Rise, Run & Research

Currently, I have switched focus slightly and study how different immune cells with awesome names such as T-Rex ehm Tregs (regulatory T cells) and “natural killer cells” (NK cells) interplay to prevent autoimmune reactions from happening. In healthy humans, several mechanisms are in place to prevent our immune cells from attacking “self”. The adaptive immune response only gets turned “on” when several checkpoints are passed. A simple analogy would be the process of starting a car: First, you need the right key (or an electronic card) to get access and start the engine. In our body, this first lock-and-key system is a specific receptor (the key) on adaptive immune cells (e.g. T cells) that recognise a unique “lock”, so called “Major Histocompatibility complexes” that present a piece of a cell or a pathogen (such as a virus “antigen”). There also needs to be several additional receptors interacting. To stay with our car analogy: You cannot start driving right away, but you need to put in a gear before pushing the gas pedal. Additionally, you might also want to release the “handbrake”. In our body, you can think of this handbrake as additional molecules called “cytokines” that stimulate the immune cells to become fully functional. But since I don’t drive much and prefer to run (or take the train), let’s end our auto excursion here.

Similarly, running might seem literally like a very repetitive sport, but it can have unbelievable permutations. I usually run 6 times a week and in the mornings before work. If I have a long workout (sometimes over 20 km) I frequently get up at 5:30 am. The motivation: getting to eat breakfast twice ! My hard workouts are something like a “Fartlek” (Swedish running slang that translates into “speedplay”), where I alternate between faster running and an easy recovery. Or I do a so-called tempo run at a certain pace. Sometimes, I have set distance intervals at specific paces, for example 4x3 km or 400m intervals on the track. Or I do hill repetitions, progression runs or even a mix of the above. Then I have “normal” runs, easy runs (“jogging”), strides and 30s “pickups” as well as a longer run. I also do strength training and so-called “cross training” such as road biking (Rennvelo) in summer, swimming year-round and cross-country skiing in winter, which helps me stay injury-free. Thus, my training never gets boring and my coach Michi Rüegg does a great job with perpetually finding new challenges.

But training doesn’t always mean hard “all-out” efforts, and a doctoral candidacy luckily doesn’t just consist of super-long lab days. In a lot of ways, running (and, most endurance sports) can be surprisingly social, something I experience with my teammates from TG Hütten and my colleagues at the Oxenius Lab. While most of the work is solitary, only by working together can you gain new perspectives and fulfill your potential. The only big difference is that at the end of the process you either earn a hat, a medal —or a big cobblestone, in case of a mountain race.

Hi! I am Hanna, 25 years young, and working towards my doctorate’s degree in Immunology at ETH Zurich in beautiful Switzerland. Outside the lab, literally speaking, I am also a passionate (and competitive) long-distance runner for TG Hütten and LAV Stadtwerke Tübingen, and love to run anything longer than a 3k, whether it is on the roads, in circles, through the mud or in the mountains.