Meet
- Tell me in five words who is Sara Sdelci?
Chromatin, metabolism, curiosity, chaos, repeat.
- What made you join CeMM?
Randomness, to some extent. I had lost some of my enthusiasm for cell division and was looking for something completely different, even though I had already secured a postdoctoral position in Germany with a very renowned PI. Then I came to CeMM for the interview and simply loved everything: the environment, the crazy project Stefan proposed to me, the snow, the city. I immediately felt at home, and, in many ways, I still do every time I come back.
- What is it about science that interests you the most?
The unknown. Science is hard, not particularly well paid and, considering the hours we dedicate to it, probably underpaid. But I genuinely never stop thinking about our projects, they become part of my life, to the point that I even discuss them with my family. Discovering something that nobody knew before, uncovering a new mechanism, finding one more piece of the puzzle: that feeling of discovery still gives me an incredible adrenaline rush. That is probably my strongest driver.
- What is the best career advice you ever received, or you can give to the CeMM community?
Giulio Superti-Furga told me this when I became a Group Leader: “Don’t be afraid to hire people you think are smarter than you.” I still think it is one of the best pieces of advice I have received.
- Tell us what happened to you after you left CeMM?
I became a PI at the CRG in Barcelona, where I now lead a group of around 12 people trying to understand why metabolic enzymes are in the nucleus and how this knowledge can help us better understand cell behaviour and disease. Outside the lab, life also became considerably busier: I became a mother of two by becoming a foster parent to my second child, adopted a dog and two cats, volunteered preparing meals for homeless people, became involved in LGBTQIA+ activism, and started working to encourage younger generations, particularly girls at school, to see science as something they can belong to.
- What book do you have on your night table at the moment
Actually, three. Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo, because I am always interested in improving how we communicate science. Desde los zulos by Dahlia de la Cerda, which approaches feminism from perspectives that are too often absent from mainstream discussions, beyond the experience of white, economically privileged women, and which I found extremely illuminating. And The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which puts some of the major discoveries in genetics into their historical and human context.
- What is the last song you heard?
We Had a Place in That Garden by Blanco White.
- Any message you would like to give to CeMMies or a former colleague?
You are privileged to work in such an extraordinary place, surrounded by brilliant colleagues. Make the most of it: be curious, talk to people outside your immediate field, take advantage of everything CeMM offers, and enjoy every single moment.
Sara Sdelci is a CRG Group Leader investigating how metabolism and epigenetic regulation intersect to control cell fate and cancer. She carried out her postdoctoral research (2013-2018) at CeMM – Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in the laboratory of Stefan Kubicek, where she integrated functional genomics with drug screening and sophisticated epigenetic reporter systems. This work allowed her to uncover previously unrecognized connections between epigenetic regulation and cellular metabolism and laid the foundation for her independent research program. She subsequently established her own group at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona (2019), where she has expanded this research toward understanding the role of nuclear metabolism in chromatin regulation and cellular states.
