Irma, tell us about your research.
My research focuses on transposons, pieces of DNA that can move from one location to another in genomes. By moving DNA around, transposons transfer genes between genomes and can alter genomic information. This natural ability of transposons can be used to artificially modify genomes for basic research and medicine. In my lab, we want to study the mechanisms that transposons use to mobilize DNA in nature and use this information to develop novel genome engineering technologies.
What do you enjoy most about science?
Science is like the perfect TV series. There's always another exciting episode around the corner. After a long series of trials and errors you finally think you have a solution to the problem. And then the first question that I ask myself is cool, but now what's next? In science, the possibilities are endless, and you can‘t get bored.
What is the medical potential of your work?
Transposons have a huge therapeutic impact. They are already being used in clinical trials to modify human cells for genome therapy. Therefore, by understanding how transposons work and how we can control their activity we can expand and improve their therapeutic potential.
Why did you decide to become a scientist?
When I graduated from high school, I wanted to become a book author because I could use my creativity and imagination every day. At the first scientific meeting I went to, I met a biotechnologist and realized how much creative thinking and imagination also goes into science. For example, imagining how molecules work in a test tube without being able to see them. Reading scientific papers, I realized that there's always a story to tell, not only about how a scientific idea is born, but also about how molecular processes work. That's exactly when I realized that becoming a scientist is something I wanted to do.
What job would you have in an alternate universe?
I love to read detective stories. So in a different universe, I would probably be a detective, gathering and verifying information to understand exactly how a series of events occurred. In this universe, I feel like I'm doing something very similar as a scientist, but the biggest advantage is that molecules don't mind if I'm following them around with a microscope all the time.
Voyage of the Starships: giant transposons as crucibles of evolution
Parthenogenesis, cryptobiosis, and the survival in extreme environmental conditions
Evading ageing: Mitochondrial and proteostatic adaptations in oocytes
Genomes in Rhodnius prolixus symbiotic system
Stem cells, immune evasion and metastasis in colorectal cancer
Ubiquitin & Friends Symposium 2024
The Ubiquitin & Friends Symposium is an annual international meeting taking place in the beautiful capital of Austria, aiming to bring together scholars from various fields studying ubiquitin/Ubl biology and protein degradation in a personal, family-like atmosphere, as suggested by the name.
The evolution and development of mollusc shells
Unraveling the Complexity of Crossover Regulation in C. elegans
Dynamics of 3D Genome Structure and Function
How superworms can help to solve our plastic waste crisis
Title to be announced
New players in an old pathway: biology of methanogens of the TACK superphylum
Shaping morphogen gradients: from molecules to tissues and back
Title to be announced
Studying stressed cells by in situ structural biology
Exploring Microbial Resilience: Unravelling Escherichia coliand#x27;s Stress Response at the Level of Protein Synthesis
Arbuscular mycorrhiza development and function
Deep homology and deep diversity: Evolving genetic toolkits for making and sensing light
The evolution of cell type identity and tissue microecology at the fetal-maternal interface
The unanticipated roles of PICIs and phages in bacterial evolution
Chemical targeting of subcellular protein localization
Origin and diversification of gut-derived organs in chordates
Job's Dilemma for the Genome: Why Bad Things Happen to Good Chromosomes
Connections between carbon and nitrogen cycling in the ocean
Understanding how the DNA-loop-extruding protein complex Condensin folds a chromatinized genome into mitotic chromosomes
DrugMap: A quantitative pan-cancer analysis of cysteine ligandability
From Roads to Rivers? Occurrence and environmental fate of tire and road wear particles and of tire-related chemicals
FENS 2024 Satellite event: Home cage behavior monitoring at the interface of animal welfare and neuroscience
Striking physiology and cell biology of (marine) environmental microorganisms
Mechanisms controlling maintenance of cohesin dependent loops
Title to be announced