Catarina Costa, Former PhD Student
Catarina Martins Costa completed her PhD at IMBA in 2023. In the lab of Jürgen Knoblich, she developed human brain organoids to study corpus callosum agenesis. In this rare and understudied disease, the millions of long-range axonal projections that would normally connect the two brain hemispheres are not formed, leading to severe defects as the two hemispheres no longer communicate with each other. During her PhD, Catarina Martins Costa used patient-derived brain organoids to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in corpus callosum agenesis, including the affected gene regulatory network and the resulting defects in neuronal development, maturation, and function. In 2023, Catarina’s PhD thesis was recognized with the City of Vienna’s Impact Award and the Vienna BioCenter PhD Award.
Catarina Martins Costa told us about her PhD experience at IMBA and how it helped shape her career.
Before I got my master's degree in 2017, I had been working on fundamental stem cell and developmental biology, and I wanted to keep studying these topics with a more translational approach. I applied for several PhD programs but felt that IMBA and the Knoblich lab were the best fit. Not only because they are leading experts in organoid technologies, but also because I anticipated a high degree of scientific independence and collaborative opportunities, which are two very important aspects for me.
IMBA and the Vienna BioCenter provide a lot of learning opportunities for PhD students like the “Prime your PhD” seminar series, which lays a great foundation for understanding the ongoing research on campus. In addition, during my first year, I had the opportunity to go to Bologna, Italy, to attend a Summer School about neural stem cells, brain organoids and brain repair. The following year, I was also able to attend the Hydra Summer School on Stem Cell Biology, in Greece. These early experiences, which are not commonplace during a PhD, were very positive for developing my knowledge and skills outside of the lab.
My PhD experience at IMBA has been the most challenging yet rewarding professional experience of my career. The dynamic scientific environment allowed me to do creative science, explore several projects in parallel, and collaborate on campus and internationally. While that involved a lot of work, it helped me grow as a scientist, which in my view is the ultimate goal of any PhD. Overall, it was a very good experience.
My project addressed a rare disease about which very little was known, and my project was hence very ambitious from the beginning. IMBA researchers are not only at the technological forefront, but they also lead the way in asking and answering complex biological questions. Figuring out how to approach this project involved a lot of trial and error until we found the correct angle, but it made the whole process even more rewarding.
Near the end of my project, I was doing a crucial experiment that would inform whether my findings were meaningful. This experiment was the final piece missing for me to finish my PhD, so it was a big deal. Between the experimental part and the data analysis, the whole experiment took close to a year to complete. To maintain the highest scientific rigor, the entire process had been blinded so that I didn’t know which samples were from affected patients and which were not. After the data analysis was done, I hit the button that would unmask the samples and allow me to see the results for the first time. When, finally, the plot appeared on the screen, I could at once see that my experiment had uncovered a central piece of the puzzle, allowing us to understand the disease mechanism better. It was an amazing feeling!
At IMBA, I was able to access and learn state-of-the-art techniques like stem cell and organoid culture that are essential for the type of research I’m interested in. But, most importantly, I learned how to do good science, by asking the right questions and keeping the upmost scientific rigor. I learned how to meticulously plan experiments and analyze my results in an unbiased and thorough way. These transversal skills will be applicable to any future scientific endeavors.
During my scientific journey at IMBA, I was able to do any experiment that I wanted. This unlimited support for creativity and curiosity is not common elsewhere. In addition, collaborating with the Vienna BioCenter Core Facilities meant having access to incredible technological resources, as well as expert personnel that were able to teach me how to use these resources. This significantly improved the quality of the science I was able to perform and allowed me to focus on the questions I wanted to answer.
The collaborative environment in the lab, where everyone pitched in with ideas or advice, was essential for my success. In addition, being part of a scientific hub like the Vienna BioCenter opens a lot of collaboration opportunities, both on campus and outside. For my project, I collaborated with the Vienna General Hospital and with bioengineering experts in Japan, which added a lot of value to my research.
I would like to continue using in vitro models of development like organoids for my research. Hopefully, the skills I have learned here will help me bridge the gap between fundamental biology and clinical research and make a meaningful contribution to patients.