Six questions to Franziska Turck

1. How did you get from biotechnology to plant research? What fascinates you about plants?

In the end, plants are the basis of all life on our planet. I cancelled a doctorate in a cancer clinic because I found the approach dishonest, pseudo-applied research, so to speak. Perhaps I was too short-sighted, but at the time I thought to myself that I could do basic research in plants just as well. I then did my doctoral thesis on the TOR-S6 kinase signaling pathway in plants, a joint project between a plant group and a mammalian group.

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

Finally doing a genetic suppressor/enhancer screen in our favourite mutant and then immediately going for isogenic backcrossing.  Mass sequencing technology was just emerging and we were ahead of the curve with isogenic backcrosses. We also found really interesting genes that we are still working on today.

3. Is there a particular female scientist who fascinates you?

"She worked at her own expense for most of her life and was finally recognised by the Max Planck Society at the age of 62."

When I started at the MPIPZ, I was fascinated by Suzanna Schwarz-Sommer. She radiated intelligence and independence. The MPG once asked me to write an essay on Elisabeth Niemann. Her work on the development of cultivated plants laid important foundations. She worked at her own expense for most of her life and was finally recognised by the Max Planck Society at the age of 62. In the dark days of the Nazi era, she was, like my grandfather Wilhelm at Nöllenburg, a member of the confessing church. Perhaps they knew each other? She hid two Jewish sisters during the war. She was one of the righteous ones.

4. Why did you co-found the biotechnology company AgroJector?

It was at the beginning of the genome editing perspectives and the basic ideas of the main founder Bekir Ülker were going in the right direction. He had just been spat out by the academic system; I wasn't so sure about a long-term perspective either - would have been another way to stay close to science. The company didn't survive - there isn't really any interest in green genetic engineering in Germany.

5. What advice would you give young women considering science as a career path?

"Recognition, success and competence also make you resilient, pick your poison."

Personally, as a young mother with three children, I only managed to do hang on because I really enjoy scientific work. I always swore to myself that I would stop as soon as the stress suppressed my joy and thus my creativity. This attitude has made me very resilient. Recognition, success and competence also make you resilient, pick your poison.

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

Sometimes I sneak into the lab on the weekend to carry out a real experiment - preferably with lots of extraction and centrifugation...