Melina Schuh (Germany)
| Hello, my name is Melina. I am doing my PhD at the EMBL in Heidelberg. |
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My day starts as everyone else's: I get up, have breakfast, and then I go to work. But then something special is coming: on my way to work, I leave the city where I live, Heidelberg, I even leave Germany, and finally arrive at a small European spot - and all that does not even take more than 15 minutes. How can that be? I am a PhD student at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, in short EMBL. Over 1400 people from more than 60 countries work at EMBL. To avoid getting lost in the Babel of language, we speak EMBLish. That is something like English with a European slang, as there are not many native speakers at EMBL.
Melina Schuh |
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At EMBL, we are trying to understand a bit better the secrets of life. For example, we investigate, how creatures develop from an accumulation of cells, how a single cell functions and is built, how cells divide and how this process can result in diseases like cancer. I myself investigate how a fertilisable egg develops. Errors during the development of the egg result in infertility and diseases like Down Syndrome. It is therefore especially important to fully understand this process. To be able to observe how an egg develops, I label its components, like for example the chromosomes, with fluorescent molecules. Afterwards, I can use special microscopes to record movies of the fluorescent chromosomes in live eggs, and analyse in detail their behavior.
When you are sitting in front of the microscope, it is a bit like being at cinema. But in this case, you are not only the observer, but you are director, camera man and observer at the same time. Only the screenplay was written by nature. And the excitement is high - you can discover totally novel things! In front of the microscope, you can witness processes that have not been observed by any human being before - and for me that is the best part of my profession. Discovering something novel makes you forget all the long days that you spent in the lab. Then you are simply thrilled. I think science suits people who are curious and who cannot stand boredom. You can make real discoveries, but you will also have to persevere if things do not run smoothly.
At the end of schooldays, I did not quite know what I wanted to do - maybe study architecture or rather something scientific? In the end, I studied biochemistry. And since during my studies, I learned so many new things about the world and the life in it, I have never regretted this decision.
School:
Humboldt-Gymnasium Bad Pyrmont