Questions and AnswersProf. Dr. Rudi Balling

How or why did you become involved in infection research, what fascinates you about this subject?
In 2000 I was asked to become scientific director of the German Research Centre for Biotechnology (GBF) in Braunschweig. This institute had a top reputation in biotechnology but had lost focus. I had to come up with a new vision that would reach far into the future. I choose infection research for 3 reasons:

1) A majority of people at the institute already worked with microbes(although for other purposes).

2) I was fascinated by the complexity of infectious diseases. Two interacting genomes and a multitude of environmental factors, what else do you want if you are looking for the ultimate scientific challenge?

3) I realized the medical relevance of the topic and that our institute could  make an impact. 

In 2007 we renamed the institute into “Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)”
   
What are you working on at the moment?
Trying to find new strategies that will help us to prevent or treat infectious diseases. Our experimental approach is: „From small animals to small molecules!“ We study host pathogen interactions and the genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases in mice and we try to identify small molecules with anti-infective activity.

What were the turning points in science, in career, in life that influenced your decisions?
I had the good fortune to work with great mentors and in outstanding labs. It is far better to work daily with a role model than seeing them in a movie once a while.

What was a single most important moment of your career?
At the end of my postdoc in Canada I attended an EMBO meeting on mouse genetics in Heidelberg. By chance I was in the line up for lunch at the cafeteria immediately behind Peter Gruss. I dared to ask him whether he knew about a job for me in Germany. He told me that he didn´t but that he would help to look
around. Two weeks later I received a job offer from him at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen.

What was your most important scientific discovery?
1988: Finding a mutation in the Pax1 gene in “undulated”-mice: This was the first finding of a mouse homologue of a developmental control gene in flies that had a similar function in mammals. “Straight lessons from kinky tails”.

What drives you and carries you on? What do you love about your work?
I love „Aha-Effects“! The moment when I understand something I didn´t understand before. It doesn´t necessarily have to come from my own research. It can be from reading a book or talking to somebody else. There is no better place for this than in research.

What influenced and impressed you and your life and therefore science?
The passion with which my botany professor taught about photosynthesis (he called it a drama in two acts), the friendship with which my PhD supervisor supported me and the clarity with which my postdoc supervisor could think (and speak).

Is there a leading motif / a saying that accompanied your life?
„Wer schreit hat unrecht“. („Who screams is wrong“).
I would like to live in a working environment where making mistakes (at least the first time) is an accepted part of life and not a reason to be yelled at.

Idols?
Friedrich Theodor Althoff (1839-1908). One of the most efficient Prussion civil servants and mainly responsible for attracting the best mathematicians to Göttingen which later culminated in many Nobel prizes for scientists that had worked in Göttingen (“Göttinger miracle”).

What would you recommend to someone starting out in science? What would be your advice for young scientists?

1. “Ideas are cheap.” Do-it!!
2.  Andere kochen auch nur mit Wasser” (“Others are no different from the rest of  us”). Look beyond your immediate discipline. You will discover that many principles are similar, even between biology, technology, economy, politics.
3. "Don´t be afraid of mathematics”. We need to describe complex biological   systems mathematically in order to model and simulate them.

 
What would have been your alternative plan (plan B) if science /your job had not worked out?
Running an antiquarian book trade. There is no better way to get new ideas than to read old books.

What are your dreams for the future?
That we succeed in developing the Helmholtz-Centre of Infection Research into the most exciting and stimulating place in the world.
That we succeed in identifying new effective anti-infectives and vaccines!

What do you think is important and should be worked on in the future?
Understanding the rules that underlie the dynamics of complex biological systems.

What do you do when you are not working?
Read and try to understand the book: „The Road to Reality“ by Roger Penrose

back