Julia Birk graduated in biology with focus on epidemiology and parasitology at the University of Basel 2005. Her diploma thesis was entitled "Immunological characterization of the merozoite surface protein 2 of Plasmodium falciparum" and was performed at the Swiss tropical institute under supervision of Dr. Ingrid Felger. 2006 she moved to the Biozentrum of the University of Basel to the lab of Prof. Martin Spiess where she 2009 obtained her PhD in biochemistry on the topic "Fibrillar aggregations of pathogenic pro-vasopressin mutants" under the supervision of Dr. med. Jonas Rutishauser. In 2010 she joined the project of Dr. Christian Appenzeller-Herzog as post-doctoral fellow.