This talk is an activity from the FEBS Junior Section, an initiative set up by students and young researchers from some of the FEBS Constituent Societies. Each month members of the FEBS Junior Section organize an online event on either a research or a career topic. This talk was coordinated by the junior section of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM).

• Speaker: Prof. Irene Díaz-Moreno, University of Seville and group leader at the Institute for Chemical Research, Seville, Spain
• Title: "Adventures and misadventures in a research career: Beyond the bench"
• Date and time: 12 February 2026, 17:00 CET
• Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dE7xeKV6QYOkem_HekbjGA

Participants will have the opportunity to stay for an after-talk hangout to have an informal chat with the speaker, members of the FEBS Junior Section, and other participants.

Abstract

Using a game familiar to all of us from childhood—either The Game of the Goose or Snakes and Ladders—I will share the adventures, surprises, and challenges of my own scientific career. Through this playful lens, I will illustrate how a researcher’s daily life evolves alongside their career: how time at the bench gradually makes way for responsibilities such as serving on grant review panels, editorial boards, and organizing international conferences. I will also share my experiences and open a discussion about my role in scientific societies such as SEBBM, FEBS, and IUBMB, highlighting my ongoing commitment to the biochemistry and molecular biology community. This talk offers a personal perspective on the milestones, detours, and unexpected turns that shape a scientific journey—showing not only the excitement and challenges of research but also just how fun and wonderfully different a scientist’s days can be.

Biosketch

Irene Díaz-Moreno is Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the leader of the Biointeractomics Research Group at the Institute for Chemical Research (IIQ), of the Scientific Research Centre Isla de la Cartuja. cicCartuja is a multidisciplinary research center between the University of Seville, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and the Andalusian Government (Junta de Andalucía). The Biointeractomics Research Group boasts extensive experience in the molecular recognition of metalloproteins, structure-function relationships of signaling proteins, and transient protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions. The Group studies the importance of these interactions in various cellular processes, including the DNA damage response.

Irene Díaz-Moreno joined cicCartuja after a postdoctoral stay at the National Institute for Medical Research, Medical Research Council in London (UK), working on the regulatory mechanisms of mRNA decay by RNA-binding proteins and funded by an EMBO fellowship. In 2010, she got a permanent position at the University of Seville, where her research and her passion focuses on the role of intrinsically disordered domains in multivariant molecular contacts that govern liquid-liquid phase transitions leading to biomolecular condensates assembly.

She is the editor of two books, Editor-in-Chief of International Union for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) BioFactors journal and has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals (Nat Struct Mol Biol, Nat Comm, PNAS, NAR, etc). She is also giving numerous talks at national and international congresses.

She has been involved in several committees and journals of IUBMB and Federation of European Biochemistry Societies (FEBS) over the past decade, including as Chair of the IUBMB Nominating Committee and member of the FEBS Executive Committee as Chair of the Careers of Young Scientists Committee. At present, she is the current Vice President of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chair of the FEBS Excellence Awards and Fellowships Committee and Vice Chair of the European Commission MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Life Panel.

The FEBS Junior Section

Want to join this platform for young European life scientists? Learn more about our initiative, check out the Room for the FEBS Junior Section and – if you do not have a junior section yet – read this post about how to set one up!

^{Photo by VD Photography on Unsplash.}