I studied biology at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen (Germany) with a focus on molecular biology, virology and microbiology. To further my knowledge on host-pathogen interactions, I decided to pursue my Diploma thesis and subsequent PhD thesis at an immunological institute. I had the opportunity to work at one of the best swine immunology laboratories worldwide and thus joined the Institute of Immunology of Prof. Armin Saalmüller at the Vetmeduni Vienna in 2004. My emphasis was the analysis of the porcine cellular adaptive immune response. To comprehensively study these cells and their roles in the immune response, I initiated the production of fluorescently-conjugated antibodies enabling multi-color flow cytometry for the first time in swine. This analysis system paved the way for collaborations in the biomedical field, e.g. the characterization of the immune system in genetically modified pigs for use in xenotransplantation. In 2013 I joined the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) in Saskatoon, Canada, to use this technology for vaccine development. The goal of the project was the “Establishment of a porcine model to study human genital chlamydia infections”. We successfully established the model and I had the chance to broaden my knowledge in basic and translational research using the pig as a large animal model. I developed cell culture systems to study antigen-specific immune responses in pigs, and I extended my methodological expertise in areas as qPCR and confocal microscopy for a more complete analysis of the porcine immune response. Based on this project, I successfully applied for the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Vaccine Society Young Investigator Program (YIP). In June 2016, I started as an assistant professor in swine immunology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State. I became a member of the Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI) which helped me to broaden my scientific network within the Research Triangle substantially. This network allowed me to use my expertise in antigen-specific immune response analysis in pigs to extend my biomedical research focus by collaborating with internationally renowned experts as Jorge Piedrahita (regenerative medicine), Toni Darville (Chlamydia trachomatis, Ct), and Evan Dellon (Eosinophilic esophagitis, EoE). Besides our commitment to further health and well-being of swine, my lab currently focuses on the two disease projects to use the advantages of the pig model to develop pre- and intervention strategies against two serious diseases: EoE and Chlamydia trachomatis, the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted disease. We successfully completed a chlamydia proof-of-principle vaccination study; and we are currently performing host-pathogen interaction analyses between Ct and porcine oviduct epithelial cells, the porcine target cells for Ct. Future studies will focus on the use of swine for translational research on Ct including vaccine development.