Franziska Stoek studied veterinary medicine at LMU Munich and specialises in the diagnosis and research of highly pathogenic zoonoses. In her doctoral thesis at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) on the isle of Riems, she investigated the maintenance of the Rift Valley fever virus during inter-epidemic periods. The focus of her research was on mosquitoes as vectors and rodents as potential reservoir hosts. This work gave her extensive experience in BSL3 laboratories and animal facilities. During her PhD at the FLI and subsequently as a postdoc, she was responsible for coordinating and implementing various third-party funded projects in Cameroon, Mauritania and Uganda, where she conducted numerous workshops on biomolecular methods as well as biosafety and biosecurity. 

In November 2023, she joined the OHS team and supports the work in West and Central Africa, particularly in the partner laboratory in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire. An important motivation for her work is to improve pandemic prevention in Germany and in the partner countries. She sees the interdisciplinary and intercultural working environment as a great opportunity to learn from one another and finds this especially motivating.