Meet Julia and Laura, the 2020 DIGS-BB Fellows

The DIGS-BB Fellow Award 2020 went to Julia Vorhauser (Mansfeld Group, BIOTEC TU Dresden) and Laura Celotto (Brand Group, CRTD TU Dresden). The €2,000 award is given to the outstanding PhD students after completing their first year of doctoral work.

Julia and Laura agreed to answer a couple of questions to let us get to know them, and their research, better.

© TUD/Magdalena Gonciarz

What are you working on, Julia?
I am trying to understand how cell division and redox balance are linked together. The cellular redox balance is driven by the production and removal of Reactive Oxygen Species. Dividing cells continuously change their intracellular redox balance, which in turn has been suggested to influence cell cycle progression. Although the mechanism for this regulation is still not clear, it seems that cancer cells are able to hijack it to promote uncontrolled cell division and tumor growth. In my PhD project, I am looking for components of the cell cycle machinery that are affected by the redox balance. By identifying such regulator proteins, I aim to reveal the link between cell cycle and redox balance, which can be a starting point to understand what could happen during cancer.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist?
In high school I wanted to become a medical doctor but when the time came I (un)fortunately did not pass the admissions test for the medical school. I was very upset. I decided to try the test again in a year but in the meantime I enrolled to study biology. It turned out that I enjoyed biology a lot and it fascinated me how complex and precisely regulated biological systems need to be in order to properly function. At the end of that year I decided not to take the exam again, and I never looked back.

What drives/motivates you?
In science people continuously ask questions that lead to discoveries. These discoveries in turn result in new questions. What drives me the most is knowing that my projects may reveal something new that could turn out to be a starting point for future studies. I like to feel part of a big scientific community where diverse people share their knowledge and everyone contributes to driving the science forward.

© TUD/Magdalena Gonciarz

What are you working on?
I am trying to figure out how the injured retina repairs itself. The retina is a beautiful carpet of neurons that lines the back of the eye and allows vision. In several vision diseases the retinal cells are damaged. Humans are still unable to regenerate these cells, they are simply lost and lead to the long-term loss of vision. Zebrafish, on the other hand, can regenerate retinal cells. I study the retina regeneration in the zebrafish and try to understand how the Mueller glia cells sense the injury and how they produce happy neurons.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist?
I actually wanted to be an actress! But I decided to go for biology and specifically neurobiology. I am not regretting my choice. I think that watching a neuron at a microscope is an immense privilege. Sometimes I wish I can live a second life and be an actress as well. Maybe scientists will find the secret of immortality, and then I can think of building up a side career…

What is science for you?
Science is a method and a human product. It is a method, the best we have so far, to investigate nature and try to answer basic questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? What is the nature of the world we are living in? Science is a human product because it is the humans that perform science. As humans we have strengths but also weaknesses and biases. The scientists are therefore flawed humans trying to understand our world in the best way they can.

What was your most important shaping experience?
The three years I spent in Trieste, a beautiful city by the seaside in the North East of Italy. I studied for my Master degree in Neuroscience there. Trieste concentrates the best research institutes in Italy and it has an international atmosphere in which I met brilliant minds and made wonderful friends. I am in debt with Trieste and people I met there. They gave me the motivation and the opportunity to join the amazing city of Dresden.