During my doctoral studies, I worked on proteins of the human immune system that form so-called "inflammasomes" upon activation. The main goal of my research was to gain insight into their activation mechanism in order to understand how we can effectively inhibit this class of proteins with small molecules. In this context, for example, I studied the mode of action of the NLRP3-specific inhibitor MCC950. During this time, collaborations with biotech companies have driven my personal development.