University of Groningen
Steps towards de-novo life
Monreal Santiago, Guillermo
DOI:
10.33612/diss.121581426
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Publication date: 2020
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
Citation for published version (APA):
Monreal Santiago, G. (2020). Steps towards de-novo life: compartmentalization and feedback mechanisms in synthetic self-replicating systems. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.121581426
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Well, I think this is the first thesis in which I actually left the acknowledgements for last (did you, dear reader? Or did you jump here immediately after the stellin-gen? Thanks for reading, in any case!) Such self-control on my part comes from knowing that writing this is going to be a lot of fun: I have had such cool people around me for the last 4 years (and the 23 before them) that writing about them is going to be a treat. And I deserve a treat, I just wrote a PhD thesis.
First things first, I would like to thank Sijbren. I cannot stress enough how glad I am that I decided to apply for a PhD here and that you decided to hire me. Thank you for all the freedom to choose my own projects and follow my own ideas, and for believing in them at some points even more than I did. You have been a fantastic supervisor all through my PhD.
I also want to thank my reading committee, Marleen Kamperman, Wilhelm Huck and Thomas Hermans, for taking time to read my thesis and give feedback on it.
Thanks to the support staff too: Monique, Theodora, Alfons and Annette. Annette, a special mention to you: you never mind going the extra mile for any of us, and I really enjoy our conversations during dinners and outings or just when I’m passing by your office.
Marc, thanks for teaching me TEM and being there to help every time. The department would be a completely different place without you and the way you handle the electron microscopy lab.
Viktor, without your help Chapter 3 could not have come to light. Thanks for all your patience doing confocal with me, and for all the fun conversations while we waited for the measurements and struggled with the software.
Wesley, thanks for all the effort you put into making sure that everything and everyone works as we should. Thanks for all the measurements from Chapter 4 and for your help all the times that I needed it (which were many).
Sourav, thanks for bringing the project in Chapter 2 to life and for all the dis-cussions we had through it, you never minded explaining your results or listen-ing to mine for as long as it took to develop a good theory.
Thanks to Kai and Omer for working with me in Chapters 4 and 5 respectively, and for continuing the research that we started exploring in them. And thanks to all the people that worked with me in the hydrogel project (that did not make it to this thesis): Asish, the people from Nano-FM, the van der Gucht group in Wageningen, and the van Rijn group in the UMCG.
Of course, extra thanks to my paranymphs. Ankush, in a bit more than a year you became so present in my life that my cat now likes to hang out with you more than with me. You are a great person that I am glad to have had with me in this critical part of my life, and if knowing which flavour of chips to sneak into the cinema for each other is not friendship, I don’t want to know what friendship
Acknowledgements
is. Jim, it is always a pleasure to work, play games, and hate on the monarchy with you. Your determination to help people and to actually make things better around you are admirable. And with your DM narrative skills, I’m sure that the movie won’t disappoint.
Now with the rest of the Otto group. I remember being in the goodbye party for Giulia Leonetti (look, you’re in my thesis! Even if you forgot me in yours :)) and Giulia telling me in a very solemn voice "Guille, now it is your duty to keep the Otto group weird". Such a challenging task, I’ve also "kept" the grass green and the sky blue. But I guess that the point of her advice was that a good atmosphere in a research group is not as easy to make as it is to maintain. I was welcomed into the Otto group with a special kind of warmth (and weirdness), that is defi-nitely worth keeping and passing along. Giulia, after all the things you showed me in the lab, the social events you peer pressured me into, and the movies and random trips that we took together, you deserve way more acknowledgement than the joke about forgetting me. Boris, we have shared from very bad tinder stories to very good trips. Your parties, the white russians that you serve in them, and the bad jokes that you start making after drinking a couple are absolutely amazing. Ivica, you are so much fun to be around and I am glad that we still contact each other now and then to share weird Wikipedia stories (#OttoGradu-ates2020) Andreas, your friendship is like a RaboScanner: strong, reliable, and never not funny. Having you as an officemate meant that I could always count on you for discussions, gym advice, or expertly curated internet content. Thanks to you and Julia for all the great times. Gaël, thanks for looking out for me both at the beginning and at the end of my PhD, and for all the curvefever-fever. Yigit, thanks for inviting me to your wedding and giving me amazing food both in the Lokanta Gunes and in Turkey. Meniz, the same and some more for working with me at the beginning of my PhD, teaching me TEM, and choosing me as a paranymph. David, I admire how you manage to enjoy the things that are actu-ally important and completely reject the boring formalities that come with them (in science and, as far as I know you, in life too). I’m very glad you chose me as your paranymph. Bin, we started almost at the same time and went through all the struggles of a PhD in the Netherlands together: paperwork, presenta-tions, stolen bikes... Thanks for always being there to help and/or suffer together.
Ivana, working with hydrogels was never my favourite, but working with you at
least made it better. I’ll miss party planning and gossiping in the lab (maybe too much, maybe too loud) with you. Babis, you were always available for talking about life, science, and day-to-day work. I’m sure that such a top-down holistic approach to research will grant you a great career, Koba. Marcel, you have gone from a master student that I mistook for an expert and veteran PhD to an actual expert and veteran PhD, without changing much in the process. As Henk would say: B,B&B (beer, boardgames & base-pairing?). Bartosz, you once told me that the world was going to roll me. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, and you
and the engaging conversations, specially the ones about Poland: your love for your country is really inspiring (#AngewandteAuthors2020). Paul, your niceness and chill are admirable and, more importantly, contagious. I wish your chemistry and music skills were also transmitted so easily. Patricia, speaking of contagious traits, your enthusiasm is definitely one of them. You are a brilliant scientist with all the right instincts, you will thrive in either industry or academia. Armin, your creativity shows both in your conversation and in your work. I’m looking forward to see what you make of the coacervates, and which other projects you can come up with. Julia, Michele, Alex and Leonard, you were all great stu-dents, I wish you the best in your future careers! I barely overlapped in the lab with the previous generation of Ottos (Andrea-Nekane, Vittorio, Jan), but it’s al-ways great to see you around the Netherlands, catch up, and annoy you by being young (:D). And thanks to all the other people that I met in the group:
Xiaom-ing, Piotr, Shuo, Pim, Peter, Falk, Kayleigh, Jasper, Golf, Anke, Simone, for the
great environment in the lab, in the borrels, and everywhere else. And to the next generation: Marc, Juntian, Yulong, Meagan, keep the group nice and weird!
Clemens, thanks for being my go-to person for superhero movies and for
always giving me good advice, both in and out of a scientific context. And also thanks to Xinkai, for more comic-book geekiness and all the other conversations about science and PhD struggles (+ the AFM and the microfluidics!). There’s so many other people from the building to acknowledge here: Cora, Max, Manuela,
Sambika, Juanfer, Mamen, Tilde, Rik, Filippo, Liliana, Ciccio, Ruben, Pablo, Bálint, Alessandra, Noémi, Maxim, Cosimo, Marco, Sara, Simone, the other
Simone, Jaime, Bouke, Kirill, Juani... you made and make the department a
great community to be part of.
My ResMoSys people, Qian, Marion, John, Suzanne, Liajin, Camilla,
Al-bano, Antanas, Ligia, Vanessa and Giuseppe, our yearly (ish) trips (plus the
extra random visits and encounters) became a great tradition that I’m glad we kept after our PhDs. We get sentimental about it every time, so I think you know how much I loved being in this network - but thanks one more time for being part of it with me. I’m looking forward to more trips and to more of us turning vege-tarian (we can keep that half of the curse, right?). Also, Giuseppe and the rest of the de Cola group, thanks for welcoming me in Strasbourg for my secondment!
Thanks to the people in Stockholm for making me love research and for lead-ing me to this path - Robin, Anna, Ende, Christina, and specially Laure, without whom I literally would not have done a PhD.
Gracias a mis profesores de la Complutense, y gracias a Alba por supervis-arme como niño de máster: no fue fácil, pero aprecio un montón el esfuerzo que hiciste y todo lo que aprendí.
Acknowledgements
Sanne, thanks for the "weekly" breakfasts, the horrible presents, and for being there in both the good and the bad moments. I’m lucky to have you as a friend. Also, keep an eye in my socks during the defense (lol just kidding).
Carmen, thanks for the cat memes, the trip to Turkey and the casual socialism.
I promise not to kidnap any more neighborhood cats in your house.
Carolien, thanks for taking care of my house and Sami, for sharing your
pas-sion for music, and for encouraging me to get my head out of work once in a while.
Siebert, thanks for introducing me to the mysterious world of piano playing,
and for letting me take all the breaks that I wanted during the lessons to talk about other things.
Y por último, gracias a toda la gente de España. Gracias por hacerme hueco cada vez que vuelvo, y porque veros sea a la vez como si quedáramos todos los días y como si tuviéramos un millón de cosas nuevas que contarnos. Alba,
Mario, gracias por venir a verme todo lo que la alergia permite, por seguir todas
mis historias y dudas existenciales ya sea por teléfono o sentados en el dragón comiendo pipas, y mucho y muy fuerte por los pines de doctor. Celia, todo lo que sé de química lo aprendí estudiando contigo la semana de antes del examen. Sin ti esta tesis sería imposible, y yo sería mucho más adolescente y mucho más aburrido. Alfonso, una parte fundamental de mi trabajo estos años ha sido imag-inarme que lo dejo y me dedico a escribir El Mejor Cómic contigo. Aún no lo he descartado completamente. Gracias también a Arseny por ser mi amigo desde que no me crecía ni la barba y por bajarte a Madrid aunque seamos unos sosos siempre, a Dani por las conversaciones filosóficas y por no dejarme morir en las travesías por las montañas, a Líber por hablar conmigo de absolutamente todo (y por los abrazos de hombre!), a Aitor por la comida asiática y las conversaciones sobre futuros utópicos o distópicos, a Diego por el rol y las recomendaciones de animes chungos, a María por los desayunos por el barrio en los que nos ponemos al día en diez minutos... Y a todos los demás. Estoy muy contento de que sigáis siendo parte de mi vida.
Gracias a mis abuelos, por darme la oportunidad de tener la vida que he tenido y de llegar hasta donde estoy.
Gracias a mis padres, por hacer que me interesara por cosas interesantes desde pequeño, y por cuidarme siempre (a pesar de mis esfuerzos).
Kim, thanks for all the fun and exciting days, especially the ones where noth-ing happens.
