The focus of my research is to discover the fundamental genomic signatures linked to extreme longevity in eusocial animals (e.g. ants, honeybees, termites, ambrosia beetles, and naked mole-rats). By employing comparative
genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics and mobilomics, I have discovered several anti-ageing mechanisms that explain the extreme longevity coupled with life-long high fecundity that has evolved in ants, bees and termites. We
have revealed that this uncoupling of the longevity/fecundity trade-off is linked to the convergent remodelling of important, conserved pathways involved in, for example, proteostasis, DNA repair, mitochondrial activity, nutrient sensing and transcriptional regulation, allowing us to identify important targets for ageing research.

Professional career

• 09/2024 - present: Associate Professor in Bioinformatics at Centre for Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University
• 05/2019 - 08/2024: assistant and PI in the Molecular Evolution & Bioinformatics Group, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Germany
• 05/2016 - 04/2019: Post-doc in the Molecular Evolution & Bioinformatics Group, Institute for Evolution and
  Biodiversity, University of Münster, Germany
• 2000 - 2007: Marketing consultant, Group Leader, at Mediacom, Düsseldorf, Germany

Education

• 2012 – 2016: PhD in Evolutionary Biology at University of Leicester with Dr RL Hammond & Dr EB Mallon on "The influence of ploidy-specific expression on selection."
• 2010 – 2012: MSc Biology (Biodiversity) at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Thesis: "The application of next generation sequencing technology in phylogeography and population genetics: A test case using Antarctic brittle stars"
• 2007 – 2010: BSc Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Thesis: "Eyespots inAsian Pheasants (Pavoninae)"
• 1994 – 2000: Diplom in Economy and Business Management, University of Wuppertal, Germany

I am currently supervising two PhD students at the University of Münster within my previous institute.

• Alina Mikhailova, since 2020: Genomic evolution of eusociality in termites
• Sarah Rinke, since 2022: Genomic evolution of sub- and eusociality in burying beetles and weevils