My research program  leverages Zika virus tropism and immune responses to selectively target and treat Glioblastoma tumors. I completed my Ph.D. from the Helmholtz Center for Infection research, Germany in 2014 and then received a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to pursue my postdoctoral training in viral immunology in the United States. The Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic in 2015 revealed the virus to have a natural tropism for fetal stem cells in the brain with minimal effects in adult brains. This discovery provided a novel strategy to target brain tumor stem cells which are an extremely difficult cell population to eradicate in patients with high-grade brain tumors. As a researcher with a background in virology, I use my expertise to investigate the use ZIKV as an oncolytic agent against high-grade brain tumors such as glioblastoma multiform (GBM).