"We took the caps off the ends of chromosomes in cells as if it were lego. And then we looked at what happened next. Certain repair proteins see such capless ends as broken DNA and try to repair them. We removed certain proteins, or protein components, and investigated whether the repair was still successful. In this way, we found a hitherto unknown protein that is important in such DNA repair. That protein has to do with resistance that some people with a mutation in a breast cancer gene develop to a certain type of breast cancer treatment. I studied molecular life sciences and I love to puzzle at this fundamental level. I hope I can find work as a postdoctoral fellow and continue this work." Inge defends her thesis on February 15.