Hi, my name is Moritz. I was born and raised in the beautiful town of St. Ingbert, in the German state of Saarland, where I also studied Pharmacy Studies (Saarland University) from 2018 to 2022 and obtained my licensure to work as a pharmacist in Germany after completing my practical training year in 2024. During this year, I worked at Viktoria Apotheke in Saarbrücken for six months. In the second half, I pursued an additional master’s degree in Pharmacy Studies at Saarland University by working on a research project on lymphocyte migration and homing towards the brain in neuroinflammation and aging. This project was conducted as a Visiting Student Researcher at Stanford University, under the supervision of Professor Kiemer at Saarland University and Professor Wyss-Coray at Stanford University.

In September 2024, I started as a PhD candidate at Maastricht University in the Experimental Vascular Pathology Group, supervised by Dr. Pieter Goossens, Prof. Dr. Erik Biessen, and Dr. Marjo Donners. Being part of the MIRACLE consortium, I will work on inflammation and cardiovascular diseases, in my case, focusing on macrophages and their interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) in atherosclerotic plaques. To do so, I will use multiplex and mass spectrometry imaging to map macrophages in their microenvironment and employ high-content analysis to assess how specific ECM components affect macrophages in an in vitro system.

Besides the research, I try to spend as much time with family and friends as possible, whether this is over a shared dinner, drinks, or dancing. Furthermore, I really enjoy travelling and playing sports, specifically tennis and going to the gym, but I am always keen to try something new. In the end I do not know if I like something until I’ve tried it.