862 CHIMIA 2009, 63, No. 12 THE 450TH ANNIVERSARYOFTHE ACADÉMIE ET UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE

doi:10.2533/chimia.2009.862 Chimia 63 (2009) 862–863 © Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft Getting the Opportunity to Fly on your own

F. Gisou van der Goot*

Abstract: The author describes the beginning of her independent scientific career in the Department of Biochem- istry of the University of Geneva, at a time when Assistant Professor positions did not exist there and female group leaders in the Section of Chemistry were a rare species. Good timing, strong support and an excellent atmosphere are what she remembers. Her stay there was absolutely crucial to her success.

Keywords: Department of · Section of Chemistry · University of Geneva

After being trained fully resolved. The success of my post- the official supervisor of my PhD students. as a polytechnical doc projects combined with the extremely But this was only a very minor annoyance engineer in France, stimulating and international environment since my colleagues within the department I performed a PhD of EMBL convinced me that academic and the section fully acknowledged me as in Biophysics at the research was what I wanted to do in the an independent investigator, supporting me University of Paris coming years. as they could. VI. From there I In Heidelberg I met my future husband When I joined the Department, I was moved on for a post- who was offered a professor position at fortunate to benefit from additional finan- doctoral stay at the the Faculty of Sciences of the University cial support in the form of a salary for a European Molecular of Geneva. I went to Geneva to visit sev- PhD student, to which was later added a Laboratory eral groups and give seminars in view of post-doc and a part-time technician, be- (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Back then my me- finding a second post-doc position. One of cause of structural changes in the depart- dium-term plan was to do a post-doc for the talks I gave was at the Department of ment. Stuart Edelstein reduced the size of a few years and then to go into industry, Biochemistry, UNIGE. After my seminar, his group, after moving his efforts from as dictated by my engineering training. At Stuart Edelstein, then head of the Depart- a wet lab to a computational biology lab. the EMBL, I started working on bacterial ment asked me: “Why don’t you start your Jacques Deshusses, who had supported me toxins. More specifically on protein tox- own group?” In those days, the University all along, retired and it took time before ins that have the ability to form pores in of Geneva did not have Assistant Profes- the Department received the green light to the plasma membrane of their target cells. sor positions. Also, not being Swiss, I was start the search for a new professor. This These are fascinating proteins that live in not eligible for a START (Swiss Talents additional support really gave me the op- two generally incompatible states. They for Advanced Research and Teaching) fel- portunity to take off. are secreted by the bacterium as a soluble lowship, which at that time was equivalent In addition to the material support, the protein. They subsequently bind to spe- to the SNF Professeur Boursier. Stuart combination of expertise that was avail- cific receptors at the surface of target cells Edelstein thus offered me to start my in- able at the Faculty of Science allowed where they then multimerize into ring-like dependent group on a Maître Assistant me to evolve scientifically and broaden structures and undergo an additional con- position, which was a unique opportunity the interests of my group. We continued formational change that exposes hydro- especially at the age of 29. The department our biophysical approaches aimed at un- phobic surfaces, allowing the complex to would provide me with space, access to all derstanding the conformational changes insert into the membrane and form a pore.[1] common equipment and a few thousand that accompany membrane insertion of Using biophysical approaches, my inter- francs of financial support. The rest would proteins, and benefited from the arrival est was to understand how these proteins have to come from the SNF. Not having of Stefan Matile and Naomi Sakai.[2] But convert from a soluble to a transmembrane thought much about the future beyond the my wish was to also start addressing how state, a question that has still not been post-doc, I thought this was an interesting bacterial toxins interact with their target alternative to a post-doc and accepted the cells, how they bind, what cellular mecha- offer. Luckily I never thought about what nisms promote the oligomerization proc- would happen if I did not get my SNF ess, how cells sense and react to bacterial grant. Fortunately, Switzerland and the toxins (Fig. 1). The problem was that, not SNF welcomed, and still do, young scien- having been trained in biology, I had never tists unknown to them, as long as their CV even seen a cell through a microscope, let met their standards. And so in December alone studied cells by any other means. But 1993 I joined the Department of Biochem- my colleagues were extremely patient and istry. This department is part of the Section helpful, especially Jean Gruenberg and of Chemistry and not Biology. Chemistry the late Thomas Kreis, from the Depart- *Correspondence: Prof. Dr. F. Gisou van der Goot did not host any female group leaders at ment of . This also coincided Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Institute of Global Health that time. The status of group leader was with the arrival of an excellent post-doc in Station 15 actually only how the professors viewed my lab, Laurence Abrami – whom I could CH-1015 Lausanne you. Indeed since the notion of Assistant hire only thanks to the support of the de- Tel.: +41 21 693 1791 Fax: +41 21 693 9538 Professor did not exist, I could not partici- partment – and who is still working with E-mail: [email protected] pate in Faculty meetings, and could not be me at the EPFL, 12 years later. Thanks to THE 450TH ANNIVERSARYOFTHE ACADÉMIE ET UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE CHIMIA 2009, 63, No. 12 863

Fig. 1. Mammalian cells submitted to the pore- Fig. 2. Spirit of the time. Hard work but team spirit characterized the time. Outing between forming toxin aerolysin underwent dramatic multiple labs of the Science Faculty to the Dranse river. People in the boat from front to rear: cytoplasmic vacuolation (reproduced with G. Diamantopoulos (Kreis Group), F. Perez (Kreis Group), G. van der Goot. permission from ref. [3]). all these concomitant events, my group I cannot finish this remembrance with- Received: October 10, 2009 moved successfully into the fields of cell out thanking Jacques Weber, then the biology and cellular , i.e. the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences. He pro- [1] I. Iacovache, F. G. van der Goot, L. Pernot, field of host– interactions. One of vided me with his full support, did every- Bioch. Biophys. Acta: Biomembranes 2008, in our breakthroughs at the time was to show press. thing so that my Maître Assistant position [2] I. Iacovache, P. Paumard, H. Scheib, C. Lesieur, that toxins and interact with could be converted into a temporary Maître N. Sakai, et al., Embo. J. 2006, 25, 457. specific domains at the surface of target d’Enseignement et de Recherche (MER) [3] L. Abrami, M. Fivaz, P.-E. Glauser, R. G. cells, called lipid rafts.[4,5] This theme fit- position, to give me the time to find a pro- Parton, F. G. van der Goot, J. Cell Biol. 1998, ted well with the preferred outing of differ- fessorship. This period then allowed me to 14, 525. [4] L. Abrami, F. G. van der Goot, J. Cell Biol. ent labs of the Faculty of Sciences: rafting obtained an Associate Professor position at 1999, 147, 175. in the river Dranse near by (Fig. 2). This the Medical School in Geneva, from which [5] M. Fivaz, L. Abrami, F. G. van der Goot, Trends effort nicely summarizes the spirit of the I have moved on to the EPFL. The Univer- in Cell Biology 1999, 9, 212. time: hard work, fun and strong friendly sity of Geneva has thus played a determin- interactions. ing role in my scientific career.