Maarja Grünbach received a Master of Science degree in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Tartu in 2014. She was then accepted to the Life Science Zurich Graduate School in 2016 and is now pursuing her doctoral studies in the group of Prof. Roberto Speck in the field of HIV research at the University of Zurich. Her projects concentrate on studying the immunobiology of interferon alpha subtypes and developing novel strategies to cure HIV-1. She likes to spend her spare time “fingers in the dirt” growing flowers and vegetables on her balcony.