John Eriksson (Euro-BioImaging)
Welcome to The Microscopists, a bite sized bio podcast hosted by Peter O'Toole, sponsored by Zeiss Microscopy. Today on The Microscopists
Peter O'Toole:Today on The Microscopists, I'm joined by John Erickson from University of Turku Turku and Euro Bio Imaging. And he explains the moment he fell in love with microscopy.
John Eriksson:I was going with my samples. I've looked into the microscope, it was like, wow. Looked into the microscope, it was like, wow. Amazing. This is, you know, this is the reason.
Peter O'Toole:Talks about his favorite cities.
John Eriksson:I don't know if you've been to Chicago, but it's such a cool place. It has jazz, a lot of music, classical music, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, lots of playhouses, a fantastic place.
Peter O'Toole:And doesn't hold back from sharing his caffeine intake.
John Eriksson:In the morning, minimum 1 liter of tea, then, 2 espressos, and then maybe, Coke Zero or something. So that's my sort of morning peak.
Peter O'Toole:All in this episode of The Microvoscopists. Hi. Welcome to The Microscopist. I'm Peter O'Toole. And on today, I'm joined by John Ericsson, director general of Euro Bio Imaging and professor of cell biology, I think it is, John, at Turku University.
Peter O'Toole:How are you today, John?
John Eriksson:Pretty good, Peter, and thanks a lot for the invite. And I must say congratulations to a great podcast because we have many members in the team who are big fan fans of of the podcast.
Peter O'Toole:That's lovely to hear. Thank you. I you know, I don't don't know where to start on this one. I'm gonna maybe start. Director general is quite a grand name for, the Europe Biogen side.
Peter O'Toole:So what what does it entail?
John Eriksson:So the the the title is is fancy. I agree. And and I must say that the looking back on my career and and your nice invitation made me check out a little bit. So why did I become this and that? But one thing when I was as an undergraduate student, I I was pretty sure or especially now in retrospective.
John Eriksson:I could not imagine that one day I would become director general because the title itself is is quite pompous. Director general is quite typical in in, EU circumstances when you have an organization which is big, or even not so big, but that's that's, the the title that is being used. Being, director general in in my case means that I'm responsible for an organization, that has the ERIC format. And the ERIC format has been, created by the commission in order to enable this kind of, international organizations to work a little bit easier in the landscape of different countries. So we have a jurisdiction which is making our life a little bit easier.
John Eriksson:But, the, difference, for example, with, university department or something like that institute that we are not under the umbrella of any, organization, but we are actually one could say that we are a special purpose company, obviously, nonprofit. And legally, as director general, I'm responsible for that organization. And then, of course, I'm doing lots of other things, but but, that that is maybe the indication of the title, in terms of, the EU landscape that there's somebody who is responsible.
Peter O'Toole:So I I I think a really good question at this point. You you did your undergraduate. You've obviously gone to be a very successful academic career. Why why even want to be director general of Eurobio Magene? Because it's it's quite a significant role.
Peter O'Toole:It's not primary research per se. So what what was your motivation to move into that position?
John Eriksson:I think, as as it often is in life, and I think you're familiar with that as most of us who have a little bit experience, behind us. Life is quite serendipitous. And, 10, 15 years ago, I could never have imagined that that, there would be this opportunity. But this, arose by many different factors, and, one thing led to the other. And, I hope we can sort of elucidate this process during our discussion because, actually, everything has is based on something leading one one thing leading to the neck next one.
John Eriksson:But everything is rather random, rather serendipitous. And it was not like I was aiming for being director general 10, 15 years ago. I had no no idea that this possibility would, come to me and, but it came, and and I took the opportunity. But I think it may be better to come to that part of the story with a little bit background.
Peter O'Toole:So I I'm so I'm gonna go way back then. Way, way, way back. Oh, by by the way, when you said it's, both of us with a with a bit of experience behind us. I love the way you subtly both called us old in that. That's that's quite cool.
Peter O'Toole:I thought I'll I'll I'll gonna keep that one in my mind. If we go back, I'm gonna take you back before you did your undergraduate. I'm gonna take you back to when you were, I don't know, 8, 10, 12 years of age. Can you remember what the first career was that you actually wanted to be? Whether it be a footballer, a scientist, or an astronaut, or whatever it was, can you remember the first job that you really fancies being?
John Eriksson:First job, chef.
Peter O'Toole:Chef?
John Eriksson:Yeah. I always liked making food, but I very soon realized that that's a very tough job. When I became a little bit older, a few years older, I was interested in in in a lot of things. So, I was crazy about books and reading and so forth. So, I dreamed about being becoming an author or a journalist, and, actually, as an, in high school, I I was working kind of a freelance from time to time in weekend editions of a local newspaper.
John Eriksson:So I I wrote pieces there, and and then I was in the fancy editorial board of our school journal, which translates something into the blurb. Mhmm. So but I was also very interested in in natural sciences and, and, also, biology a lot, and and actually, I liked microscopes, which came into my career much later, but I like the microscopes of our school so much. So, I offered to fix them and clean them and align them all. They were very, very basic.
John Eriksson:You know? This kind of, like, 19 twenties, something something like that that they have, recovered from some hospital or something. But I had them at home over summer, and and I thought it was very nice to have microscopes at home. So that, then I went to to to university, and, I like too many things. So biology, ecology, cell biology, chemistry, computer science.
John Eriksson:So I I spent, I'm sure, at least 2 more extra years, just reading many things and so forth. So it took me a while also to decide what should I become, what should I make out of my life, because I I like chemistry a lot. I like psychology and but I also loved physiology. So but, of course, the concept of being on some research vessel some somewhere, having a cold beer and saving the world, that was, you know, coming from Jacques Cousteau and those movies that were very popular in those days.
Peter O'Toole:Did you ever get onto a a ship, a research ship?
John Eriksson:I I actually worked, at the end of my undergraduate studies. I worked, in a limnology project for a while. And, again, by pure chance that sort of served me a PhD project, which took me right into cell biology and pure chance again.
Peter O'Toole:So so you did a PhD. So did you know when you were a PhD student, do you want to be an academic, or were you just doing a PhD till you enjoyed research, or did you see a different career ahead of you at that stage?
John Eriksson:I was open for both academic and and also maybe some other direction, even governmental. But maybe not so much in the corporate area, so something like that. But I think as I was learning things during my PhD, I got more and more inspired by the academic life, I must say.
Peter O'Toole:So where where Satya, go go back. Where was your undergraduate? Where is your PhD?
John Eriksson:So I did my undergraduate here in Turku, and we have 2 universities here. We have University of Turku, and then we have Abu Dhabi University, and I did it in the latter. And now I've been working in both universities, actually, as a professor in my career when I I be be had the chance of becoming a professor. Have you been in Turkey all your life? Or No.
John Eriksson:So, I'd I've been here as a undergraduate and graduate student, then I went to Chicago for almost 4 years, then I came back. And, but then when, working in Turco, I've been living between, 3 or 4 blocks, so very very local person.
Peter O'Toole:How was that? So what did you what was the move for Chicago? What stage was that? Was that postdoctoral or first
John Eriksson:postdoc. That was postdoc.
Peter O'Toole:How did you find that move?
John Eriksson:I must say, Chicago was was super nice. It was really, really, an excellent move. It was an excellent choice. And and, again, the choice was a lot of fun, in terms of of how it came around. So I can go a little bit back before I go to Chicago because the, the story behind that is is related to to my topic.
John Eriksson:And the, I can define almost by the day when I saw the light in terms of microscopy. So this was, somewhere in in 1987 or something. So I'll go back to the limnology part a little bit. So the, I was an undergraduate student, finishing up my, master's thesis. Everybody is doing a master's here, which was on fish physiology, but then, I took a job, to collect samples in a limnology project, and I got quite inspired, and maybe that this would be my future.
John Eriksson:We were working on on water reservoirs in on the Holland Islands, which are between, Finland and Sweden, and they were heavily, heavily, polluted with, cyanobacteria, blue green algae. Lots of dead birds and fish dead fish in the summer. That's not nice to have in the in a water reservoir. And I realized that, there was data on, toxic algae from way back in the 1800. The first, paper in Nature, 18 something.
John Eriksson:I don't remember. 70, maybe. And then but I also realized that the toxins there were not characterized at all in those days. So I was discussing with my mentor who is a limnologist that perhaps I'm more interested in moving into this area of toxin research, and, so it came, the opportunity of of changing direction a little bit. And we wrote wrote grants, and we got grants.
John Eriksson:And and, of course, the topic, was quite easy to get grants on because, water reservoirs are obviously of interest. So cut the long story short, I managed to isolate these peptides, and there were other groups also working on on this topic, in the world and many reports came along approximately at the same time. These were cyclic peptides. And you may know that, you know, cyclic peptides are, it's a peculiar type of peptide. It's a very stable because of the cyclic form.
John Eriksson:And, and they have a usually an alteration with d and l, type of, amino acids. And, these peptides were super cool, because, chemically, I had a strong chem chemistry background, so I spent at least a year just on the chemistry and and isolating this. But then it turned out that these are super toxins. So they're they're amazingly powerful. So LD 50 is in the order of of 50 microgram, meaning meaning that you put 1 microgram in a mouse, and it will die.
John Eriksson:So the first experiments we did, we put the mice to sleep, injected the, the toxin, and the liver explodes. I mean, literally, so they die by internal bleeding. So they're they're very soon it became obvious that, this is liver specific, and that was because of a transport mechanism that, the liver cells has bile acid, transport, which is a root for many toxins, actually. So then I went ahead trying to figure out what is the background, and I tested all the possible, or all the possibilities in terms of, molecular toxicology that were around in those days with calcium metabolism, redox states, ion transport, but nothing. They were alive.
John Eriksson:The cells, nothing happened to the cells in terms of trypan blue uptake and so forth. And then comes this, moment of light. And that was sort of triggering my pathway into microscopy. So somebody told me that, at some stage, we can have a look on the on the pictures, but, somebody told me that, why don't the cells are looking quite wrinkled, when when you look in the microscope that there is this, compound, phalloidin, which is rhodamine labeled. Why don't you stain the cells with that?
John Eriksson:And I realized that follow the labeling was super easy, I mean, also currently, it's it's very easy be compared to many antibodies, because it's it's always working if you don't screw up. And we had one reasonable microscope in the building. It had a 40 x lens, epifluorescence microscope. And I was going with my samples. I've never done a fluorescence microscopy before.
John Eriksson:I was going there, and first time I looked into the microscope, it was like, wow. Amazing. This is, you know, this is the reason. There's everything that is happening in the liver is because the cytoskeleton is completely screwed up. So that made me a true believer in microscopies that one should always check-in the microscope.
John Eriksson:That's the first thing you do, and you use all the basic stuff, that is around, and then you will always get lots of information.
Peter O'Toole:John, do you still have those images, those first images?
John Eriksson:So because of your invitation, I was looking in my old old cabinets, and I found the first pictures that I took with with those that I mentioned.
Peter O'Toole:They do. I can't do it. Not this one?
John Eriksson:Nope. Nope. It's a it's, the first pictures, they were 2 round cells. Yeah. And that that's, that's, the next next one.
John Eriksson:2. Yeah. There we are. So I don't know if you've ever worked with liver cells, but you can work with isolated liver cells. You perfuse the liver with collagenase and first flush with EGTA.
John Eriksson:So you snap up the desmosomes and then collagenase, and then, the liver cells are released. And then you can work with them for a day approximately. They're, of course, in the suspension, so they they're not under the normal conditions. But this is how at the left side, this is how the, microfilaments would look like. They're sort of cortically distributed, no stress fibers, nothing like that.
Peter O'Toole:They're nicely structured around the sense of the Yeah. Membrane itself.
John Eriksson:Yeah. So that's one liver cell. And then the one on the right hand side is treated with microcystin, which is the toxin. So nanomolar levels and the microfilaments are completely moved, to one part of the cell.
Peter O'Toole:You know what's fascinating? For those that are listening, you got an an an a nice image which looks a bit like the sun with a bright edge to it, and then you've got another cell where, actually, all that intensity is bunched up together and bulging down to one side. It isn't just disrupted, but it's also relocated to the whole change of distribution. And it I kind of expected when you were talking about it for the distribution to sort of just become loose and just just stop binding. Actually, no.
Peter O'Toole:It seems to have almost aggregated into a mass. Is that what happened?
John Eriksson:Yeah. So, that that is a long story, but that's my story the story of my PhD. So first of all, I realized that that this is a cytoskeletal element or event. And the reason why the liver explodes is that the cells cannot keep themselves together anymore because all the interactions, obviously, will be destroyed. At that time, I I was not super proficient with with, the cytoskeleton, but the, I I thought that, okay, I discovered phalloidin or cytocalicine or something, cytoskeletal disruptor.
John Eriksson:So I went to Una Lindbergh's lab in in Stockholm. They were, very good with microfilaments, and I I was hoping that that we could show that, okay, microfilaments are being aggregated or polymerization is disturbed. Nothing. Absolutely no. So, then we could actually have a look on the, electron micrographs if that where they're yeah.
John Eriksson:So micrographs that I, I was collaborating with a group in in Dundee.
Peter O'Toole:So a great looking tennis ball, for one healthy cell, and then actually quite a smooth surface, but a very, very, what would be the word? This is is is it is just bulging everywhere, isn't it?
John Eriksson:Yeah. It's always collected, this rosette of blebs at one part of the cell, and that's where you have the actin cytoskeleton. And there's a transmission EM also. Yeah. There we are.
Peter O'Toole:Oh, that just makes it look like my head's exploding. Yeah.
John Eriksson:So you can see the ring there, and that's the actin ring that we were looking at in the fluorescence.
Peter O'Toole:That's okay. So that's 3 different, microscopy technologies coming together just to resolve the one question. Yeah.
John Eriksson:And all of this got me completely hooked on microscopy because as you can realize as you're you're a microscopist, to get these pictures, I've stayed quite a few hours in in, different dark rooms, listening to various music, and I'm completely hooked to that kind of working environment and and also primed, I guess.
Peter O'Toole:I don't how often do you get on a microscope now?
John Eriksson:Last time in 2014. So a little bit depressing, I must say.
Peter O'Toole:I I I was I was yes. Do you remember what the what your first fluorescence microscope was?
John Eriksson:So that's that's a I like a microscope, if, advertising is okay here. But, we used I mean, afterwards, we have almost all the major brands here, but I don't remember the the actual model, but it was a very basic model. And but
Peter O'Toole:What about VMs? What about TM and SEM? Do you remember what they were?
John Eriksson:So the, the SEM was gel, 1200. What? Yeah. 1200. And that, the transmission was, a very basic deal.
Peter O'Toole:Mhmm.
John Eriksson:And I'd maybe no. I wouldn't say the number, but really basic. Yeah. But giving pretty good pictures, I must say.
Peter O'Toole:No. I certainly remember my first microscope since but I'd I'd I'd be hard pushed to say what my favorite was, like, over the time because because you got a soft spot for most, I think. Yeah. Going through.
John Eriksson:And they are so great machines, and this nowadays, they are amazing. But they were amazing in those days also. A little bit more tricky, but but, finicky and but great machines.
Peter O'Toole:So why Chicago?
John Eriksson:Okay. So now we come to the mechanism. What happened with this, these structures. So the whole basis of of this, this cytoskeletal disruption is that, we discovered that the microcystin acts as a phosphatase inhibitor. So you may be familiar with ochodac acid and caliculin, which are inhibiting type 1 and type 2a phosphatases.
John Eriksson:And, the reason for the cytoskeletal disruption is inhibition of protein phosphatases. And as we now know, you know, the balance of any phospholiation event is the balance between the kinase activity and the phosphat phosphatase activity. And here, you shut off the phosphatases altogether, and the cytoskeleton gets completely screwed up.
Peter O'Toole:Mhmm. And
John Eriksson:and to me, that was a revelation because I always thought of, phosphorylation events as, you know, a little bit static. So the kinase is activated. Something is moved into another direction, and the then the phosphatase takes back. But I realized that that the cytoskeleton is then much more of, like, a helicopter that is balanced by these active activities, and it, then you move the joysticks of the cell, and things will move in different directions. The when we were doing and we were labeling with, p 32 phosphate, we realized that, intermediate filaments, the keratins in in liver cells, the keratin 8 and 18 are the specific intermediate filaments of liver cells.
John Eriksson:And, then I decided to do my postdoc on intermediate filaments because, I was curious about intermediate filaments. They were much less known than, microfilaments and microtubule. And there was I got an interview with with Bob Goldman who worked at, and still works at Northwestern University. And I got an interview, and, then I decided to go to Chicago. And that was a a fantastic decision.
Peter O'Toole:So how how, were you daunted by the thought of it to start with? Just excited? How how are you how is your sort of personal feelings about leaving Findham to go to quite a different culture over in New York.
John Eriksson:I had no problem. I had absolutely no problem. I was just like my future wife. We were adventurous. We just we had a few interviews in the United States.
John Eriksson:We went there, interviewing, and I was actually interviewing supposed to interview with Bob Goldman, but he had screwed up his calendar. So, I was there. He was not there, and I thought that, okay, forget about this guy. I will not I will take the other offer I had in Princeton. But then he he called me up a little bit later and said, John, why aren't you not here?
John Eriksson:You should be on an interview. I will and then I said, I was there 2 weeks ago, but you were not there. And and he said that's okay. Sorry about that. My secretary screwed up my calendar.
John Eriksson:He always put the blame Yeah.
Peter O'Toole:Blame someone else.
John Eriksson:And then I went for another interview, and and we got along very well. And, I decided to go there. And I don't know if you've been to Chicago, but it's such a cool place. It has, jazz, a lot of music, classical music, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, lots of playhouses, a fantastic place. And and the science is great.
John Eriksson:So we have both University of Chicago and and Northwestern University, lots of different opportunities. I was completely take blown away by this city and and everything else. And, of course, I had been working under very, sort of limited circumstances, and suddenly, I'm moving in this very international environment, and you realize that that you're a very small fish in a big sea, which is humbling and nice, because it gives you perspective. And the lab was also great, wonderful people, wonderful colleagues, super helpful. There were people who taught me so much in protein chemistry, and and, of course, cell biology in terms of instrumentation compared to the one old Leica I had.
John Eriksson:Bob Goldman had everything that you could have in those days. So and he got one of the first confocal microscopes. So that was a size microscope if I if I'm not mistaken. And so, I got to see confocal microscope very early on. And, also, thanks to, this postdoc, I was staying 2 summers at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, which you may have Yeah.
John Eriksson:So, there there are also many many famous scientists, to be, you know, going out for a bear with and and, going for quite amazing parties when the sales cycle was being drawn on the beach because Tim Hunt was there. And then, there was Shinya Inouye, who is, of course, absolutely amazing. So lots of amazing people, lots of amazing instruments, and and skinny dipping among, fluorescent algae and what have you.
Peter O'Toole:And did you say you went over with your wife to be at the time?
John Eriksson:Yes.
Peter O'Toole:And what what was did did she find a job over there as well? Was she also studying?
John Eriksson:So my wife, is is a molecular biologist, and molecular geneticist, and she worked, with Rick Morimoto, in in, in the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. So I worked at the medical school downtown. And, Rick Morimoto is a stress biologist, so he has been working and one of the founding fathers of of the stress response. And, and my wife is still working with the stress response just like I'm still working with with the intermediate filaments.
Peter O'Toole:That's kinda cool. So then you went back to fit why do you do you always think you'd go back home?
John Eriksson:I think we were both tempted to stay, but then in terms of of family and so forth, life may be easier here in Scandinavia. Having a family in in the US, we felt that it's quite challenging, but we were tempted to stay. And but we got a nice offer, both of us at the same time, at so a place which is here in the same building where I'm now, which is called Turco Bioscience Center. And that was a rather visionary place because it was a core facility for both universities. And, it the idea was to combine both research and core facilities in the same, department.
John Eriksson:And it's it's a big success. More than 200 people working there now, and and that was the whole place was the basis of of core facility activities here in in Turku. And quite early on, before open access was really well defined.
Peter O'Toole:Yeah. So
John Eriksson:we we got positions there and, and I I got a position as a cell biologist, which meant that, I should set up all the instruments, needed for cell biology. At the time, there was, an old Nikon really crappy, and and, the change was pretty depressing, you know, coming from
Peter O'Toole:I'd like to wonder what it'd be like going from a very extremely well resourced lab back to, you know, not everywhere can be like that, can it?
John Eriksson:No. And and, of course, that was my task to build up, a facility that was well equipped, but but, we came in right after the building was finished. So my lab didn't even have a sink. So that was it took some time to set up everything.
Peter O'Toole:So what out out of your career today, what what would you say has been the hardest time? What's been the most difficult time?
John Eriksson:So then I was working at Turco Bioscience Center for a few years, and that was fun. We managed to also to pull in quite a lot of funding, for for the instruments, but then I, of course, had to apply for professorships. I became professor, professor in sology, actually, at University of Turku, in 1998, and that was a teaching position. So I was, of course, allowed to do research and so forth and even supposed to do that. But, the contact hours were more than 22100 or easily 250 hours per year.
John Eriksson:So that was so much. And then I was, in the matriculation examination board of Finland, which means the, the general examination after high school for everybody. And I was also, in the committee evaluating the high school students, you know, their papers. So I got, 4000 papers every Easter. And that was it was, like, crazy.
John Eriksson:So and then I I was running a lab and doing all kinds of things, and, also, I was quite active in terms of of campus administration, and we had small kids. And and, this the nights were very, very short. So so, I I think I looked pretty crappy at times.
Peter O'Toole:So how how did you pull yourself back from that?
John Eriksson:So then 2,006, there was a an opportunity to get another professorship which was much more attractive, And that was, at the same time, I became head of cell biology, head of department. I got a nice, startup package, really nice. And so 100 100 of 1,000 of euros, and I, put all of that into microscopes. And, I was teaming up with Peck Kahanninen, who was, who is still here, the dean of the medical faculty. And together, we we bought, Leica Metrix, s p 8, and then we also bought an s p 8 stead.
John Eriksson:And so with that, Turku suddenly became quite strong in Finland. And we we became well recognized. And, and, also, at that time, we we did a a kind of coordination thing, which was a good idea. So we were thinking with a few people here that how could we make stronger without taking away anything from anybody else. So the way we would think about what are our real strongholds.
John Eriksson:And microscopy was 1 because, Stefan Heller was working here at the time, actually, when I was recruited back. And so we had, this tradition, and then we have have also still, one of the, biggest pet centers in Europe. So we, decided to combine this stronghold in in a regional organization, which was really a virtual organization to begin with, Torco Bioengineering. And, Torco Bioengineering took in everything from, microscopy to molecular analysis to, even clinical imaging. And so our motto was from, from atoms to anatomy.
John Eriksson:And that's a very similar motto as as in neurobiology, which we, of course, didn't know about in these days. So that that organization started with half a coordinator, and it was amazingly successful. We immediately became much more successful in terms of funding. We got the national coordination of imaging in Finland. Thanks to the national coordination, there there's a organization called, BioCentre Finland, which is for infrastructures.
John Eriksson:And I became the coordinator in that organization of imaging, and we got a big chunk of funding, not only for Turku, but for for Finland, for, Turku, Helsinki, Corpio, Tampere, and Oulu, to improve imaging. And that became the the sort of start of of the national, imaging organization. This brings me to Eurobanging because, there was no national 1800 imaging in Finland. And so if if people were looking for somebody who would be coordinating, Finnish imaging, it would be my number. And that's how I got to know Jan Ellenberg, who you have had on on on your podcast, and he had a very nice and also, Antti Kepler, who is currently nowadays, my colleague, was telling about the history and the early beginnings of of Eurobanging.
John Eriksson:But I, quite early on, I got engaged with with, Eurobanging, which was a project in those days, for ice European project. And there were 2 preparatory phases, before the organization, came to reality. So in those days, I was coordinating the soon to be finished, Eurobanging node. And then, thanks to that, I've got to be on the Eurobanging board, and then, you know, things were moving along slowly. But that took quite a long time before the organization came into a reality and and some parts of the, process were were quite slow.
John Eriksson:But, to cut a long story really, really short, it it wasn't decided to be in the beginning, to be a 3 partite, hub or headquarters. But, due to several political circumstances, there were there was nobody who would take the seat, and see it is the legal body. And, because of these circumstances, Finland came into the picture, and Finland is often, a nice place to have this kind of legal bodies because Finland is considered to be neutral and harmless. And and then, now we have a 3 part at headquarters with the SEAT, the legal organization being in in Turku, and then we have biological imaging in Heidelberg, in EMBL, and Antti Kepler is the director there. And then we have, medical imaging in Torino where we have Linda Chaban.
John Eriksson:Wonderful colleagues. Both both of them, absolutely amazing colleagues, and, and then also we have a wonderful team. But I was keeping a little bit of history there.
Peter O'Toole:No. It's okay. I I I'm gonna ask you a quick one. Do you regret any of the steps?
John Eriksson:Well, I don't know. I don't think I regret anything. So I was dabbling with quite a few I was dabbling with quite a few things in the beginning, you know, as an undergraduate student. So I could maybe have done a little bit fewer, but, you know, it's okay. Yeah.
John Eriksson:No. I well,
Peter O'Toole:I think that's probably giving you the breadth that's probably helped as you as you've gone forward. I asked what you wanted to be when you attend. You sort of said a chef, and then you saw your career, and we've heard other careers, serendipitously, got you to where you are today. If you could do any job in the world for a day or a week just to see what it's like, Is there a job that you'd just like to go and sample? Doesn't have to be inside.
Peter O'Toole:It could be any type of job. What would you like to do for a day or a week?
John Eriksson:I don't know. I would be a scientist. I know it's a boring answer, but, you know, I'm I'm quite a die hard now.
Peter O'Toole:That's that's okay. Yep. Okay. Where would you choose? If you could go anywhere in the world and practice your science for 6 months, where would you go?
John Eriksson:That's a hard one because there are so wonderful places around the world nowadays compared to when I was younger, and also, I guess, when you're much younger than I am, but even when you were in your early career, I don't know the, you know, the there are several places in the United States. And, maybe going into the Boston area would be very really cool, but also London would be nice.
Peter O'Toole:John. John. John. York is so much better than London.
John Eriksson:Okay. Okay.
Peter O'Toole:If you're gonna come to the UK, go do York. It's obvious. So quick fire questions for me. Are you an early bird or a night owl?
John Eriksson:Sorry.
Peter O'Toole:Are you an early bird or a night owl?
John Eriksson:I'm really a night owl. But but now I'm often forced to be an early bird. So that that's that's, that's a little bit of a clash there.
Peter O'Toole:PC or Mac? PC. McDonald's or Burger King?
John Eriksson:There's a Finnish company called Hasburger.
Peter O'Toole:Okay. Good answer. Chicago or Turkey?
John Eriksson:I would take turns because I consider that I'm you know, both cities are my hometowns. So, you know, for several years, I I I was homesick for cigar Chicago, especially in the fall. You know? Chicago fall is beautiful.
Peter O'Toole:I've got I've got to say, I can see why you're director general. These are politically very nice ants. You're not alienating anyone. Tea or coffee?
John Eriksson:Both. Enormous quantities.
Peter O'Toole:Tea or coffee?
John Eriksson:I'm I'm so addicted to caffeine. So do you you know, Johann Sebastian Bach, he has a a contact, a coral for coffee. And I understand why. Because, you know, that's a magic potion right there. In the morning, minimum 1 liter of tea, then, 2 espressos, and then maybe, Coke Zero or something.
John Eriksson:So that's my sort of morning peak. But then I can manage quite a long time for that with that.
Peter O'Toole:Okay. Be able why?
John Eriksson:Again, I must say, I'm not trying to be politically correct, but I like both.
Peter O'Toole:Anything. Anything.
John Eriksson:Any I I I'm not so into hard liquor, but but, I really like beer, especially nowadays when you have all these nice microbreweries and so forth. Okay. But, of course, a a wonderful glass of wine.
Peter O'Toole:Metal white. It's
John Eriksson:good. White. And that's maybe because I like red wine also, but but if if I'm a little little excited or stressed, then, red wine gives me stomach problems.
Peter O'Toole:Okay. Chocolate or cheese?
John Eriksson:What was the first one?
Peter O'Toole:Chocolate or cheese?
John Eriksson:I like cheese a lot and chocolate, at times, but maybe I would put cheese first.
Peter O'Toole:Okay. And what is your, so you're a chef. What is your favorite food to eat, first off?
John Eriksson:Oh, gosh. These questions are hard because it all depends on on the occasion and the season. I like I like Italian food a lot. But Okay. But, like, right now, here in Finland, it's time for if you know this.
Peter O'Toole:No. No.
John Eriksson:And then this Russian pancakes made of buckwheat, and you eat those with fish roe and pickled cucumbers and stuff. It's great.
Peter O'Toole:Okay. Do do you have a a least favorite food?
John Eriksson:If I have an elite baby.
Peter O'Toole:Least. Least. What is what is there any food you don't particularly like? Oh,
John Eriksson:there are a few, but but I'm well, you know, there are, I'm sure, challenging foods that I couldn't take, but I I can take take most things.
Peter O'Toole:Okay. I think I know this answer from what you said earlier, but TV or book?
John Eriksson:Well, I I get to see TV rarely. I like movies, old movies and and classical movies. And some of the new TV series are amazing, I must admit.
Peter O'Toole:So so what what's been your latest TV series?
John Eriksson:Babylon Berlin. Okay. And Right. Check it out. But, I'm warning.
John Eriksson:It's seriously addictive.
Peter O'Toole:Sounds good. And what what's your favorite film then?
John Eriksson:That would be Citizen Kane and Casablanca.
Peter O'Toole:Two good films. And what about a favorite Christmas film?
John Eriksson:A beautiful what is that? A Beautiful Year. Well, you know the the movie.
Peter O'Toole:I don't, but I will find it.
John Eriksson:Yeah.
Peter O'Toole:And, if you had to choose between 1 Star Trek
John Eriksson:A beautiful life.
Peter O'Toole:A Beautiful Life. A Wonderful Life.
John Eriksson:Wonderful Life. There you go. Yes.
Peter O'Toole:Yep. Nope. I'm there. Star Trek or Star Wars?
John Eriksson:I I never, I they came in a period when when I was so immersed in in studies and other things, so I didn't watch them.
Peter O'Toole:Oh, so neither on that?
John Eriksson:Yeah.
Peter O'Toole:Basic color?
John Eriksson:Kind of bluish. Bluish? Yep.
Peter O'Toole:See, why didn't you just say dappy?
John Eriksson:I don't know if it would be Dappy, though. Maybe her maybe Herx'd rather.
Peter O'Toole:Oh, 33342. Yes. What what other hobbies do you have? You you sent me a picture actually of, actually, this just makes it look like I've got loads of hair and I bit like a a bear wolf. But is is this your pet dog?
John Eriksson:That's our, Lapland shepherd.
Peter O'Toole:Mhmm.
John Eriksson:And, there's a story around that. But the, apart from this guy, hobbies, I'm an all year biker, which in Finnish conditions can be quite challenges challenging, but I really like biking. I read a I try to read. I play squash every Monday at 5 o'clock, since 1983 or something. And then movies and stuff.
John Eriksson:But, as scientists, we we don't have so much time for hobbies. But, the guy there at the back, he's my mentor. So as you can realize from my small history, I've been director for quite a few years. So I was first chair of the department, and then actually in 2016, I became chair or head of the Turku Bioscience Center. And as that that is a big place with with a big, budget and more than 200 people, it was really challenging because I was interim director at Eurobanging, part of the same time.
John Eriksson:And then I became director of Eurobanging. And being a director is is really fun also, and it's very rewarding because you can you realize that you can do things and change change things. So that's my, you know, driving force. But it can be, sometimes the blues hits you big time, because of funding circumstances or you have some, fight with some colleague or something. And, of course, with big institutions, you always have conflicts, and that's that's the name of the game.
John Eriksson:But this guy is teaching me the basic truth. You know? Every morning, he gets up and always happy. Okay. Let's go out.
John Eriksson:Life is good. And so so, that's a simple advice, and it's a great advice.
Peter O'Toole:That is that is super cool, actually, here. Guys, it's not quick fire question, but what's your favorite conference?
John Eriksson:The Gordon conference on intermediate filaments.
Peter O'Toole:That's your favorite conference. Okay.
John Eriksson:And That that's And and also
Peter O'Toole:Go on.
John Eriksson:Yes. Well, I haven't been on so many Elmi conferences, but Elmi is super cool,
Peter O'Toole:which, of course, you hosted.
John Eriksson:Oh. And 2,
Peter O'Toole:2 years ago?
John Eriksson:Not last year, but the year before.
Peter O'Toole:Yeah. 2 years ago. Only it seems really recent, though. It was an excellent tell me as well. Well done on hosting that.
Peter O'Toole:It was a great location. Love to see Turkey. That was that was great.
John Eriksson:Yeah. And, also, previous year, these 2, because we have been coming out of COVID, they were absolutely fantastic.
Peter O'Toole:So we've asked about the the hard times and that those those difficulties. You just alluded to there that the the the politics, and everything else. With your current role, with Euro Bio Imaging, are there still a lot of politics to to navigate, or is it now much easier sailing? I know you've listened to Jan. It was terribly awful actually, awfully political.
Peter O'Toole:But have things now got better, or are the politics still something you have to navigate?
John Eriksson:In big international organizations, you always have the political aspect, but it's it's completely different. So that time that Jan was describing and and he and other people, including Antia, who was aboard, there, did a great job. But those times were really challenging. Now, when we the organization was formally accepted as a European organization that was at the turn of the year 2019, 2020. We didn't realize, how tough it was just to set up an organization.
John Eriksson:But, politically, it was not so tough anymore. It was the board meetings were getting much more easy. They're not we always the the board is, of course, owning us, the member states. So the board meetings are always exciting. But once we got through the period, and that's our first 5 year period of establishing the organization, all kinds of recruitment, setting up systems.
John Eriksson:Now we're in our next phase. So going from build up to strategic development. It's completely different. We have an amazing situation. I I must say, I'm sort of mesmerized each morning.
John Eriksson:We we are well resourced. We have a fantastic node community. We have a 9 191 sites around Europe. I cannot imagine that anybody of us here in the hub will have a chance to meet to to go to all of these places, but it's an it's an unbelievably nice community. And I see that we can do miracles in the in the next few years.
John Eriksson:Also, because we have we start to learn what we really can do. So we can do things that were completely beyond our imaginations when when we were in the preparatory phase. So so now as we say, sometimes in the, in the virtual, pub, which we have every Friday, which is a community meeting that we sometimes say that, you know, the, the sky is the limit, but not the resolution. And that's that's how I feel the the future of Eurobanging.
Peter O'Toole:And, we are really close to the hour now already. So I have to ask you, this is interesting question. When you retire, will you carry on going into a lab? Or will you when you retire, will you enjoy a bit more squash, cycling, and shifting at home?
John Eriksson:So I I hope to do science still when I'm retired, but, of course, I, I will shift focus also a little bit and do things that I haven't done before, or haven't had time to do. That's for sure, but I haven't thought so much about that.
Peter O'Toole:So plenty of time still. It's just an interesting question. There's no way to find it. Some people and go. Yeah.
Peter O'Toole:Others like to stay in regardless, and it's Yeah.
John Eriksson:I have I have a hard time envisioning myself, you know, just closing the door saying, bye bye. This is it.
Peter O'Toole:That'll be different. And do you see Euro BioMeeting and Global BioMeeting? Is there any potential one day that they will merge and it will just become glow Euro BioMaging within Global BioMaging?
John Eriksson:Well, they are sort of sister. Global Biomg is a project. Eurobanging is an organization. But if we call them projects, they are sister projects. And and how that will develop in the future, I think it's it's for us to see.
John Eriksson:Obviously, Antia is there, leading that, the global bi imaging and part of the team members are very active there, and then they the global bi imaging also also has its own team. But I think, we'll see how it goes, what will be the best arrangement. But there's no, like, discrepancy. There's no nothing conflicting there. Both are, sort of feeding into each other, and and there's a very close relationship.
Peter O'Toole:Well, it'd be interesting to see, I think, in a few years' time just where everything has got to. John, that is we have done the hour now. Okay. Thank you
John Eriksson:so much
Peter O'Toole:for joining me. Everyone who's been listening, thank you for listening or watching on the podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. And, actually, it's been great. John's already named after Kepler, Stephan Hill, Jan Eillemberg, all previous guests on the microscopy.
Peter O'Toole:So you can go back and hear far more details and also about their backgrounds and their inspirations. But, John, thank you very much. I know you've been struggling with a cough as well. So thank you very much for getting through that hour.
John Eriksson:No worries. We managed well without coughing.
Peter O'Toole:John, thank you very much.
John Eriksson:Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to The Microscopists, a Bite Size Bio podcast sponsored by Zeiss Microscopy. To view all audio and video recordings from this series, please visit bitesizebio.com/themicroscopists.
