Professor Andrea Streit studied Biology at the University of Cologne and obtained her PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She trained as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku (Finland), the University of Oxford (UK) and at Columbia University, New York.

Professor Streit joined King’s in 2000, where her research group focuses on the development of vertebrate sense organs. Her primary interest is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control cell fate decisions in the sensory nervous system, and how we can use this knowledge to promote regeneration and repair. Using multidisciplinary approaches her group studies the signalling and transcription factor networks that control how sensory stem cells become different from each other to generate cells of the eye, ear and nose and the specialised cell types therein and how these networks were modulated as complex sense organs emerged during evolution. In addition, Andrea’s group explores the epigenetic mechanisms that control inner ear development and the regeneration of the sensory cells crucial for sound and balance perception.

Apart from leading an international team, Professor Streit is actively involved in PhD student affairs as postgraduate coordinator, mentoring schemes for junior faculty members and postdoctoral researchers, and has held various leadership roles in the Faculty. From 2013-2018 she held the position of Dean for Research and was appointed Head of the Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology in October 2021. She has longstanding expertise in evaluating research quality serving as a member of international advisory boards, of UK research council grant panels and most recently as member of the REF2021 sub-panel 5 Biological Sciences.