"We don't really know what's coming".

Dr. Bertinetti, most of the university's employees now work from their home offices. You are still in the lab?

Exactly, I have more of a coordinating and supporting function in our department, that's one thing. The second reason is that you can never work alone in the lab. If something happens to someone, someone has to notice and be able to help. We have set it up so that we are in the lab with two people during core working hours.

How do you usually work in the lab?

Normally there are about 20 of us scurrying around the lab. To keep contact times as low as possible, preparations, post-processing and documentation are now done at home. The scientists only come to the lab for their experiment.

Is that the main reason for your work: that you have to be there so that the PhD students and colleagues can get on with their research in the lab?

Yes, that is the main reason. Another is that we have to receive refrigerated packages, for example, and store them correctly, at minus 80, minus 20, or four degrees. Otherwise, a lot of money goes down the drain. We also have machines that we have to look after or where we have to refill liquids regularly, for example, so that they don't break. Our cell cultures also have to be looked after, otherwise they die. That's why I'm not in my home office, but at the university.

How has your daily research routine changed because of the current situation?

It starts with simple things: The cafeteria is closed. I now plan and prepare lunch in the evening. All the way to practical things: There are situations in the lab where we dance around each other. Sometimes three people suddenly have to go into a certain lab right now, which is of course much too small to keep the two-meter distance. Then we agree on who has to go where. Two then go into the hallway and wait until the lab is free again. You also have to be aware of the situation again and again: It's no longer possible to just hand something over or watch an experiment with the other person.

We are also much more concerned about disinfection. Actually, it is everyday practice to disinfect certain equipment and surfaces to protect our samples. But now I also have to think about which buttons I touched on the device. After using them, I have to wipe them down with disinfectant before the next person works on them.

What do you currently have to do without as a scientist?

All the short lines of communication and service are gone. Everything takes much longer. Meetings are held by telephone or video conference. You then have to hold up your results in front of the camera or share the screen. In chats with 20 people, it is not always possible to clearly identify who is speaking, or several people speak at once in a jumble. Delivery bottlenecks are also a problem. We were very lucky that we bought special disinfectant for our cells at the beginning of January, which will last us another 3 to 4 months.

Has the bureaucracy at least become less?

No. You have to be much more careful that all people are up to date and that nothing gets past anyone. We also still have to send original invoices to the administration. Unfortunately, the system doesn't yet allow us to do everything online. There will definitely be a lot of changes here in the future, because it's only now that we're noticing where things are getting stuck.

Let me ask you a slightly different question: What conspiracy theory comes to mind when you think of the Corona crisis in your field of science?

For God's sake, no conspiracy theories! I look with horror at all the pronouncements touting that there are medicines for corona, that laying out onions helps, or that certain globules work. It scares me how quickly criminals have found ways to exploit the public's fear.

In closing, can you give us a little perspective? Both positive and negative?

Let's start with the positive: I find it insanely exciting how the whole way of thinking about communication is changing: What actually needs to be clarified in a face-to-face conversation and what can be done in other ways? We are thinking about how we can design teaching in the summer semester and deal with planned face-to-face teaching. E-learning and video conferencing have long been ridiculed, and certainly have their limitations. But they can mean that people who can't make it to the lecture hall due to supervision or illness can participate. That's also an opportunity we can take advantage of now.

What do you take away from the crisis for your scientific work?

I have this nasty pile every year that I resolve to work through before Christmas. But somehow it always gets left behind. Now I have time to deal with these things and "clear the decks". It's like doing your taxes: You put them off and then you're really happy when you've done them. Some of my colleagues are now busily writing their publications, something that otherwise tends to get left undone. The heart-and-blood laboratory chemist prefers to go to the lab. But I expect that we will have a huge increase in publications in the near future. Communication with international colleagues is also changing.

In what way?

We work a lot in international consortia and have regular contact with scientists who are in the current crisis areas. That's when you sometimes think about asking them how they're doing or what their everyday lives are like now. Before, professional and private life were quite clearly separated.

And the negative?

The effects are painted in all kinds of colors, but we don't actually know what's coming. I find that very scary. What's tomorrow? What next week? What next month? How we handle this crisis will go down in history. This is the first pandemic that is so clear for everyone to see publicly. We won't see if any measures have worked until ten to fourteen days later. I'm sure we can learn a lot from this crisis, even if it's more of a learning-by-doing right now. But it is also an opportunity for us to rethink in many areas and for innovative solutions to find a way into our future everyday lives.

Dr. Daniela Bertinetti is a research associate at the Department of Biochemistry.

Interview: Christine Grass