Alex is a new postdoc in the lab, a traveling vector engineer and firm believer in connecting dots across subfields & comfort zones.

Originally from Germany, he was first exposed to the molecular resourcefulness of viruses (and the utility of tools based on them) during his master thesis work at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health in Missouri, both figuratively –as an intern characterizing a viral vaccine production process– and literally –during an off-duty run-in with a bat that required post-exposure vaccination.

So inoculated, he has spent the years since working on virus-adjacent problems of gene delivery, first through his doctoral work with Christian Buchholz at the German Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, on targeting lentiviral and adeno-associated vectors to mouse receptors, enabling syngeneic models of precision in vivo gene therapy; then on circumventing the “antigen problem” of targeted tumor nanotherapy using adapters deposited by bacteria -which he had never included in his experiments on purpose- in the lab of Tal Danino at Columbia University. Now, he is excited to apply the Mellis lab’s deep expertise in probing host:virus dynamics to developing the next generation of safer, more effective gene therapy vectors.

Off the bench, Alex is vocal about the joys and challenges of work on advanced therapies to anyone who would listen. A visual thinker, he’s drafted award-winning illustrations about the future of cancer therapy and graphs everything from the spatial distribution of cockroach sightings in his NY apartment to the number of SciFi books he reads each year.

His less-scientific interests include playing Magic: The Gathering, irresponsibly riding his bike through the streets of Manhattan and spending as much time as possible outside where it’s green. A perfect Saturday sees him sitting in Riverside with the NYT Crossword.