Prof. Dr. Silke Rickert-Sperling studied medicine up to her full medical license and holds a doctoral degree in cardiac physiology. During her education she went from Berlin to New York, San Diego, Chicago, and Rochester. She worked as a MD at the Pediatric Cardiology Department of the German Heart Center of Berlin, and began her postdoctoral research at the department of Prof. Dr. Lehrach at the Max Planck Institute for molecular genetics. There she became head of the research group “Cardiovascular Genetics”. She holds a habilitation in molecular biology and bioinformatics. In 2011, she was honored with a Heisenberg professorship and became full-professor for Cardiovascular Genetics at the Medical Faculty of the Charité in Berlin. She is coopted professor at the Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy of the Freie Universität Berlin.