First person – Johann Maass

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Johann Maass is first author on ‘ Models of Bosch-Boonstra-Schaaf optic atrophy syndrome reveal genotype-phenotype correlations in brain structure and behavior’, published in DMM. Johann conducted the research described in this article while a medical doctoral candidate in Christian P. Schaaf's lab at Heidelberg University Clinic, Heidelberg, Germany. He is now a medical student and research intern in the lab of Timothy Yu at Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA, investigating advancements in gene therapy for patients with debilitating neurological diseases.