Meet Anna: Crime scenes and gene regulation: Playgrounds of molecular biologist

Lets meet Anna! This episode was created for the purpose of the Haapaniemi lab website (https://haapaniemilab.org/). Kick back, relax, and let the waves of wisdom wash over you in this podcast episode – where learning meets laughter, and knowledge is served with a side of chill vibes.

Meet Anna, our esteemed guest and molecular biologist, whose life's work spans from the forensic fields of Poland to the pioneering labs of Norway and Australia. As she recounts her professional odyssey, Ana unveils the exhilaration of unraveling the mysteries of genetics and the intricate dance of gene regulation. Her stories celebrate the balance between professional drive and personal passion, illustrating the significance of finding reprieve in our cherished pastimes. Tune in for an episode that promises to enrich not only your scientific knowledge but also your appreciation for the hobbies that keep the fire of curiosity and joy alive in our busy lives.

All music clips were used from the song "Jukka Tukka" after agreement with amazing band and friends 2+1 Jam band.
This podcast episode was created under the technical and official support of University of Oslo, Norway.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome in Chroniclesależ island. My name is Ana and I'm from Poland. I'm living for quite a few years here in Norway, with some little or longer breaks, and so I did my bachelor and master in Poland. My bachelor is in molecular biology in forensic medicine. My master is in general genetics but I was studying biotechnology and after that that happened in Poland and after that I moved to Norway. I did my PhD in Bergen and it was in the molecular genetics and genomics. I worked with zebrafish and gene regulation in zebrafish. After that I moved a little bit to Australia. I did my postdoc, working still with zebrafish and gene regulation and human development and disease in zebrafish. That was the fantastic time in Australia. And then I came back to Norway and first I was in Bergen working as a researcher and after that I was so fed up with rain and the weather in Bergen, I'm sorry to say that. So we decided that it's a high time to actually move somewhere normal and then we moved to Oslo and now I'm working with Emma's lab Emma Hapanimi lab and I work in general with CRISPR editing text.

Speaker 1 2:03

Very general term. Yes, it was more or less description and analysis of the different methods used in the molecular biology for forensic medicine and that was for, like, crime detection and for evaluation of the relationship between the people. So that was that was fun part. I learned a lot during that time. I have seen a lot of odd things also during that time, as you can imagine, but that that was, I think, the moment when I understood that this is something what I really want to do and I really love genes, because the genes are never lying in a way. And yeah, I think that that was the moment when I decided okay, I continue with genes and topic of the genes and engineering. So I have started as a senior scientist in the lab and since I have quite a lot of experience with the molecular biology and genetics, that was the main topic and my area of work. And after that, emma decided that she wants to go for clinics and do other things which are not directly related to the lab work. So I become the deputy group leader and I think during that time I just started with a lot of students and supervising a lot of students, master students and getting projects together with other people in the lab. So my role is now I don't know how to how to say trying to do some administrative work and keeping the lab going somehow and helping people to do experiments and kind of sharing with my experience.

Speaker 1 4:02

At the beginning I thought that I really love to be in the lab and do experiments by myself and I think at one point I was also kind of confident or sure about myself that if someone is doing an experiment it will be me and I'm the only person who is not going to make a mistake. But when I started supervising especially here I mean I had some students before but here I was like kind of full time job I think I realized that I like it even more and I think the most fun part is kind of discovering how the people are thinking about the things that I'm thinking, what kind of approaches we have and very often very different. And another thing what I really like about the supervision is that we, together with a person, can think about the project and have kind of brainstorms basically every day and we have a problem and we can solve the problem and try to kind of go from many different directions, make something new from something. But it's kind of just optimization. And yeah, I think that this kind of struggle fighting with the difficult things and difficult problems is the most fun part of that, and in general I like supervision and I think I see most things as positives. Of course, there are some time students that not exactly follow your thoughts and don't listen, don't do what you I mean, you agree, or you kind of. They don't acknowledge the fact that you might have a little bit more experience than them. And I think that this is the difficult part, because I mean, you are as a supervisor, you're doing your best to make the project as good as possible and fun, not boring, and so the people have like something or publication or thesis or whatever in relatively good quality. But sometimes it is very difficult to kind of communicate to the person and some people very have this kind of attitude that yeah, I started, so I'm so good that I don't really have to do anything else. I mean it will just come.

Speaker 1 6:28

I love to do what I'm doing, so I like to play with genetics and genes and kind of trying to figure out new techniques. That we are basically doing every day. And but in the future, if that is possible, I would like to combine a little bit what we are doing now with my past, or what I was doing in the past and since we are also doing a little bit of stem cells, I think I would like to combine like a stem cells with the gene regulation and looking at the mechanism that are kind of fundamental mechanism for the development. And yeah, I think that this is a bit more like a basic science, not like applied science that we are doing today. But I think that I would like to combine both kind of words, if that is possible, at least have like one or two projects that on the side. I hope that this will be a little bit possible with our new project that we are planning. I will not talk about that now since maybe so let's wait when this starts. So I think that this kind of gives a promise of kind of future combination of applied with basic and my all interest in a way.

Speaker 1 7:46

So the free time it's yeah, I don't have that much, so after work I very often play with Lego those days, so I mean it's a very creative and fun work or, but I mean it's not exactly the most the biggest interest of mine. But so in my free time, like when I really have some time at home, I'm doing yeah, I'm doing a lot of bonsai, so I'm trying to do. I have a lot of trees, so I always try to find some time to do something with them, and I think I find it extremely relaxing and kind of then I'm kind of in my own world. Another thing that I was doing quite a lot recently a little bit less, it was scuba diving, and I really hope that soon I will be able to come back to that, because this is one of the most fantastic thing, I think. And also another thing that I was doing quite a lot it was martial arts, and I also would like to come back to that when I have a possibility, maybe next year, and start training again.