Supporting female scientists on their career path is a major concern of Fraunhofer ITMP.
We would like to introduce you to some of our female scientists whom we interviewed about their work at Fraunhofer ITMP.
The female scientists talk about their projects, what they find particularly exciting about their work, and also about some of the challenges they face along the way.
Currently at Fraunhofer ITMP, I am dealing with creation of FAIR data and pipelines with help of knowledge graphs. Being at a data-producing center, I leverage this opportunity to interlink in-house produced data with external resources. Knowledge graphs, which are graphical visualization of your data, are a powerful tool that help in linking different data resources into a smaller instance. Hence, such knowledge graph tools immensely reduce the time a researcher would take to get the same information by reading multiple publications. Along with providing knowledge graph tools for supporting researchers across various domains from anti-microbial resistance (AMR) to COVID-19 communities, I provide support for various cheminformatics related analysis relevant for a chemical polypharamacology or side effects. Lastly, I actively take part in creation as well as mapping of ontologies for a given use case.
Not being involved in a group where experts come from a variety of domains previously, the freedom to explore and understand new techniques and learning from experts excites me the most. This gives me the ability to try to solve a given problem in different directions by asking questions like how would a chemist use this information or how would a biologist see these results.
The biggest challenge in the work I do remains the uncertainty of the downstream impact of the tools I provide: does the tool help impact the drug discovery process at any given point or does the tool help researchers search for novel targets for already approved drugs or drugs failed in a clinical trail for a specific indication. To overcome this, I try my best to get feedback on the work I do and try to understand the problem statement researchers struggle to answer. This way I can suggest fellow researchers the ways in which tools such as knowledge graphs can be leveraged to solve such problems for them.
My area of responsibility at Discovery Research ScreeningPort, the Hamburg site of Fraunhofer ITMP, is extremely diverse, which I appreciate very much. I am responsible for the management of funding and industry projects, coordinate the public relations activities of our institute site, and I am involved in personnel management and the promotion of young scientists.
With my background in academic research and the biotech industry, I was able to gain an insight into the different ways of working in our environment. In 2014, I then accompanied the integration of the Hamburg site into the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the founding of Fraunhofer ITMP in early 2021. For me, it is particularly enriching to be part of this large network at the interface between academic and industrial research and to be able to exploit the possibilities of interdisciplinarity within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in project work. At the same time, I am happy to be involved in setting up the Fraunhofer Group for Health and to contribute our focus on pharmaceutical drug discovery.
Pursue your scientific goals and remain a specialist for as long as possible. Use the opportunities of the international scientific environment for further education and networking and seek exchange. Have the confidence to reconcile career and family and take advantage of the opportunities offered by modern ways of working.
As a PostDoc at the site Discovery Research ScreeningPort of Fraunhofer ITMP, I greatly enjoy that my daily work encompasses many different facets - I perform experiments in the lab, communicate with our project partners, present research results and develop new project ideas. This also involves writing grant proposals and engaging with industry. Another aspect that I am passionate about is mentoring and empowering young scientists.
The research field that I work in drives innovation in drug discovery and development – we contribute to identifying novel activities of known drugs, to finding new substances that have potential in treating so-far untreatable disease, and to expanding drug therapy options beyond the classical inhibitors. The purpose of this work - advancing medicine - with my contribution being part of a much larger, interdisciplinary team effort is what keeps me excited.
1. It takes time and experience to embrace that experiments fail – not the person doing them – and to appreciate “negative results” as guide towards finding innovation.
2. Celebrate achievements no matter how small they may appear.
3. There’s nothing wrong with viewing science as a team sport!
As a postdoc, I lead different projects to answer molecular, cellular and clinical aspects of urticaria patients. I supervise students and help with organizational issues in the laboratory.
What I find most exciting about my work is being on the verge of scientific developments that later in time will be applied to patients. The decisions we take in the experimental approaches will determine the future of diagnostic tests, new treatment options and improved patient care.
My biggest challenge is to maintain a balance between all the different facets of my work. Often times when working in the laboratory, we need to take care of several additional tasks such as writing grant applications, publications, coordinating with international collaborators and making sure the laboratory runs smoothly. It is sometimes necessary to stop and take the time to think and discuss about what are the relevant experiments to answer the scientific questions. It is not always easy to achieve an equilibrium and advance with all fronts at the same pace, since all of them are equally important.
At Fraunhofer ITMP I am involved in the development of new therapeutic approaches for infectious diseases and their impact on the immune system. We are also establishing new test systems to check the safety of biologicals. Another major area of work is the testing of chemicals with regard to their potential bioavailability and their impact on the human immune system. We also examine natural substances such as lichen extracts with regard to their pharmacological potential with the aim of identifying new innovative drug candidates.
What I particularly like about my work are the diverse tasks and research areas that we address. With every new project, I gather experience in specific research areas, which I can then use in other projects in the spirit of translation. In addition, working in pharmacology gives me the opportunity to actively participate in the development of new therapies for diseases that have no adequate treatment yet available.
At the same time, the greatest challenge is what is interesting about working in research: Discovering new, previously unknown biological and medical connections. It starts with the generation of hypotheses based on the scientific work of others or one's own previous work, followed by the planning of experimental approaches to test the hypotheses. The exchange with other scientists either at conferences or by publishing the results is also important.
I am a biochemist in the Research Division Clinical Research at the Berlin site of Fraunhofer ITMP.
The best part of my job is research project design where you need to think creatively about new possibilities and approaches to the scientific question. I am new at Fraunhofer, but so far it has been great to collaborate with the interdisciplinary group of scientists.
My biggest challenge has been to learn to effectively network with others, it's shown to always provide new ideas and collaborations that spring every project forward.
The advice I would give my younger self is not to be shy to approach others and to remember that possibilities are endless only if you want it.
In the research area Drug Discovery, I work as a research associate on the automation of biochemical and cell-based assays. As deputy working group manager, I also focus on building up our research team for biomedical data science and establishing agile project work as a Scrum Master.
For me, it is exciting to work in an interdisciplinary way. My work at Fraunhofer ITMP allows me to combine different interests: scientific work in the lab, research data management and agile project management. I find the exchange within our team enriching, as well as the collaboration with national and international research partners.
Probably the biggest challenge for me, but at the same time also biggest opportunity, is the ever faster progress in science and technology. New fields are constantly emerging, creating a variety of professional opportunities. Being open to this and still remaining focused can be challenging.
I got into drug discovery through my studies in pharmaceutical biotechnology. In the course of research projects, I also became involved with data processing and realised that scientists and computer scientists should work together to advance research data management and data science. This is what we are now doing at Fraunhofer ITMP in the Biomedical Data Science group.
I was supported on my way by specific training opportunities such as the Fraunhofer career mentoring Step Forward and a Scrum Master training.
Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP