What is your favourite enzyme, and why?

Adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). In very simplistic terms, it hydrolyzes lipids down to fatty acids. I had the fortune of working on this enzyme during my postdoc and I am still in love with it. The acronym is ATGL, but for me it is All Time Great Lipase.

 

What is your favourite book?

The Story of Insulin. It gives you a good depiction about the world of science, because we’re locked in universities and not many people know what we do. It is one of the most important books of metabolic science. I also like reading The New Scientist, The Scientist, and Natural Geographic.

 

What is the most recent book you’ve read?

I haven’t read a whole book in a long time, but I like to read about astronomy.

 

What is your favourite amino acid, and why?

That one’s a bit easier [than favourite protein]. I like the branched-chain ones: Leucine, valine, isoleucine…

 

What are some of your hobbies?

I like reading scientific magazines, practicing piano, travelling and being in nature, cooking, and watching movies.

 

What is your dream vacation?

One of the places I would like to go is Italy, and also some Scandinavian locations.

 

What is the coolest project you’ve worked on?

I consider all projects as cool! I never get bored- wake up and think of ideas, and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But one fundamental thing we work on is lysosomes- the ‘garbage can’. If the garbage can fills, you have problem. Your cells don’t live long- they die. Lysosomes suffer in diabetes and obesity. We identified a transcription factor that makes the garbage can, and we found that in obesity it goes down. It’s in a lot of tissues.

 

What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in lab?

I do that every single day! Most are related to the hypothesis- you travel the maze and you go the wrong way. We don’t call it a mistake- we call it learning. Every mistake is a learning experience, and it refines our hypothesis.

 

Do you have any advice or anything else you want to say?

I’m a researcher, but I consider it my hobby. We don’t call it a job- it’s a passion, but we can’t do it without support from the public, so I encourage everyone to support research however they can.

To the students, researching leads to new talents, which leads to a better world. Once you’re in a program, you need to learn the milestones and communicate with someone- a peer, a professor- don’t waste your four years. Find mentors, be clear on the fundamentals, learn, and keep your foundations strong.