“It’s the people around me that make my research special”
Since May of this year, the second floor of the Multiscale Imaging Centre (MIC) on Röntgenstraße has been home to the office of Dr Maria Florencia Sánchez, who studies how cells communicate. The first thing that catches the eye of visitors entering the room are the bright biomedical microscopy images of cells in different shapes and colours on the walls. “They’re not mine, they are borrowed from my colleagues,” says the cell biologist almost apologetically. “But now it’s my turn.” As the Emmy Noether junior research group leader at the European Institute for Molecular Imaging at the University of Münster, she is in the process of setting up her research group and can hardly wait to get started.
The 40-year-old scientist has come to stay – together with her husband and eight-year-old son. “I have already worked in several places in Germany, such as Frankfurt and Tübingen, and all over the world. But I want to stay in Münster long-term.” She is convinced that such moves are important for academic careers, as they can strengthen the independence of researchers. The different stages and academic environments have also shaped her personally.
She discovered her love of science at an early age, and was already interested in “unsolved mysteries and questions that have yet to be answered” at school. At first, she wanted to become an archaeologist. In secondary school, her interest in chemistry and microbiology grew. “The focus was on scientific topics and we had the opportunity to do lots of exciting experiments in the lab – from then on, I was hooked and got more and more involved,” she recalls. Not surprisingly, she enrolled in chemistry and later chose to specialise in biotechnology.
Maria Florencia Sánchez completed her master’s and PhD at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina, the oldest university in the country and one of the oldest in Latin America. It is the second largest university in Argentina after the Universidad de Buenos Aires, with around 115,000 students. She does not miss her home country very much, but she does miss her family, some 12,000 kilometres away. “When I finished my PhD, it was clear to me that I wanted to go to Germany – I already had contacts through my supervisor at that time. From a scientific point of view, many opportunities await me here: the cutting-edge technologies, the numerous funding programmes and the research infrastructure offer excellent conditions for my work.”
But it was not just the research landscape that spoke in favour of Germany. Aspects such as the health and education systems and the work-life balance are just as important to her. “This issue is very close to my heart. After all, a career in academia is still associated with many hurdles for women,” she stresses. She has always had the support of her husband, who has fully endorsed her move to a new city. But her network of colleagues and, above all, her then-mentor in Argentina also encouraged her to follow her passion. Already in Frankfurt, her mentor and close colleagues taught her invaluable leadership skills that have helped her to take the next step in her academic career.
The Emmy Noether grant, a programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) that gives excellent researchers the opportunity to qualify for a professorship at a university by leading an independent junior research group, has enabled her to take off in Münster: the MIC and its close proximity to the Center for Soft Nanoscience, CeNTech, the Center for Molecular Biology of Inflammation and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine offer excellent conditions for conducting cutting-edge research at the highest technological level and for collaborating with colleagues. “Above all, it is the people around me that make my research special. Interdisciplinary exchange is extremely important for the complexity of the research questions we investigate,” remarks Maria Florencia Sánchez. “The friendly atmosphere also makes it very easy for me to get started in Münster.”
Maria Florencia Sánchez owes her scientific success and perseverance in this field in part to collegial networks and mentors. Now she wants to share not only her expertise in nanotechnology, cell biology and biophysics, but also her career experiences with students and young scientists. For example, how to deal with failure and frustration, and important factors for independent career development. “I want to talk to my doctoral students and colleagues on an equal footing – hierarchical structures in research are less important to me. What counts is the result,” she says. So it remains to be seen which microscopy images from her group will adorn the walls of the MIC in the future.
Information on the Transmembrane Signaling Lab
The team investigates how cells communicate with each other and how they sense and respond to their environment. Cells receive and process chemical and mechanical signals through receptors in the cell membrane. The group develops novel approaches to visualise such mechanisms of cell–cell communication and to investigate how the clustering of receptors influence the behaviour of cells. Of particular interest are the plexin receptors, which regulate cell shape and motility during the development of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, and play an important role in many pathophysiological processes, including cancer, immunological and neurological diseases. A wide range of multidisciplinary approaches are used, from nanolithography, 3D printing, DNA origami, cell and molecular biology and optogenetics to advanced live-cell microscopy.
Author: Kathrin Kottke
This article is from the University newspaper wissen|leben No. 6, 2 October 2024.