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Prof. Dr. Cristina E. Molina
Professorship for Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology
What sparked your interest in a career in science resp. your professional field?
Becoming a scientist has always been my dream from very early age on. When I was in school, I asked my science teachers a lot of questions and for some of them, they told me, that science does not have an answer to them yet. That motivated me to be the one to find the answers to these questions. As for electrophysiology, my teacher for biology Alejandro was the first to tell me about patch clamp. He was the one who inspired me to take the path I took out of the many options I could have gone. We are still in contact and I can tell him from time to time on which solutions I am working on.
Did you always want to become a professor?
Did you always want to become a professor? Yes, being a scientist and a professor at the University it has been my lifelong dream since I was a little child. I never had any other real plan.
What still excites you as a professor?
We know so little. In 100 years, we will still know just a little bit of what there is to learn. But each of us and each generation can add to the knowledge and continuously improve what we know. There is so much to discover and so many young people to inspire. If you keep your inner child curiosity, this job excites you day after day again and again.
What do you like about working as a professor?
It is a mix of discovering and teaching. You can shape your own topics, your own path. Your work can have an impact. The energy you put into your work can improve knowledge and processes and in the long run can change things, e.g. reduce the amount of animal testing or save lives. As for teaching, you can spark the fire in young people to burn for exactly, what we are able to reach. Our work makes a difference. Every day we get the chance to be that difference.
Is there anything that you do not like much about working as a professor?
I enjoy the competitiveness of being the best globally and the joy, when we present our new findings to our colleagues. Sometimes I wish that we all work more closer together for the greater goal to improve the life and health of patients. I also would enjoy to be able to focus even more on the scientific part of my job and have a little less administrative and bureaucratic tasks and I don't enjoy the political aspect of our job.
Were there critical phases in your career and how did you deal with them?
In my career I needed to ask for grants every other year in order to have a salary for my living and money for my research. This process can be extremely stressful when you cannot be fully sure that you will get these grants. External stress like this leads to less energy that goes into the scientific research and therefore it slows discovery, which we could make faster. Nowadays, I have my DFG Heisenberg professorship and found a great partner with the Gertraud und Heinz Rose-Stiftung. This gives me an incredible amount of freedom and extra energy. As the ones in power, we can do better to make sure we support the best scientists on their way to make great science possible.
What are the main topics of your research?
My primary scientific interests are in understanding the basic cellular pathomechanisms underlying cardiac arrhythmias, the role of phosphodiesterases and how the remodelling on cAMP/cGMP-dependent kinases (such as PKA, PKG andCaMKII) is linked to compartment-specific changes in calcium-handling in human myocytes.
In your opinion, does a young researcher/physician need to decide to take the path towards a professorship already at a very early stage in her/his career?
Not necessarily, but it does help. You should follow ones dreams and passions and believe in yourself (sometimes, nobody else does). Focus on what you want to achieve, think about how to do it, and take one step after the other.
How would you rate the work-life and work-familiy balance while being a professor?
I have only been a professor since one year, so I lack the time to answer this in a valid way. As for a scientific career, you will have to make sacrifices and if you enjoy family, you might want to reconsider your job plan.
Please state briefly about a very special moment in your career.
Really special was the day when I got the positive feedback from the Heisenberg committee that I will get the professorship. It was 20 years of my career working towards that step and this feeling was amazing.
Which supporting structures and supporting activities were helpful for you on your way to professorship? Was there a special person who inspired you?
All funding bodies, from Lefoulon Delalande to Marie Curie and DFG or the Rose Foundation. Without them, a career like mine would not be possible. There are a few people, who inspired me, starting with my biology teacher Alejandro at the high school, who is an amazing example how teachers can motivate and excite their students for career topics. Lina Badimon as a strong woman in cardiology, who supported me from the beginning of my career as well as Ursula Ravens, who shaped my career path in electrophysiology as well. Both have been role models for me. Rodolphe Fischmeister for being an inspiration as a scientist as well as a leader, person and teacher and who managed to build an amazing team no matter how big the stress is.
What are your future visions, what do you want to achieve in the future?
Having worked since many years in the field of 3R (Reduction, Replacement and Refinement in animal testing), I see an incredible amount of potential in this area of expertise. I work with human cardiac cells and I would like to accompany the translational opportunities of the method I invented into various other research areas. As for my research, I would like to intensify the international exchange and speed up our knowledge basis with various cooperations and grow a team of excellent scientists. As for achievements, sky is the limit and I think we should believe in dimensions beyond the sky. Think big. Science would have wayless knowledge if some of us had not continuously pushed boundaries and crossed borders.
Do you have any advice that you would like to give young scientists and students to take away with them?
Free your mind and focus on what you want. Who inspires you? Are you motivated by new findings and want to do better and improve what we know so far? There is a huge field of opportunities out there for you. You will fail 10.000 times while trying to find something new in your area. But the one time you are successful will worth all the effort you put into it. You can make a difference.
MILESTONES
2009
PhD, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
2024
Heisenberg Professor
2024
Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford
WORK AREA
Prof. Dr. Cristina E. Molina
- Heisenberg Professor of Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology