Karim Ajmail studied Biochemistry and Physics in Göttingen and finished his bachelor’s in 2020. In his bachelor’s thesis in Andreas Janshof’s group, he investigated the role of the actin cytoskeleton in mechanically strained epithelia. Then, he visited the research group of Marco Fritzsche in Oxford, where he took part in the development of a new traction force microscopy platform to probe the mechanics involved in the immunological synapse (T-cells). Since 2021 he has been doing his master’s at the Max Planck School of Matter to Life. In his lab rotation in Karen Alim’s group, he developed a perfusable channel lined with endothelial cells to measure mechanical forces in vitro blood vessels.