Astrid Scheschonka (Medicine)
Astrid Scheschonka |
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Dr. Astrid Scheschonka studied medicine in Düsseldorf and completed her doctoral thesis in the Institute of Physiological Chemistry on the mechanisms of oxidative stress in liver microsomes. She continued her medical career with a 3-year residency in internal medicine at the University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen, specialising in immunology and nephrology, before starting postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
When she returned to her Germany, she completed her medical degree with a certification in neurology, and worked in a specialised out-patient clinic for neuro-immunological diseases at the University Hospital of Göttingen. Then she decided to dedicate her time to basic neurobiology research as a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute of Brain Research in Frankfurt am Main 5 years ago. Astrid is interested in the intracellular protein-protein interactions of metabotropic glutamate receptors, which are important regulators of communication between nerve cells.
For her "Habilitation", which is the German qualification for teaching at universities, Astrid teaches biochemistry in the Medical Faculty of at the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
Her studies and work have been funded by several funding organisations: the German National Scholarship Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Fogarty Foundation (US) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Dr. Scheschonka believes in mentoring young people because she has experienced herself how advice from more experienced colleagues can count in a career. She has been a mentor for the students in her own group and in the "Hessian mentoring network for women in sciences and engineering" for the past 3 years.
Astrid Scheschonka is married and has one daughter.