Michela Serena
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Biochemistry
Tell us a bit About your role
I am a postdoctoral researcher in Cancer Biology, studying the mechanisms that control cell division, a process that needs to be tightly regulated by cells, both in time and space to prevent uncontrolled multiplication and ultimately cancer.
I have always been passionate about science, and this passion started to become a proper motivation when I first approached biology in high school, thanks to an extraordinary teacher. She was explaining things in such a simple, but very clear way, that I definitely fell in love with it: I wanted to understand even more deeply how things are, how they are working and why. From there on, I knew what I wanted and the decision to study molecular biology came so naturally, that I cannot even remember a single day at university where I regretted that decision. I have always loved what I was studying and when I then started to be in the lab doing experiments, well that was the magic. That was something becoming true. PhD then followed and having my own project, my small little mission in the lab, was the very satisfaction. And all the years that followed as a postdoctoral researcher have always been driven by the motivation to be helpful to people, helpful in saving lives from diseases and cancer.
What is the most meaningful aspect of your work?
The most meaningful aspect of my work is knowing that my research may one day have an implication on human lives. The awareness that every single day I am doing something that sooner or later might contribute to save someone’s life, is the very satisfaction.
Can you tell us about something you’ve done, contributed to that you’re most proud of?
The thing I am most proud of so far is being able to see the research I have accomplished here at the University of Oxford being published on a peer-reviewed journal, making my discoveries available to all the scientific community and, more generally, to the whole world, enabling other people to read it and getting inspiration from it.
What changes would you most like to see in the Medical Sciences in the next 100 years?
In the next 100 years I would be very glad to appreciate a deeper knowledge of cancer with its implication in the precision medicine, but above all, I hope that screening programs, both genetic and epigenetic, could become even more sensitive and precise in order to be implemented in our everyday life, because prevention is the first step toward an healthy and happy life.