Having lived in my childhood and travelled and worked as an adult in low-income countries, I have been sensitized to health issues in a setting of poverty from early on. This -together with my interest in science and veterinary medicine- lead to a career as a veterinary epidemiologist. Over the years, I became an expert in the epidemiology of leptospirosis. My areas of interest are the role of zoonotic pathogens in non-malarial fever, and the research and control of (neglected) tropical infectious diseases using a One Health approach. Currently, I am investigating together with my Ugandan partners the role of leptospirosis and rickettsiosis in acute undifferentiated fever patients in Uganda (SPIRIT, SNF Project).

In 2001, I graduated as a veterinarian from University of Berne, where I also was awarded the doctorate at the Institute for Veterinary Bacteriology (Dr. med. vet., 2002-03). I obtained my epidemiological training at the Royal Veterinary College and School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London (2005, postgraduate MSc) and at Massey University, New Zealand (PhD on leptospirosis in humans and pastoral livestock 2009-2013).

I gained national and international work experience in the field of public health, working for the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in a BSE capacity building project in Serbia (2003-04) and for the Federal Office of Public Health in Berne on pandemic influenza planning among many other projects (2006-08).

From 2013-2018, I worked as senior research assistant, lecturer and statistical consultant at the Veterinary Epidemiology Unit, University of Zurich, where I started building a research network on leptospirosis in Uganda. From October 2017 to July 2020, I was employed at the Medical Department of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute as a senior scientist and project leader to establish research and diagnostics for zoonotic pathogens. In 2020 my habilitation of research on leptospirosis at the human-animal interface was accepted by the University of Zurich. For two years (2020 - 2022), I worked as a senior epidemiologist and deputy of the head of the Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit at the Institut Pasteur of Madagascar, where I gained experience in management and medical research in a low-income country. Since November 2022 I am back at the the Veterinary Epidemiology Unit of the University of Zurich as a senior researcher still investigating leptospirosis and other zoonotic diseases in humans, animals and the environment.