Born 1976 in Landau in der Pfalz. Studied chemistry and biology at the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. PhD thesis in the group of Werner Kühlbrandt at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt/Main, PhD in biochemistry at Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität Frankfurt in 2004. From 2005 to 2008 postdoctoral researcher in the group of Thomas Walz at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.  Emmy Noether group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund (2008 to 2013). Einstein-Professor for Membrane Biochemistry at Freie Universität Berlin (January to June 2014) . Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund (since 2014).