We previously interviewed Professor Timo Laaksonen, our most senior scientist in the Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology (PhaN) group. Now it is time to give the floor to the new blood of our team. It is my pleasure to talk with Anna Klose and hear about her story and research interests. Thank you Anna for giving us this opportunity.
First of all, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background.
Hello, my name is Anna Klose and I am a new PhD student in the group since May 2021. Before moving to Finland, I have lived in Heidelberg (Germany) where I studied pharmacy.
You have come relatively far to the cold northern Europe. How did you become a member of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology group?
So I had just graduated and was looking for a good PhD position when I stumbled across the advertisement of this position on the University of Helsinki’s website. I got curious what the project was about and decided to contact my now-supervisor Timo and two of his PhD students to learn more about the project and the group. Since the project caught my interest and the overall impression was really good, I went with my gut feeling and applied officially for the PhD position. I did an interview and was luckily accepted and thus, joined the group recently.
No no... Lucky for us that you decided to apply to our group. The position attracted great interest and numerous applicants. Your acceptance was due to your numerous merits and very good impression on all of us involved in the selection and interview process. We are more than happy to have you onboard.
Motivation is key factor in research. What made you interested in pharmacy in general?
In school, I liked chemistry and I found it quite fascinating how small molecules in our body could play such important roles and have a big impact on our health. Also, I was quite fond of historic novels at that time and how they healed people with medicinal plants, so I really wanted to study something on “how to make medicine”. Pharmacy seemed like a great choice because it brings different disciplines of the natural sciences and medicine together but also includes practical work. It definitely never gets boring and I find it pretty cool that the knowledge gained from research in this area has the potential to help people in the future.
That is true. Research has the power to make a better future. We all are doing our small parts in this. What kind of research have you done?
I have done a couple of internships during my studies, for example in the field of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Microbiology. Impactful for me was when I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in a research group at the University of Roehampton (London). There, I was introduced to cell work and tested some drug treatment on HeLa cells infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Now, I am excited to take on a project of my own.
This current project of yours. What is the general theme of it?
I am working on DNA-based nanoparticles for ocular drug delivery.
Sounds very interesting indeed. I bet we will hear more from you about it in the future and I will make sure to update our web page with the latest developments.
Again, let us end the interview with someting fun. Do you have hobbies, or possibly some surprising special skills, like scuba diving, speaking Latin, or mushroom farming?
I like to travel, take too many pictures and get creative in the kitchen. For the last two years, I was a member of our local JiuJitsu club in Heidelberg but let’s see what new hobbies I can find here. My Latin is definitely too rusty to count as a special skill but I can speak some Japanese.
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine of Hippo. I am also with you on the taking too many pictures. The ease of digital cameras can be a curse.
Thank you again for the interview and have a nice summer.