2024
July 19th
IC3i Interviews Visual

IC3i Alumni Interview #12: Özge Özgüç

Discover the IC3i Alumni’s professional paths in our series of interviews

Portrait of Özge, IC3i alumni

Özge, can you tell me briefly about your PhD project in Institut Curie?

During my PhD in Institut Curie, I worked on a phenomenon called the periodic cortical ways of contraction, that we call PeCoWaCo, on pre-implantation mouse embryos. Before morphogenetic events are starting in the mouse embryo, the cells start to show this fast rhythmic acto-myosin contractions on the cell surface that travel around the cell. I tried to find some molecular and mechanical aspects of this contractile events while collaborating with physicists to make a physical model out of it. It was an interdisciplinary project in between physics and biology.

 

Now, looking back, how does your academic journey look like?

I think I made a good use of my academic journey! I did my bachelor’s degree on molecular biology and genetics from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. During this time, I did various internships on different topics. These experiences helped me to understand my main interests. Then, I enrolled in a master program which was a double degree: Developmental Biology from UPMC (now Sorbonne Université), Paris and Biomedical Sciences from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. During my masters, while attending the Developmental Biology course of Institut Curie, my would-be PI’s talk intrigued me for looking into his research and the IC3i program. And I successfully completed my PhD under Jean-Léon Maître in the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit.

 

What do you think made the IC3i program different from other PhD programs of Institut Curie?

I think the IC3i program values more the multidimensionality for the PhD projects and for the PhD fellow him/herself. I think all the projects proposed in the IC3i program had greater interdisciplinary or intersectoral aspects in addition to the public engagement which were part of our PhD program. Also, we received additional help and attention from the program organizers and the Advanced Training Office.

 

If you would summarize your entire journey in one word. What is the word that you're going to use?

I would say, “Challenging”.

 

Why “challenging”?

Not necessarily in a negative sense, but with the twists and turns of a PhD and the ambitiousness of the projects, the journey was – definitely - a challenging one!

 

Was there any defining moment in your PhD career?

The defining moment in the PhD career came early on for me. The main idea of my project was to go for a molecular screening of siRNA on embryos to find the important ones. And nothing, not even the positive controls, worked initially for a significant amount of time and it was very scary because it's like the main aspect of the project that was not working. After having insightful discussions with Jean-Léon, we decided to give the molecular screening a break and explore other things as a distraction, hoping to spark again the enthusiasm. As distraction, I played with cell sizes and investigated the mechanical aspect of PeCoWaCo. And, boom, the experiments started giving positive results. That feeling, of your experiment working after a long time of nothing, is amazing. And I applied to an EMBO conference with these results and got selected for a short talk! The deviation from the initial plan to something interesting and verifiable helped to recharge my energy for the project.

 

How was the process of your integration outside of academia?

I think my non-academic journey was a bit different compared to other IC3i PhD fellows as I was already living in Paris for my masters. Initially, during my masters, I was staying in a residence for student and young workers and that was helpful in making friends outside of work. Then, after I enrolled for a PhD, I moved into Cité Universitairé with the other IC3i candidates and the vibe over there is definitely student friendly. We were all doing different activities and exploring Paris and surroundings together. It was really a nice environment.

 

What are you doing currently and what is your plan for the next step in life?

Currently I am doing a post-doc in the lab of Xavier Trepat in Bio-engineering Institute of Catalonia in Barcelona. I have deviated a bit to bio-engineering and building new tools to look into new mechanical aspects in developmental biology. I cannot reveal too much, but new tools are coming up!

Up until now, I decided on my career in academia always one step after the other: “I do my masters in this and if I like it I do a PhD”, “I do my PhD and if I like it I continue with a post-doc”. So far, I really like the idea of an academic career and the freedom of research in academia. However, whether I would like to continue in academia or deviate to industry is still a bit early for me to comment on.

 

Standing here now and looking back, would you have done anything differently that would’ve altered the course of your PhD?

Looking back, everything feels like, “Oh, I should have done this earlier, to avoid the loss of time”... but things don’t work like that in reality. But maybe, if I would have looked at the early stages of embryos at the beginning of my PhD a bit more in detail, just to observe what they do instead of focusing directly to the project, that could have significantly altered the course of my PhD.

 

Finally, any piece of advice you would like to give to our readers?

If they want to pursue a PhD, first and foremost, finding the work-life-balance is something I would like to stress on. I know it is hard, but this is something that you need to master. Secondly, there are a lot of ups and downs, and much more downs in the PhD journey and I think it's important to take some break from it to just look around and enjoy the journey, and the life around you that is building up not only scientifically but the Parisian life & the friends you make throughout this journey!

 

 

Interviewed by Ayan MALLICK in June 2024