After completing her studies of chemical engineering and chemistry at the Universities of Graz and Bonn, earning her a PhD, she became a postdoctoral researcher at the lab of the 2018 Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2007.
In 2010 she became a junior professor for Biochemistry at the University of Hamburg.
Currently, she holds a position as professor for biomolecular label chemistry at the University of Münster.