I received a B.Sc. in biology and M.Sc. in molecular biology from the University of Iceland. My M.Sc. studies were done in the laboratory of Dr. Valgerdur Andresdottir, Institute for Experimental Pathology, Keldur. After the studies in Iceland I moved to Switzerland to pursue a PhD in the laboratory Dr. Andreas Trumpp at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) and received the degree in 2005. From Switzerland I moved to the USA as a postdoctoral fellow and joined the lab of Dr. Joan Massague at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York. There I investigated metastatic progression and identified a new role for the ECM protein tenascin-C as an important component of the metastatic niche.

 

I joined HI-STEM as a junior group leader in October 2011.