Life after GIGA #5 Maximiliano Figueroa
Maximiliano Figueroa is chilean. He's biochemist and Dr in Molecular and Cell Biology. Currently he is Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Concepcion (Chile). He co-leads the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, studying natural and artificial proteins. From 2010 to 2016, he did a postdoc at GIGA in the BMGG laboratory (Joseph Martial's lab).
"Life after GIGA", a new series that you will find every other Friday on our facebook page or our instagram account. The purpose of these portraits is to take news of the "old" but also to show the diversity of the courses after a passage at GIGA. You will be able to read the interview of people now working abroad (temporarily or permanently), people working in other universities or in the private sector. This week, it's Maximiliano Figueroa's turn to tell us about his "life after GIGA" ...Thank you Maximiliano to answer to our questions from Chile !
Can you introduce yourself and explain your current function?
I am Dr Maximiliano Figueroa, chilean, biochemist and Dr in Molecular and Cell Biology. Currently I am Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Science, University of Concepcion (Chile). I am co-leading the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, studying natural and artificial proteins.
What has been your background so far ?
I studied Biochemistry in the University of Concepcion, and after that I decided to start a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology in the same university. After that, I contacted prof. Joseph Martial from GIGA to see the possibilities to start a postdoctoral position in his lab. He accepted me, and we applied to two different sources of Belgian funding: BELSPO and WBI. I was lucky to obtain both funding! That was in 2010. Later, I was involved in a ESA-PRODEX project, designing experiments to perform under microgravity conditions, so in total I enjoyed 6 happy years in Belgium during my postdoctoral time, working with artificial and natural proteins. One day my alma mater called me to inform me that it was a call for an open position in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology specially focused on someone expert in protein structure. I applied for the position, and I got it, starting there in May 2016. Currently, after 5 years, I am still happy with my experience in Belgium and I try to come back very often (I have already come back 3 times).
Is your current job a continuation of what you did at GIGA?
Yes. In GIGA I started designing artificial proteins and learning how to characterize them by experimental techniques. We published 3 papers in that field and our studies are still valuables. In my new lab, I have already directed 2 master's theses in the same field, continuing our work that I started in GIGA... and we are still working on it! Indeed, I am still in collaboration with Belgian scientists from ULiège, like prof. André Matagne from CIP, who is a very close collaborator and friend that I made in Liège.
How is your experience at GIGA useful to you today?
My experience at GIGA is useful at several levels. First, I learned how to direct people through several student stays, master thesis and PhD thesis where I was involved. This contact with students is very useful today leading my own team. Second, languages, because now I speak three languages (Spanish, English and French) and this allows me to interact with almost everybody in a room. It may sound silly, but breaking the language barrier allows you to interact better and to obtain confidence. Thanks to that, I am currently the Deputy of Foreign Affairs of my Faculty. Third, how to make science, politics and how to direct a lab. I was very lucky to be a close person with prof. Joseph Martial, who was the GIGA's director at that time. I learned very much from him, not only on how to do science, but also how to dress (yes, sometimes how your look could be important even to get a grant), how to interact with politics (I was involved in several meeting with the Chilean embassy thanks to Martial's contacts), and of course how to direct a lab. Thanks for everything prof Martial!
What do you keep as a souvenir of GIGA?
I have so many good souvenirs. First, the people. My last day in GIGA I told the people who were present in my farewell party that my very best years have been those there in GIGA. I made friends, real friends, and I think there is not a single day in which I don't think about them or in my time in Belgium. I remember the music while we were working, the wonderful time during our lunch breaks, even working very late sometimes was a good experience (except the day that I discovered that the last bus was at 23h00 and I had to pay the most expensive taxi of my life to return to Liège). Then, outside my lab and friends, I would say the GIGA concept. I loved the idea of a scientific centre where you have scientific platforms, shared rooms with common materials, open labs, etc. I really loved that concept and I am trying to push ideas like that here in my institution. The GIGA is for sure a place for inspiration. Something else funny : when I arrived in 2010 in Belgium I didn't drink beer at all. Then, because of social pressure, I started to do it. Now, I am probably the Chilean person who knows and tasted most Belgian beers! I loved them and I always have belgian beers at my house.
How do you see yourself evolving in the coming years?
I see myself consolidating my laboratory, and making more collaborations with Europe, specially Belgium. I am trying now to get funding and grants to increase my laboratory and resources, and at the same time teaching a lot (undergraduate and graduate students). I hope in the next few years I can achieve an equilibrium, where I can have formal collaborations with foreign collaborators as well as with internal collaborators, making my lab a place where Belgian students may come to do stays, masters or even PhD thesis through co-promotions or something similar.
Maximiliano was invited by the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letter and Fine Arts of Belgium between September 2019 and August 2020, as the first ever person to get the "chaire des mondes francophones" in the Science Class. He was that whole year working at the Centre for Protein Engineering (CIP) of ULiège in the lab of prof. André Matagne. André and prof. Jean-Marie Frère promoted him before the Royal Academy, and he was honored to get this chaire. Sadly, the Covid19 appeared and 80% of the planned work couldn't be done... Maximiliano hopes he can come back to Belgium and finish all of that!
Did you like this interview? Find a new portrait every second Friday! So I'll meet you on Friday November 26 for portrait #6!
You have also been through GIGA and would like to testify? Contact me !
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Episode #1 : Xavier Rambout
Episode #2 : Juliette Godin
Episode #3 : Nicolas Gillet
Episode #4 : Adeline Deward
