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Have you ever wondered what it feels like to make a breakthrough discovery, and how to get there? We sat down with Michiel Boekhout, a postdoctoral researcher at the UMC, who did just that by discovering a new gene (Ankrd31) and its function in meiosis. Michiel says: “It was completely unknown what this gene was doing, and we figured that out in a relatively short amount of time. Discovering a gene function is something I may never top again, and there are only so many genes to go around!” It turns out, mutations in this gene led to small testes and infertility in male mice and premature infertility in female mice.

We learned that Michiel has a lot of other exciting discoveries and proud professional moments too, like finishing his PhD and the last chapter of his thesis (which describes original independent research). Despite all the excitement, the academic world is not without its difficulties: “I try a lot of different things at the same time, while I think there is actually an optimum. You should spend more effort on less experiments, because if you are not focused enough on at least some of the stuff you are doing, everything fails.” In other words, don’t juggle too many balls, or you might end up dropping them all.

So what about the path to becoming such a successful academic? Does it only involve focus and hard work? Actually, one also needs a bit of luck and resilience: “It is a being at the ‘right time, right place’ kind of thing, and as an academic, you should appreciate luck. But you should not forget the competitiveness of the academic world, therefore you should be resilient. So being a good academic is finding a balance between hard work and the appreciation of luck”. The Ankrd31 finding was a really good example of being lucky; it went so well because I got to work with the right people at the right time of the project”.

The Ankrd31 finding was a really good example of being lucky; it went so well because I got to work with the right people at the right time of the project.

Finally, we asked Michiel if he had any advice for those contemplating pursuing a PhD. His response was: “I don’t think there is right or wrong in choosing to go for a PhD position or job security, but if you enjoy doing science you should go for it. Do what you like, try it and if not, you can always do something else. Things will work out in the end and it is not worth worrying too much!”