My Research

My research focus is on the effect of climate change on chemically mediated interactions of marine organisms and their functioning within ecosystems. I’m particularly interested in unravelling the effects of pH at molecular level using a range of chemical analytical and computational approaches. I currently work cross-disciplinary in the groups of Dr. Jörg D. Hardege, Dr. David M. Benoit (Computational Chemistry) and Prof. Dan Parsons (Sedimentology, EEI) to investigate compounds involved in essential biological interactions and sediment cohesiveness and their sensitivity to environmental conditions, such as pH and temperature.

Anthropogenic emissions contribute to a significant decrease of ocean pH accompanied by a rise in global temperatures over the course of this century. Although the pH and temperature sensitivity of chemical compounds with specific functional groups is a well-established fact for chemists, the impact of climate change on molecules mediating essential biological interactions is still poorly understood.

I’m currently focussing on the identification of signalling molecules involved in aquatic and marine interactions that are vulnerable to pH change. Together with Dr. David M. Benoit, I developed a specific set of computational methods validated by experimental data that allows me to model current and future molecule forms and gain insight into their properties. Using High Performance Computing in combination with NMR spectroscopy, I investigate how even small changes in pH can affect the signalling molecules’ structure, conformation, charge distribution, and dynamics. In order to relate my chemical results to the biological functioning of the cues, I conduct behavioural and physiological bioassays with a range of marine invertebrate species (polychaetes, molluscs and crustaceans).

In addition, I’m analysing the fatty acid and amino acid profiles of sediment samples from various international locations for the GEOSTICK project to potentially link the chemical-biological content with the sediment’s cohesive properties.

Brief CV

2010 – 2012: M.Sc. Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (Erasmus Mundus), University of Bremen (Germany), University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris VI) (France) and University of Algarve/CCMAR (Portugal)

2007 – 2010: B.Sc. Biology, University of Bremen (Germany)