Sylva Haralambous (Greece)
| Hi! My name is Sylva and I'm the Director of the Laboratory of Transgenic Technology of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI) in Greece. |  |
My childhood dream was to be an architect, but as we all know, some dreams come true and some don't.
Although I started studying biology by chance, from the first year of my studies I was fascinated by this invisible part of our lives: a world that can only be seen using modern techniques of biology, a world which is as simple as it is complicated. My increasing interest in research led me to do a PhD at the Nuclear Research Center "Democritos" in Athens. Through my research project on anticancer drugs, I realised that by dissecting the mode of action of a drug, new mechanisms of life are revealed that can help scientists treat diseases more efficiently by optimising the design and use of new drugs.
I have to admit that for a long time, I experienced conflicting feelings that were created on the one hand by the magic of the scientific environment and the creative work, and on the other hand by the stress generated by the high demands of research and the isolation from close friends.
In the meantime, I have realised that it is worth staying in research. Despite the fact that I was married to a lawyer, I traveled to the USA, France and the UK to gain new scientific knowledge and experience, to meet people from all over the world and to learn about new ways of thinking. However, I missed the people that I loved. Since my return to Greece, I've been working as the Director of the Laboratory of Transgenic Technology of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI). The HPI is (probably) exceptional since the research staff consists of fourteen women and only two men!
My team (4 women) studies how mammals respond and protect themselves against environmental factors that cause disease. We do this by identifying the cells, the molecules and the molecular mechanisms implicated in such processes. To answer these questions we use molecular biology techniques. We can manipulate the genome of an organism and follow the possibly altered characteristics in the offspring. Small rodents resemble humans in their basic functional mechanisms. Therefore, we use mice as models and transfer the acquired knowledge to humans with the ultimate goal of treating a disease efficiently or to generate new drugs.
Many under- and postgraduate students are trained in our lab. We also receive visits from high-school students. Apart from the lab work, traveling to courses and conferences or visiting other labs as well as weekly seminars keep us busy. Often, the students organise excursions and crazy parties in the beautiful garden of the institute. In addition to my work at the HPI, I teach at the University of Athens and participate in an interdisciplinary research group for humanities.
During the vacations, I do a lot of maintenance work on our house on the Greek island of Santorini that is open to any of our friends. I love taking excursions to the Greek islands and the mountains. In my spare time I do gardening, dancing, read books, and go to the cinema, theatre and music performances with my family or close friends.
Soon after I returned to Greece I got divorced and remarried. My husband, Giorgos, is an architect. We have a wonderful daughter, who is 15 years old. Although the first years were difficult (baby care, baby parties, etc.), the emotional security of having a family has had a positive effect on my research.
I've been working for 28 years in the field of biology, and for the last 20 years at the HPI. As it often happens, working for a long time under the same conditions becomes routine. Theoretically, I should feel tired. But did I give you the impression that research can become routine or that one can get tired doing research? I don't think so. But if you ask my daughter, she will answer: "When I was younger I loved going to the lab with my mom, although sometimes I had the feeling that research was keeping her away from me. Today I often wish that her experiments keep her in the lab as long as possible, leaving me undisturbed at home!"