Welcome to FINALphagy, Birgit! Could you tell us a bit about yourself? What is your background?
I am a physicist with a background in Computational Neuroscience. I have a doctoral degree from the Biology Faculty of the University of Freiburg, Germany, where we worked to understand the collective dynamical states of cortical networks by means of mathematical analysis and large-scale computer simulations. Afterwards, I spent time as a postdoc at the MPI DS in Göttingen, NMBU Ås, UT Austin, and eventually UiO to work on more data-driven projects, such as detailed models of interneurons (at IMB), and building AI-pipelines to predict genetic alterations from histopathological images (at NCMBM).
What will you work on in FINALphagy?
I will work on two aspects. First, I will help to improve data and image analysis workflows, such as exploring how advanced computer vision and deep learning approaches can optimize the insights we can gain from the data created in the lab. Second, I will use the data to fit mathematical models describing the dynamics of the core players in autophagy flux.
The aim is to increase mechanistic understanding, and to create a testing ground to explore how several candidate mechanisms for autopagy termination investigated in the lab fit in.
What are your expectations for working on this project?
I truly enjoy working in the field of complex biological systems. So I feel right at home working in the intersection between data collection, analysis, and modeling. I am really looking forward to building models that help to create functional hypotheses that we can directly test in the lab.