By Marianne Lie Becker, mlbecker@health.sdu.dk
Why did you become a researcher?
I became a researcher because of my great love for scientific subjects like biology and chemistry. Since I was a little girl, I have found the microcosm very fascinating and I wanted to do my best to contribute to the understanding of this small/invisible world around us.
What else did you consider becoming?
I thought a lot about becoming a doctor, nurse or teacher for mentally disabled children because I also had a very strong desire to help people in need. I decided not to do that and to follow the path of research because I thought my skills were more suitable for this. As a researcher, I can still help people in need and at the same time 'satisfy' my great inner curiosity to understand this world.
What are you most interested in at the moment?
I am working to establish my own research group where we will investigate the role of a small molecule produced in the body called hydrogen sulphide (hydrogen sulphide, H2S) in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a disease that will affect 1 in 4 of us at some point in our lives.
It is very important to find out, because we lack effective treatments, and if you get a fatty liver it can lead to more serious complications that are very difficult to treat, namely liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. I am fortunate to be fully funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and I would like to express my great thanks to them for their great support.
At the same time, I am working on completing and publishing two articles from my previous postdoctoral research work at SDU in collaboration with Uppsala University in Sweden. There we show that inhibiting the production of hydrogen sulphide can impair the formation of glioblastoma (the most serious and deadly type of brain tumor) and affect how small arteries in the brain contract.
What questions would you most like to find answers to?
Why is hydrogen sulphide so important in regulating our body's homeostasis? How is it that abnormal production levels of this molecule are involved in such a wide spectrum of common human diseases (ranging from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fatty liver, kidney disease and even cancer)? What is the exact molecular connection between this small molecule and the regulation of cellular metabolism?
What is the biggest thing that has happened in your field?
I think it is a publication in the prestigious scientific journal Cell, where the authors showed that the endogenous sufficient production of hydrogen sulphide is essential for maintaining a longer life in a wide range of organisms, from the small yeast organism up to rodents.
On the other hand, other researchers have shown that when there is overproduction of this molecule, it can contribute to the development of many kinds of devastating cancers.
Research into the biological role of hydrogen sulphide is relatively 'new' and we still have a long way to go. I hope that research in this area will one day receive a Nobel Prize, as happened, for example, with research into nitric oxide (NO), another small molecule, endogenously produced in the body and with similar biological functions.
How do you hope others can benefit from your research?
I hope that my research will help us in the future to be able to design targeted therapies for a wide spectrum of diseases starting from fatty liver diseases, associated cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and even cancer (i.e. brain tumor, which I worked on during my previous postdoc).
Research by us and others has shown that there is abnormal production of this small molecule in the body in all of the above diseases, and if we target it pharmacologically, we can hopefully develop new, more promising therapeutic treatments.
Which other field of study fascinates you the most?
It's astronomy. If I didn't get the chance to work with the microcosm like I do now, I would aspire to work with the macrocosm, which is just as fascinating!
What do you have in your office that few people have?
It is a small, knitted teddy bear and a metal biscuit tin with Moomin (from Finland) on it, which my mother and husband gave me as gifts. Generally, I have little things in my office that remind me that my family is the most precious gift I have.
Who do you admire the most?
It's probably a cliché, but as a woman I admire Marie Curie very much. Her life was truly fascinating, full of difficulties, great pain and dedication to her goals. I also admire her because she combined having a family and being a very successful researcher.
What do you do when you are not doing research?
I love going for a walk in nature, cooking and trying new recipes, doing embroidery and having fun with my husband, family and friends.