Maria studied Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. She then went to Jena, Germany to pursue a PhD in Natural Product Chemistry at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute. She studied a biosynthetic pathway towards a novel class of antibiotics produced by anaerobic bacteria. Fascinated by the chemistry bacteria are able to do, she moved to the lab of Prof. Jörn Piel, Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zürich. Here she studies the ways to access the potential of sponge-associated bacteria to produce compounds that might serve as inspiration in drug discovery endeavors. She joined the network to help strengthen the link between academic and commercial research.