The vet who became a scientist explains why academia is a great place to work

“Kid, do what you like. Choose what you want.” This was the career advice my parents gave me during my last year at school. Ok, then. I want to become a vet. They were delighted and my mum painted pictures in her mind of me being the local vet in a small village somewhere. All neighbours would come and bring their pets to me and she could be involved in the romantic life of the female version of James Harriot. But it turned out to be very different.

Now as a scientist, my latest research project is studying the differences in the immune response of patients with a Covid-19-induced pneumonia. We investigated in SARS CoV-2-patients which immune response determines the disease severity. This study is a large collaborative project with scientists form the UK, Malawi, Brazil, USA, France and Switzerland and published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. How can a vet be involved in this project?

During my vet degree I realised quite quickly that my original idea of working with horses would not be happening. During my first lecture of pathology while learning about disease mechanisms in tissues my passion for studying diseases was ignited. On that day, I knew horses will always be a hobby for me. My fascination about understanding how diseases evolve in the body grew from day to day. Studying diseases does mean to understand what health is.

How a virus infects the host, causes damage and how the body is able to fight this infection successfully is not only interesting, it is dependent on the orchestration of so many factors. It fascinates me. I finished my first PhD studying virus infections in the brain and a second PhD followed to characterise a newly emerging virus infection in animals which caused stillbirth and brain damage in ruminants.

As a vet, I knew how close we are to our pets or farm animals, and my research always focussed on aspects of the One-Health approach:  Diseases which are transmitted from animals to humans. To strengthen my research I decided to stop doing diagnostic and teaching vet students and started a full time post as a scientist. For years, I was studying which immune reactions determine that some hosts show a severe or lethal outcome in virus infections and why some show a mild course of disease. I developed all the tools to address this question, and worked in the high containment lab with a virus, which can only be handled under these conditions.

Then the pandemic hit, the government stopped all our virus work. Only SARS CoV-2 from now on. The joint and focussed research activities were used to study the pathogenesis of Covid-19. I applied all the skills I developed before the pandemic, including being trained for the high containment, on the Covid-19 response to contribute as much as I could. Visualising the virus in the lung, which had never been done before, was one of my tasks, and it was a tough one. It took several months. At this time, I realised how valuable it was that the PhDs I made not only taught me science.

Most importantly, the PhD teaches grit and endurance as well as creativity. The perseverance of starting and finishing a PhD, which lasts 4 years, requires scientific depth and dealing with all the challenges along the way. In short, you need to have a very long breath. This helped me to keep going with the initially unsuccessful virus detection attempts in the tissues. I finally made it and will never forget the sunny afternoon on a Saturday during the hard lockdown, when the virus finally was visible in the lung.

Like all projects and publications in excellent research, the people involved are key to success. Interdependence of independent people working together is the heart of the work. Only efficient priorisation with well-developed communication and the perfect alignment of different expertise’s make it happen. As in this study: Every Co-author of this manuscript did what she or he could do best and contributed it. The efforts were organised and managed from Brazil to Malawi, Switzerland, USA and France to the UK and required a smart project management system. Science connects people, cultures and experiences and this makes academia a beautiful place.

During my time in academia I had the pleasure to work with so many driven and smart students, which is a joyful experience and which taught me so many valuable life lessons. I am fortunate to have great mentors pushing me to do the best work, opened doors for others and myself and allowed me to see further with their experience. Thanks to the diversity of my work, I know people in so many countries of the world, who became friends and part of my life.

Science connects the dots of knowledge and unites people. And it’s the people who drive the research to the next level. The most rewarding aspect of working in academia is to be part of the career path of the younger generation, seeing them succeed and choosing the work they want. Eventually, progressing from a job to a profession leading to a passion. Each student is a special person in my life as they trusted me with being part of their academic career and there is nothing better than meeting these people after years again and reflecting together on our journeys.

I am not living the romantic life of the female version of James Harriot. I am living the romantic life of a scientist who can travel the world for presentations and conferences, and works with researchers in places like India, Africa, Europe, USA, China and the Middle East.  Basic research is the joy of answering questions in unknown territory combined with an unparalleled work ethic. Understanding diseases is understanding life – in animals and humans alike.