Gudrun Stenbeck studied chemical engineering at undergraduate level and received her PhD from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, in 1993 after PhD work in the laboratory of Prof Felix Wieland at the University of Heidelberg. She then undertook postdoctoral work with Prof James E. Rothman at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York before joining the laboratory of Prof Mike Horton at University College London to study the molecular mechanisms of osteoclastic bone resorption. She was awarded a prestigious Arthritis Research UK fellowship in 2000 to establish her independent research and is now a lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at Brunel University in London, UK. Her research focuses on the cell biology of bone homeostasis and extracellular matrix deposition. Her current research is aimed at the characterisation of the signalling events relaying extracellular stimuli to components of the intracellular trafficking machinery to develop new strategies for the treatment of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and fibrotic diseases. Her research has been funded by Arthritis Research UK, the Royal Society and the Welcome Trust. She teaches cell biology and biochemistry at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.