“It helps you grow as a scientist to see different spaces”

Mart Sillen spent seven weeks in the Adaptive Pathogenicity Strategies group at HKI to bring an immunology perspective to her Candidiasis research project. Interview by Anna Komor.

Where do you come from?

I’m from a province in Flanders, Belgium. I studied at the KU Leuven near Brussels, where I got my bachelor’s and master’s degree. I did my master’s thesis in the lab where I am currently doing my PhD, in the lab of Prof Patrick Van Dijck at the KU Leuven.

What brings you to Jena?

Mark [Gresnigt] and I met in Nice during the FEBS human fungal pathogens meeting. We started talking and he pointed out to me the immunology of vulvovaginal candidiasis and suggested all these cool experiments. And now I am here.

What is your impression of the city?

Jena is way hillier than I expected. But it’s nice, the nature is very nice. Everywhere you look you see the hills and I like that. And I like the atmosphere here. One has a lot of  opportunities. On the campus, a lot of people collaborate and they use each other’s machinery. Within the Microverse you have an overarching structure and each week there is a lecture so you know what other people are doing, which machines they have and what could be of use for your own research. This gives you the motivation for collaboration.

Have you noticed any cultural or procedural differences between your home lab and this lab?

I think here there is way more legislation than in Belgium. Way more paperwork. In Belgium, I never hear people say paperwork is a big hurdle. Also, the people are a bit more direct. For example, us Flemish or Belgian people, we will not say what’s on our minds. We will say it’s ok, while maybe here they will say, oh no that’s a problem, which is actually also good. We Belgians don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

How will this stay impact your project?

The work I did here complements and makes the storyline more complete. I now have the immunology side which is very important in the case of vulvovaginal candidiasis, as it is an immune pathology. Since I am only at the beginning of my PhD, I have some interesting findings and I can still take a different route or consider looking more deeply into certain findings. I think it helps you grow as a scientist to see different spaces. I like that I came early because the project is sort of defined but it doesn’t need to be that way. If you find something interesting at the beginning, you can still jump on that.

You are working on an infection that impacts exclusively women/people with a vulva and vagina. What is your experience in the scientific community working on this “gendered” problem? Do you think it is harder to get funded?

There is still more attention given to invasive candidiasis and I can get where people are coming from because it has the worst possible outcome, death. However, when we look at
the prevalence of different forms of candidiasis, vulvovaginal candidiasis sits right at the top. So whilst it does not cause mortality, quality of life is severely impacted. This together with the high prevalence means that it deserves some more attention.

More and more labs are making great efforts in creating awareness about female-specific diseases. For example, the lab of my second advisor Prof. Sarah Lebeer set up the Isala website in which they communicate their research findings on a scientific comprehensible level so that nonscientists can understand. I believe that these efforts highlight the importance of investigating female specific diseases and hopefully results in more funding.

Thanks a lot for the Interview!