Stefano Maffini, Project Group Leader in the department of Mechanistic Cell Biology


What are you working on?
I study cell division and the surveillance mechanisms that ensure its fidelity.


How did you come to the decision to do science?
It was not an intentional decision or an active process, I just followed my curiosity for the biology of life.


What raised your interest in science?
What really hooked me onto LifeScience was a project I heard of when I was a final year student attending a lecture. It was the first proteomic approach towards the production of a vaccine and I thought it was very interesting. Thus I contacted the leader of this project and, somehow, I miracolously convinced him to give me a job when I graduated.


How did you come to Dortmund?
Two reasons. First, to follow my mentor, Prof. Musacchio, when he was appointed director at the MPI in Dortmund. Second, to take the great opportunity of working at a Max Planck Institute.


What do you like about the institute?
Many things .... the outstanding quality of the science, being exposed to many great scientist from which I am learning new things every day, the informal atmosphere and, of course, the amazing infrastructure that the institute provides us.


What motivates/drives you?
The daily challenge to my curiosity and the naive thought that my work may be, somehow, a small contribution to a relevant scientific breakthrough.


Do you have a scientific idol? If so, who?
I have great admiration for the Nobel laureate Paul Nurse, his science is amazing and his sense of humor is fantastic.

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