For my Bachelor’s thesis, I generated multiple glycoprotein O (gO) variant strains of HCMV (human cytomegalovirus) to characterize the effects of known alternative gO alleles on viral infectivity. I constructed HCMV BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) vectors, which I then used to transfect cells and assay infectivity.

For my Master’s thesis, I worked on developing a DNA-DNA proximity assay in budding yeast to investigate how Spo11, a protein essential for meiotic recombination, associates with topologically distinct forms of DNA. To do this, I employed the integrase of the PhiC31 phage in a two-step expression-regulated setup. Once expressed, it catalyzes a site-specific recombination reaction resulting in unequal sister chromatid exchange, which is quantified via qPCR.

Beyond the lab, I have had a lifelong passion for nature, specifically for fauna of high-biodiversity environments, both on land and underwater. This passion has led me to many interesting ecosystems around the globe, motivated me to study biology at the University of Vienna, and now to transition from genetic engineering focused molecular work to population genetics.

During my PhD, I aim to further our understanding of speciation, specifically through processes akin to those driving the buildup of reproductive isolation under the model of mutation-order speciation. In our case, however, they would act on preexisting alleles (standing genetic variation) rather than new mutations. To achieve this, I will utilize the substantial repertoire of evolving D. melanogaster and D. simulans populations that have been maintained and evolved for upwards of 350 generations.

Subpopulations originating from the same ancestral population, maintained in parallel without gene flow among them, almost fulfill the assumptions of mutation-order speciation: they are allopatric and exposed to uniform selective pressures. In practice, our populations come closer to meeting these assumptions than most natural systems, making them a prime system for finding empirical evidence supporting this framework.