I am an Early Career Researcher in the Reprogramming and Epigenetics Laboratory of A/Prof Jose Polo at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. My past and current research interests focus on understanding how proteins mediate physiological and pathological processes. I completed my undergraduate degree in Technical and Applied Biology at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen, Germany. I then moved to Melbourne, Australia to conduct a PhD in protein folding and misfolding in the Conformational Disease Laboratory of Prof Steve Bottomley at Monash University. I graduated from my PhD in December 2012. For my postdoctoral position I wanted to apply my protein biochemical knowledge to the stem cell field and joined the laboratory of A/Prof Polo in January 2013. My current research aims at understanding the protein interaction network which mediates pluripotency. I am particularly interested in the transcription factor Oct4 which is not only an essential regulator of pluripotency but also central to cellular reprogramming; the conversion of somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells.