Five questions to Tobias Jores

1. Why and when did you decide to become a scientist?

I have always been curious and wanted to understand how things work. So, during my school years the question wasn’t really whether I would become a scientist, but in what field. They all seemed very interesting to me. In the end, I decided to study biochemistry as I was intrigued by the opportunity to work at the interface of two scientific fields.

"I still remember the feeling when I realized that this switch in methods led to previously unobtainable results."

2. Which incident from your life as a researcher has remained in your memory the most? Which decision was the most important?

During my PhD, I was trying hard, but without success, to detect crosslinks between a beta-hairpin peptide and its interaction partners in vivo. Eventually, I changed the approach and used a chemically synthesized beta-hairpin peptide for the crosslinking and immediately got great results. I still remember the feeling when I realized that this switch in methods led to previously unobtainable results. This realization also led to what was probably the most important decision in my scientific career to date: For my postdoc, I chose to work in a lab focused on method development.

3. What scientific question would you really like to be able to answer during your career?

I would love to understand how the activities of the various cis-regulatory elements surrounding a gene are integrated to determine the overall expression level.

"Science is a social activity and the best ideas often come from interactions with other scientists."

4. What advice would you give to young scientists?

Science is a social activity and the best ideas often come from interactions with other scientists.

5. What's your favorite thing to do after work?

In my free time, I love doing acrobatics, i.e. stacking people in creative ways.