Mike earned a PhD in Virology from the University of Freiburg / Germany and was a postdoctoral research scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine performing research in the field of viral pathogenesis. He made extensive use of cellular electron microscopy methods to study viral replication and cellular responses to viral infections at the ultrastructural level. In 2012, Mike joined the department of Pathology at Genentech, bringing with him his expertise in cellular electron microscopy. He works now in the role as a senior principle scientific researcher (Scientist IV) and runs the daily operation of the electron microscopy lab, which is a subgroup of the Center for Advanced Light and Electron microscopy (CALM-EM) within the Pathology Department at Genentech. He manages the daily operations of the pathology EM lab, which is a full service laboratory that supports scientists in the Genentech Research and Early Development organization (gRED). The EM group collaborates with scientist from nearly all departments in gRED, including research pathology, safety assessment, neuroscience, microbiology, immunology and experimental oncology.  A  wide range of different type of biological samples, including macromolecular protein assemblies, human pathogenic viruses and bacteria, cultured cells and various normal, diseased or experimental tissues of both animal or human origin are processed and investigated routinely.