptional regulation of flagellin synthesis and the mechanisms of flagellin export and stability. Finally I also identified a novel glycosyltransferase in C. jejuni, what was crucial in preparation of the glycoconjugate vaccine, and developed the tools for flagellin purification from various Campylobacter sp., with a promise for polyvalent glycoconjugate vaccine development. All together, during the project I expanded my knowledge and skills in field of molecular biology, microbiology, vaccination, immunology and infectious diseases. Show less