Scientists off the record: How Eva König keeps cool on midsummer days

(Vienna, 9.8.2022) To kick off our new interview series, we asked St. Anna Children’s Cancer Researcher Eva König how she copes with midsummer temperatures, what shaped her life as a researcher, and which book should not be missing in her vacation luggage.

📌This is how I spend my summer vacation in 2022:
Together with my family sailing on Lake Constance.⛵

📌This made me curious recently:
Immune cells have surface receptors that resemble olfactory receptors, thus raising the question whether loss of olfaction can affect our immune system or alternatively, can we use smell training to improve our immune system?

📌This event has shaped my life as a researcher:
A couple of years ago, by accident I used a “wrong” analyte in my assay, which probably led to the most interesting result in my entire research career so far. 🧪

📌That is how I keep cool on hot summer days:
Iced watermelon is always helpful, especially in the form of punch. 🍉🍹

📌 If I could be 16 again:
I would jauntily enjoy the “here and now”.

📌The best advice I have ever received:
Never start stopping, never stop starting. (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

📌My motto in research:
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Stay inquisitive and do your best to understand the processes.

📌This is a must-read on summer vacation:
Elena Ferrante – My Brilliant Friend. 📖

📌This is what I would still like to achieve/invent:
I would like to develop a novel method to use immune cells, so-called natural killer cells, as efficient anti-cancer treatment. 🔬

📷: The photo shows Eva König in summery Miami – on her way to this year’s meeting of the Society for Natural Immunity, NK2022, where the researcher was invited to chair the session “Mechanisms of NK Cell Activation”.

👉🏼Eva König heads the Tumor Immunoediting Group at St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (St. Anna CCRI) and studies the role of Natural Killer (NK) cells in tumor surveillance. She aims to find novel therapeutic targets to improve the NK cell functionality and to increase the susceptibility of tumors towards NK cells.
Learn more >> https://ccri.at/research-group/eva-koenig-group