What is your current role? Tell us a bit about your work research
I am currently finishing my PhD in Regenerative Biology at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) – Technische Universität of Dresden, in Germany. I am studying how comes that a tiny, little fish named Zebrafish can regenerate its retinae – carpets of neurons lining the back of our eyes.
What are you excited about in science communication?
I like the creative part of communicating science. I am a scientist with an artistic soul, so I always try to exploit my sense of beauty to tell people about science. I think it is important to pay back the efforts of the society, which ultimately funds our studies.
Why did you choose to participate in the ASAPbio Fellows program?
I would like to discuss with peers and people in the publishing system how to innovate the way we disseminate research findings, both among academics as well as the lay public. I think that we can use preprints as powerful tools to tell people “Listen, research is a very tortuous path, and before we come to a shiny paper with shiny results, there are lots of stops, roundabouts, trials and errors that we need to fix”. I would like to discuss with others how we can improve the tale about how science works, in order to raise public trust in scientists.
Ask me about..
How beautiful is the vertebrate retina!