Inés Mármol: «If there is no already made path, you can do it by starting to walk»

The IIS Aragón researcher has been chosen by El Periódico de Aragón as one of the 30 most influential women in our Community in 2023. The newspaper will publish a special supplement with all the profiles for Women's Day this coming March 8

Inés Mármol (Zaragoza, 1993) is a young biotechnologist from Zaragoza who, just eight years after completing her degree, has already received numerous awards, such as the National Youth Award 2023 in the Science and Technology category, fruit of his research on the cancer biology. A work that he currently produces at the Aragon Health Research Institute (IISA), where he develops, together with his research group, preclinical models of different types of cancer through technology organ-on-chip which, according to the researcher, makes them more similar to those that actually occur inside a human body, and that also allows us to obtain results that are transferred to the clinic more easily. All this within the framework of a 'Juan de la Cierva-Training' contract granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. A meteoric career, not without difficulties, in which she has been able to see how motherhood can have an undesired effect on the projection of female researchers. A scientific work, this one, that transfers to society through intense dissemination activity in different formats, from journalistic articles to collaboration on radio and podcast programs, scientific monologues and his work as a documentary filmmaker for the YouTube channel `Hyperactine'.

This scientist and popularizer from Zaragoza graduated in Biotechnology from the University of Zaragoza in 2015. A year later, she obtained a Master in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the same university and, immediately after, began a doctoral thesis in Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences which led him to specialize in the preclinical study of new agents with chemotherapeutic potential for colorectal cancer, through a detailed analysis of its mechanism of action. “I mainly worked with gold complexes, which are a possible alternative to platinum drugs that are currently used in clinical practice, but that have many side effects,” explains Inés Mármol.

Once he completed his thesis, he completed a postdoctoral stay at theHealth Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), "where I learned to work with lipid nanoparticles, very useful for delivering drugs directly to a tumor, and thus reducing possible side effects," he points out. Since January 2023 he has been working at the Health Research Institute of Aragon (IISA), in the research group Tissue Microenvironment, thanks to a `Juan de la Cierva-Training' contract awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Trajectory: Since January 2023, he has been part of the Tissue Microenvironment research group thanks to a `Juan de la Cierva-Training' contract, awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. He combines his scientific career with scientific dissemination through journalistic articles, collaboration with radio and podcast channels, as a documentarian for the YouTube channel 'La Hiperactina' and via scientific monologues. He completed a postdoctoral stay at the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), and has received various awards: Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Prize, José María Savirón Prize for Scientific Dissemination, National Youth Prize, second prize in the IX edition of the Third Millennium Awards or First Prize of the IV Scientific Communication Contest of the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics.

The motto of your daily life: "Not everyone can like you, you're not a croquette." 

The "breaks" of motherhood

During this race that began upon completion of your degree just eight years ago, Inés Mármol has already published nearly two dozen scientific articles, and has been coming into contact with some circumstances that he would not have witnessed if his gender were another. “The research contracts offered by research groups are usually not too long, generally a few months or a year. There are those who show certain 'reluctance' to hire a young scientist for short periods of time why, If you have young children, you might neglect the research project (verbatim). It seemed very humiliating to me that this question was asked, as if a woman could not combine a professional career with motherhood. That thinking should have no place in academia., but, unfortunately, it seems to persist,” laments the researcher.

«Calls to request funding should change and prioritize the project idea instead of primarily valuing the curriculum»

In this way, this biotechnologist from Zaragoza considers that in science “there is no glass ceiling as such”, but rather “The academic world can be complicated for women who decide to have children. Not because they are going to neglect their work, as some seem to think, but because To be successful in this area we must constantly produce: results, research articles, supervising students, attending conferences, presenting project ideas to funding calls, and a long and exhausting etcetera. During maternity leave and the breastfeeding period, even before if you have had a complicated pregnancy in which you need rest, you should stop. Your priority is to recover and take care of a fragile little person who depends on you completely. So, in those very necessary and special months, you are not going to produce. Therefore, in the next call to which you apply Someone who has been active during those months will have more merits than you. and it will take the money you need to continue researching and producing. You stay 'behind', and that It can make it difficult for you to obtain funds and, in the end, you decide to abandon your scientific career (The race in this case is not just metaphorical: we must compete among ourselves to obtain funds)”, explains Inés Mármol.

What would a girl who wanted to follow in your footsteps say to you? | Inés Mármol responds / ANDREEA VORNICU

Change course mid-trip

Although not even a decade has passed since this Aragonese researcher finished her degree, there are many awards she has received for her scientific work. Among the most recent, the National Youth Award in the Science and Technology category, awarded by the Youth Institute in July of last year. A true mirror for girls and young women who think about pursuing a career like hers, to whom Inés Mármol would say “that Don't be afraid to try new things. You can swerve and change direction mid-trip and nothing happens., it can be scary to start from scratch, but it can also bring very good things. I would also tell them not to compete, although the academic world seems to force it on them. That look for colleagues who support them, from whom they learn, who make them grow as scientists and as people. Academia becomes less hostile if you have a support network that cares about you and takes care of you. And, If there is no already made path, you can do it by starting to walk".

«During maternity leave and the breastfeeding period, even before if you have had a complicated pregnancy in which you need rest, you should stop»

In addition to her research work, Inés Mármol develops dissemination work that has earned her the José María Savirón Prize for Scientific Dissemination, in the Young Popularizer category, or the First Prize of the IV Scientific Communication Contest of the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics for the informative article titled 'Physics in health and illness', awarded in 2021. An age factor that is increasingly less of an obstacle in a scientific career, even with motherhood as an extra factor in the equation. “In many calls in which there is an age limit to be able to request them, the possibility of increasing it by one year is included if you have had maternity leave.. The idea is that those months of 'inactivity' do not count and thus the applicant (or the applicant, because parental leave is also included) can compete. This solution is good and necessary, but I don't know if it is enough. I think Tham Calls to request financing should change and prioritize the project that is to be carried out instead of mainly evaluating the resume of the person requesting it.. That is, less about scientific articles and supervised theses, and more about assessing whether a project idea is solid and the person requesting it could carry it out. This is true in some calls, although not in all. I think that This way the 'gap left by maternity leave would not be so noticeable and, furthermore, it would take a lot of pressure off the entire scientific community to avoid having to produce 'matacaballo'”, he asserts.

"You are not a croquette"

Currently, the presence of women in scientific research is notable, comments the Aragonese biotechnologist, both in the early stages and in positions of responsibility, such as group leaders. “I would like the young scientists of today to end up becoming the group leaders of tomorrow., or in the research managers, those responsible for clinical trials, or whatever each one decides. Although, the way the academic world is, not only for us, but in general, I don't know if all of us will be able to achieve it, there is still a lot to work on,” she assesses.

"There are those who are reluctant to hire a young scientist for short periods, because they believe that if she has small children she could neglect the research project"

However, although the presence of female scientists is important, there is no shortage of “anecdotal” situations like the one I mentioned before, in which they did not want to hire me due to the suspicion that I might be a mother. Come on, what I felt like I got the job more because I didn't have children than because of my resume and my abilities.. Something embarrassing,” recalls Inés Mármol, who also highlights important initiatives that combat this type of reality. “Luckily, throughout these years I have had mentors and supervisors who fight against unpleasant situations like this, such as Dr. María de la Fuente, with whom I was fortunate to work in Santiago de Compostela, who started the #ocientificaomadre campaign a few years ago, to demand changes in terms of equality in science. EITHER Carmina Puyod, from the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Zaragoza, that with the 'Scientific in your neighborhood' campaign It shows scientists as what we are: normal people who do our work every day to the best of our ability,” she highlights.

A career, the scientific one, with a level of demand that sometimes leads to discouragement. This is why Inés Mármol uses a phrase of hers in her daily life, "you can't please everyone, you're not a croquette," which helps her deal with inevitable failures. “I tell myself this every time I resolves a call and I have been left without a contract or financing, or a scientific journal does not want to publish the results of my research. In the academic world we have to deal with rejection a lot, and it is not always easy to accept. But, of course, only croquettes are guaranteed success wherever they go.”, she concludes sympathetically.