Stella Lamprinaki (Greece)
| Hello! My name is Stella. I have graduated from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, with a diploma in Molecular Biology and Genetics. After spending 2 years at the University of Pennsylvania, in the USA, I moved to Germany to do my doctorate in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. |
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I fell in love with Biology in my young years. Since I was a child I was fascinated by nature and its creatures. Later, when I had to decide what to study, I was sure that I wanted to combine my love for biology with my other passion helping people becoming a doctor. So I figured out that the field of Molecular Biology and Genetics was the right one for me. My decision to continue in science, working towards a PhD, is partly attributed to my master thesis mentor. He inspired me, exposed me to the scientific thinking and transmitted to me his enthusiasm for science.
I like to think of molecular biology as a science which helps answer questions that will be helpful in the future to cure people. In our lab, we are working on a biological phenomenon that saves a large number of people from developing genetic diseases. But let's take things from the beginning. The cell is like a factory. There are multiple lines of production of goods that are necessary for the maintenance and the growth of the cell. All these products pass through control for their integrity. As a policeman, the phenomeon that we are working on is testing every mRNA molecule produced from the cell. If the molecule is correct and complete, then it is allowed to continue its life-cycle in the cell. Otherwise, the policeman captures this molecule and leads it to destruction, rescuing this way the cell (and subsequently the whole organism). One third of inherited diseases is due to the presence of wrongful mRNA. Iif this phenomenon didn't exist, more people would be sick. With my work, I hope to add a piece ito the puzzle of how this phenomenon works. More specifically, I am working towards the elucidation of the policeman's accessories-proteins that help him capture the 'bad' mRNA.
During my free time, I adore travelling around the world. I like getting to know new places, languages, cultures and traditions. A big advantage of working in science is the fact that you should travel. You can move to a new country for a period of your life, or you can travel to conferences. Moreover, our institute has a big number of activities! I am part of the basketball and climbing clubs.
EMBL is a nice place, not only for work and inspiration, but also for new experiences. I was always active in volunteer organisations, such as Greenpeace. This is why when I learned about Adéquation, I became immediately amember. Adéquation Germany is a non-profit organisation, whose mission is to make sure that every country on this planet is given a fare chance to develop its full research and development potential, and thereby support the progress of its society. In order for these countries to reach these goals, we want to help them acquire the necessary tools to insure their basic needs, and improve their education and research base.
