Kerstin Bartscherer (Germany)
| My name is Kerstin, and I am a molecular biologist, currently doing my PhD at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.
My scientific career started at the age of 10. For my birthday I got a microscope, with which I analysed everything I could find: hair, insects, even blood. Since then I have been interested in everything small - the smaller the better! |
 |
After graduation from high school, I took advantage of a 1-year au-pair trip to Chicago to make up my mind about what I would like to do in life. During that time I decided to study biotechnology. Biotechnology, the technical exploitation of microorganisms, was a fashionable thing to study, and anyway, I was more interested in tiny little cells and organisms than in flowers and birds.
The study programme was interesting and I learned for example how to extract insulin from bacteria. The best thing about this programme was that I could spend my fifth semester in Honolulu, Hawaii, where I gained first scientific experience. Together with 'real' scientists from the Hawaiian Cancer Research Center, I investigated the mechanism of programmed cell death, a method with which cells kill themselves once they get into trouble. Later, after a 6-months' project at the DKFZ, in which I investigated how cells of the immune system contribute to the spreading of HIV in the body, I finished my studies with the degree 'Bachelor of Science'.
Next station was Göttingen. From there I expected to gain insights into developmental biology, the area of biology that deals with the development of multicellular organisms: from the generation and fertilisation of the egg to the adult organism. In addition I wanted to learn more about the biology of the cell. I felt that the 1 ½-year study programme 'Molecular Biology' combined all these topics, and also offered a variety of project-based courses in Göttingen's scientific institutes. I graduated with the degree 'Master of Science' and felt prepared to tackle a bigger project in form of a PhD thesis.
Therefore, I came back to the DKFZ, where I have been working in a fun and international environment with young people from all over the world. What I like best about my job is the freedom with which I can design and organise my work, and the variety of different tasks. These tasks include giving talks about my work, teaching, writing scientific articles, and visiting conferences, but primarily: experiments.
With my experiments that include work with the fruit fly, I try to understand how cells of an organism communicate with each other and which genes play a role in this communication. Aberrant communication can have fatal consequences and can lead to severe developmental defects and diseases such as cancer. Last year, my colleagues and I found a novel gene that plays an important role in cell-to-cell communication and therefore in the development of all multicellular organisms. We named this new gene after my little sister, "Evi"!
In my free time, I do sports, especially mountain biking, and study Romanian.
School:
Carl-Benz-Gymnasium Ladenburg