On the 13th of Nov 2014, the seminar series of DFG FOR2127 “Meet international experts and discuss latest developments in cancer research!” successfully started. The expert in this first seminar was Dr. Eva Gonzalez-Suarez from the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program, IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.

The seminar began with a student session, where two PhD students from AG Klein (Nina Patwary and Ana Grujovic) presented two representative publications of Dr. Gonzalez-Suarez to bring her work closer to the students. During the talk we had the chance to ask questions not only to the presenters but also directly to the author. This unique opportunity allowed us to get additional background information.

After the student session some of the students were invited to have lunch with Dr. Gonzalez-Suarez at the University Pizzeria. Her positive attitude and the familiar atmosphere encouraged all of us to ask questions not only about her scientific career but also about her life as a scientist. She told us about her time as a PhD-student in Spain and her subsequent position as a Post-Doc at Amgen, USA.  She also gave us a good insight into the challenges of leading a research group. Her advices and small stories were very beneficial and gave a good perspective about the possibilities in a scientific career in biomedicine.

In the last part of the seminar Dr. Gonzalez-Suarez gave a talk about her recent work. A lot of PIs and Post-Docs joined to listen to her presentation and to discuss her last findings and possible perspectives in cancer research.

We think that this seminar was a good start to bring an international expert closer to us future scientists. We are looking forward to the next Meet the Expert-Seminar with Khashayarsha Khazaie on the 4^th of December 2014!