Published 31 October 2024 by Ulrike Böhm
Women in Research #LINO24: Nora Martin
Nora from Germany is an Independent Fellow at Barcelona Collaboratorium for Modelling and Predictive Biology (CRG), Barcelona, Spain.
She trained as a physicist and then specialized in the interdisciplinary field of biophysics. Her research contributes to our quantitative understanding of evolution by building computational models of one key aspect: variation through random mutations.
Nora participates in the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
Enjoy the interview with Nora and get inspired:
What inspired you to pursue a career in science / in your discipline?
For me, the decision to study Physics became clear during my final school years. At school, I was not single-focused but counted many subjects among my favourites, including mathematics and science, as well as languages, literature, history, social sciences, and more. When deciding on a specialization for university, I thought back to school competitions in maths and physics. In these competitions, I encountered material beyond the school curriculum, and I enjoyed solving more complicated problems that required creativity, patience, and logical reasoning. I realized that I wanted to learn more about advanced topics and apply mathematical concepts in the sciences, so I applied to study Physics at the University of Oxford. Moving to the UK for university and now to Spain for work also allowed me to integrate one of my former favorite subjects into my day-to-day life: languages.
Who are your role models?
Of course, it is always inspiring to hear about famous scientists and their work. However, one situation that stands out to me in particular is the COVID-19 pandemic. I was impressed by the fast response of many scientists and also their communication skills. For example, Viola Priesemann not only performed simulations with her group but also explained pandemic dynamics on German TV, and Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim’s YouTube channel is an excellent example of how to explain complex topics clearly.
How did you get to where you are in your career path?
I started my scientific training abroad: after finishing school, I moved from Germany to Oxford to study Physics. I was very lucky that this was pre-Brexit and that I won a German Academic Scholarship Foundation scholarship to support me. At Oxford, I did not only spend time in lectures, labs, and classes but also took the opportunity to get involved in student societies and volunteering. For example, at the Oxford University Physics Society, I listened to a range of research seminars targeted at undergraduates. These seminars played a significant role in my decision to pursue a PhD.
To prepare for my Master’s project and PhD applications, I started thinking about specializations within Physics very early. Thus, I decided to use my time during the summer holidays to explore different topics, both through research internships and through summer academies offered by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation: this included an internship in experimental atomic physics at the University of Stuttgart, a data analysis internship in astronomy at Yale and a simulation internship in biological physics at Oxford. I enjoyed all of these projects, but in the end, I chose biophysics, partly because it is intellectually fascinating and partly because biophysical findings can be relevant in more applied fields like biomedicine. Moreover, now is an exciting time in the life sciences because new technologies facilitate a wealth of experimental data.
For my PhD, I joined a research group at the University of Cambridge and won a Gates Cambridge scholarship to support my research. This decision was ideal for developing as an interdisciplinary scientist since I was based in the Sainsbury Laboratory, a biological research institute for plant development, and formed part of the interdisciplinary Gates Cambridge community. Even though the final part of my PhD was remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I remained closely connected to the Gates Cambridge program because I had just been elected Vice President of the program’s Scholars’ Council.
After completing my PhD, I returned to Oxford for a postdoctoral position and then to the Barcelona Collaboratorium for a faculty-level ‘Independent Fellow’ position. As an Independent Fellow, I develop my own independent research and direct a small research team, which is a very rewarding job.
What is the coolest project you have worked on and why?
I have enjoyed every project I have worked on for different reasons. Of course, my first published paper was a big personal milestone, so I will describe this project in a bit of detail.
In my research, I use computational tools to model the phenotypic effect of random mutations. This is relevant for evolutionary processes because new phenotypes can only evolve after arising through mutations. Of course, in the course of evolutionary processes, the prevalent sequences and phenotypes change constantly, and so the effects of mutations have to be recalculated. To gain insights despite of this complexity, the field of genotype-phenotype maps systematically analyses the effect of mutations on any possible sequence. To make this feasible, an analysis is typically performed for very ‘simple’ cases, for example, when the sequences are short, and the phenotypes of interest are folded RNA secondary structures.
Since RNA secondary structures had become such an important model system, I wanted to connect past work to a database of real evolved RNA secondary structures. This was when I realized that one big gap needed to be addressed first: in databases, different types of mutations are found, substitutions (where the mutation exchanges a single letter for a new one), insertions (where a letter is added to the sequence) and deletions (where a letter is removed from the sequence). However, so far, models had only addressed substitutions in detail. Thus, I systematically analyzed single nucleotide insertions and deletions in this project: how their effect on RNA secondary structures depends on both the sequence and structure before the mutation and how their effect compares to well-analyzed substitutions. One aspect of this project that I particularly enjoyed was finding biophysical principles behind the results. The simplest example concerns robustness, the likelihood of observing no phenotypic change after a mutation: sequences that are more robust to substitutions also tend to be more robust to small insertions and deletions, simply because the underlying biophysical reason is often a higher folding stability that is more difficult to disrupt through any type of mutation.
What’s a time you felt immense pride in yourself / your work?
What really stands out to me is my PhD defense in 2022. Since the end of my PhD had been during lockdown, this was the first time that I presented many of the results. Despite an ongoing wave of COVID-19 infections, the external examiner, Tom McLeish, had traveled to attend the exam in person, and I really enjoyed discussing each thesis chapter in depth. When the examiners passed me with positive feedback and no corrections, I felt very proud of my PhD research and thesis.
What is a “day in the life” of you like?
Since my research is theoretical and computational, my day-to-day work takes place at my desk: reading papers, coding, brainstorming, analyzing results, and writing papers. In addition, I usually have a few meetings scheduled, for example, to discuss the latest project updates with students or to plan upcoming scientific events at the Collaboratorium. Moreover, there are usually a few relevant seminars every week, both locally and on Zoom.
What are you seeking to accomplish in your career?
In my career, I want to contribute new scientific insights, ideally, intuitive results that are simple to understand and apply. But equally importantly, I want to be a good mentor for graduate students, and a good teacher. Since graduate students flourish in a lab with exciting and fruitful research questions, these different aspects are linked, but a broader set of leadership and teaching skills is also important.
What do you like to do when you’re not doing research?
Since I moved to Barcelona less than a year ago, I have attended Spanish classes twice a week after work. Otherwise, I enjoy spending time with friends, reading or doing sports (the mild winter in Barcelona has encouraged me to take up running).
What advice do you have for other women interested in science / in your discipline?
Most of my advice applies to everyone, not just women. However, one piece of advice particularly relevant for women is not to let the fear of reinforcing negative stereotypes hold you back if you are the only woman in the room.
In your opinion, what will be the next great breakthrough in science / in your discipline?
If only we had a crystal ball to tell us what the next significant breakthrough will be! However, despite the difficulty of making exact predictions about future scientific discoveries, I am certain that we will see many breakthroughs in the life sciences in the next years, driven by new techniques and the resulting data. This new data, together with modeling and data analysis, will create a wealth of insights, and I am excited to see them evolve.
What should be done to increase the number of female scientists and professors?
One great initiative that can work at any career stage is mentoring since a good mentor can adjust and discuss different challenges with different mentees. However, beyond that, there is unlikely to be a “one-size-fits-all” solution. It really depends on whether we want to address the gender imbalance in students pursuing a physics degree at university or the gender imbalance among physicists pursuing academic careers beyond the doctorate.