Challenges for women in Synthetic Biology #2 - Maria Lluch

The next highlighted woman in our series on gender equity in synthetic biology is Maria Lluch, who recently started her own company, Pulmobiotics, after nine successful years in academia.

Could you briefly describe your career path?

I did my PhD at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine in Barcelona. During my thesis, I started to work with cell division and regulation of transcription in Mycoplasmas. In 2010, I started my post-doc in the systems biology lab of Prof. Luis Serrano, at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona. Understanding a living system in a quantitative manner was a challenge, as well as, moving from classical molecular biology to systems biology.

In 2013, I became staff scientist in Prof Serrano’s lab. I had the opportunity to design and build entire projects and apply together with Prof. Serrano for international grants. We have been awarded three European projects: MycoSynVac; an EraSynBio project, MiniCell and more recently an ERC_PoC. I had the opportunity to re-organize the lab, to establish new collaborations, recruit new people and build a new team of motivated researchers. Also, as staff scientist, I had the opportunity to co-supervise students. Through this supervision, I have realized that I can do something much more important than only having ideas and publishing, and that is motivating brilliant minds to continue in science. 

What are your current research projects?

In 2015, I started the research line in Synthetic Biology with the goal of engineering M. pneumoniae to treat human infectious lung diseases. First, we had to develop the necessary tools for large scale-genome engineering of M. pneumoniae and to obtain an attenuated strain (chassis).

In December 2016, I got my first grant as independent investigator, the Miguel Servet grant by ISCIII. With this founding, we have recently shown in vivo that this chassis can be used as delivery system to dissolve biofilms. Based on the results the 26th of March 2020 we founded Pulmobiotics, a synthetic biology company focused on lung therapy using engineered M. pneumoniae. I am founder and SCO of the company that will initially employ 5 people and will develop the first product to treat infectious diseases in patients that are in intensive care units and do not respond to antibiotics treatment.

During your career, have you encountered difficulties which were (directly or indirectly) linked to gender bias?

I think that for women it is difficult to combine family with professional life, because maternity leave implies to stop publishing, which can have an important impact in the CV if you want to apply for grants or continue with the career. Basically, because science is evaluated only by the impact factor of papers and not by other aspects like supervision of students and career that they do later, or by IP achievements that could lead to generate more work positions (building a company). I think that those aspects are difficult to evaluate and the scientific community should find a way to consider them.

How can these challenges be overcome?    

I was member of the gender balance committee at the CRG, contributing to the LIBRA project, leaded by Prof. Isabelle Vernos. We identified this aspect – maternity leave - as one of the limitations to have more women as principal investigators. Consequently, at the CRG, we have created several initiatives to try to give support to women such as the WOSS program, a grant to support female scientists during maternity leave. I think this type of initiatives are helping a lot.

Which, if present, are the challenges linked to gender bias currently affecting you?

Often, women are not associated with leader positions. However, I think the perception is changing since nowadays success in science implies more collaboration, interdisciplinarity and creation of proper work environment. Thus, people are less focused on competition but more in team building where women have a strength.

How do you wish the situation to be in the future and what measures do you think are needed to get there?

In the evaluation panels there are few women. At least here in Spain, all the referees for PI or grant application where I applied were only composed of men. There should be a system to guarantee proper gender balance. I think that also, there is a social misconception, which is very difficult to change and more visibility should be given to women. At the research institutions, they should help with child care, provide support to help with the daily life and avoid negative impacts on the scientific career.

Which advice would you give to women aspiring a career in science?

I would give the same message to a woman than a man. You have to believe in yourself, you have to be aware that nothing is easy in life and if you do not try it, you will never know if you will achieve it. Think positive, work hard and have confidence.