Maria Falkenberg defended her Ph.D. thesis (2000) at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, after spending three years as a visiting student with Prof. I.R. Lehman, Stanford University School of Medicine. After postdoctoral work with Prof. Nils-Göran Larsson (2001-2002), she was appointed assistant professor at the Karolinska Institutet (2003). Since 2011, she is professor of medical biochemistry at the University of Gothenburg. The Falkenberg laboratory studies DNA replication in mammalian mitochondria, using in-vitro biochemistry, structural biology and and cell biology to study the underlying enzymatic processes. The laboratory also investigates the molecular consequences of disease-causing mutations affecting mitochondrial DNA replication and develops new, rational therapeutic approaches.