It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
Originally from the medieval capital of Estonia, Tallinn, I moved to the beautiful city of Edinburgh in 2009 to pursue my undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Edinburgh. What was meant to be a four-year long stay turned into ten, during which I also obtained my PhD in molecular biology and structural biology from the same university, unravelling the molecular basis of a human neurodevelopmental disease called Rett syndrome. I continued working on Rett syndrome as a postdoctoral researcher, focussing on understanding the link between Rett syndrome and related neurological diseases, as well as developing assays to screen drug-like molecules aimed at treating Rett syndrome. At the same time I started a new project to understand the mechanism behind a congenital disease called Okihiro syndrome, specifically where and how the proteins involved in this disease bind DNA.
In 2019 I moved to vibrant Copenhagen where I worked on characterising a class of small plant regulatory proteins called microProteins, which have the potential to play a big role in making crops far more tolerant to changing climate conditions. The start of the COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown made hands-on work impossible, so I drew on my lifelong passion for programming and became a full-time bioinformatician, analysing genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data to uncover novel microProteins with potentially useful applications for improving existing crop plants, as well as to make neglected crops commercially viable. Most recently I lived in Aarhus and, after what seems like a very long detour, once again in Tallinn.
If you wish to know more about my research, you can find extended discussion about them under “PROJECTS”. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.