Ioana was born in Iași, Romania, on a day her mother could remember, the 5th of May 1988. Ioana comes from a long line of humans who had an unfortunate combination of characteristics: curiosity, common sense, and critical thinking. Growing up, in Ioana's case, this was mostly unfortunate for her teachers and class mates. Ioana loved to learn, anything and everything, and hated uninspiring teachers and bullies. At age 11 she was enticed into child labour by her mother, who had just started a company organising medical events. There, Ioana learned how to wear a skirt, solve very varied problems, and the fact that physicians are not beyond petty theft.

At age 14 Ioana was dissecting her first onion when she had the realisation she wishes to do something in life sciences. At age 16-17 Ioana translated live a speech about tuberculosis, the universe unknowingly nudging her. Ioana decided on medical school in her hometown with the initial intent of becoming either a forensic doctor or a paediatrician, but both ideas fell through as she realised she does not wish to be threatened on a daily basis by mothers or the local mafia (to this day, Ioana is unclear which would have been more frightful).

In the end, a combination of good mentors and Ioana’s pan-curiosity led her to train in internal medicine. She eventually found her second home in the Lung Hospital and, within it, an affinity for tuberculosis. There was something about a disease directly and indirectly bullying the people it affects which spoke to Ioana's lifelong ethos. Ioana has always been lucky with mentors -and in general with attracting interesting, kind, lovely people- and with fortunate events. So when her local mentor met his Dutch brother from another mother, it created the perfect circumstance for Ioana to leave her home country and do research in the Netherlands.

Ioana's curiosity has led her to do many different things - to the point where it is now increasingly difficult to describe the full range of skills and abilities on a CV.