I never intentionally decided to be a scientist. It’s something I became quite naturally. I like the fact that I am what I study: nature. I let myself be pulled and tugged by the forces within and around - I act and react.
Born in Greece, my family left when I was a baby for Urbana-Champaign Illinois where my parents were doing their graduate studies. Love, faith, resilience and self-reliance were the family themes and we all worked as a team. Despite having two children, their workload and limited finances, they always found creative ways to provide abundance. My father made our childhood furniture and board games, my mother would make our clothes, we went on walks altogether in the evenings, stargaze, chat and just rejoice in each other’s presence and company. Our lifestyle was very Greek during that time. In the morning we would go to the American school and in the evening we would study the respective Greek curriculum that children in Greece were doing. Every week we would make our own bread from scratch and with our little fists we would participate in the kneading of the dough and relish its freshly baked smell in the house.
I guess looking back I was always conducting experiments. During my summers in Crete I would mix and blend my grandmas pink and blue detergents and fabric softeners. I would delight in the green speckles some brands had. I had no idea what I was doing, certainly irrelevant to cleaning- but I felt energized from the process. I also clearly remember the first time 
I saw a cell. I was seven. My cheeks started burning and blood rushed to my head. The world as I knew it changed before my eyes - so many more layers and dimensions, so much unknown to be revealed.
The route I followed after that was a combination of following rules and questioning them, constantly testing limits but always using challenges and problems as opportunities for growth and learning.
We returned to Greece where I finished high school and did my undergraduate studies. It was quite an adjustment since the culture and environment was far more homogenous. But it gave me the opportunity to spend quality time with my grandparents, absorb the live history they carried, and to cultivate in a very hands-on way, the traditional side of me, learning cooking, sewing and knitting from my grandmother. I also learned the piano and french, and read acres of books.
Although I loved learning Botany, Zoology, Ecology and Physiology at the University, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry really sent my elation levels off the charts. It was one vast playground of exploring. It was hard for me to understand why everyone else couldn’t also see how exciting this field was!
When I finished my Bachelors in Athens I left for London to carry out my Ph.D. I literally just took my suitcase and traveled to the unknown. It was a very exciting time to test my strengths and discover for the sake of discovery. That helped me make observations and breakthroughs since my mind was not preoccupied with exams and tests and rules. My philosophy was simply that there was a problem and I was seeking the solution. I wasn’t doing this for my own advancement, to gain a title or have my name on a paper, I was there for the simple intention of research.
I left London for San Francisco to join a lab that I admired for their creativity and refreshing outlook of nature, asking big broad questions such as "why didn’t the dinosaurs ever come back"… San Francisco felt like Greece - the landscape, the plants and people had a soothing familiarity with home. There, by serendipity, I met my husband Jesse, who is similarly inclined, with a passionate and exploratory nature and through his entrepreneurship (www.netmodular.com) I gained insight in the business world and once more let myself expand and absorb and grow.
My studies naturally drifted towards the field of oncology and cancer research. For my Ph.D. I studied the role and properties of a newly identified breast cancer susceptibility gene. For one of my postdocs I trained in a novel technology of mouse models in which selected tumor suppressor genes could be toggled on and off. In another lab my project handled elucidating the mechanism that drives end-stage metastasis, an irreversible phase of the disease that takes the lives of over 80% of the sufferers.
Apart from my love for discovery I was always very sensitive and hopelessly romantic. And that energy was key in motivating and fueling my choice for research. Seeing many of my loved ones, young and old, suffer and pass away from cancer tormented me. Deep down I felt responsible and guilty for not being able to help them. These feelings overwhelmed me to the point of driving me almost to give up science. It was the support and tough love of my mentors that shook me to my senses again - what made sense was never ever to give up.
I am currently in New York working on congenital heart block with a team of great scientists who love research and continuously pave the way of discovery. I feel stymied in any other environment. It is a change of field for me that has challenges but helps get me out of my comfort zone, expands me as a person and scientist and brings out so much energy that I was not previously aware of.
Science is the art of asking questions. Sometimes methodical, sometimes by shooting in the dark. The mastering comes in keeping your mind open to the unknown, observing phenomena, without being governed by rules - not expecting things to be as you imagine, but accepting them as they are. Nature does not follow any rules – nature makes the rules! Its power can be seen in the miracle of life we take for granted every day. Look at how many pasta shapes there are! What force other than that lively "scientific" human nature led man to tinker with dough and not limit himself to the elbow macaroni? There is so much natural abundant joy and energy within us. Being a scientist is my way to tap into that momentum. I hope for everyone to find that joy of discovery and creativity too.
