Everyone knows them, everyone has them: Things that have a special value among the many things that have accumulated at home or in the office over time. For Professor Dr Björn Schumacher, Director of the Institute for Genome Stability at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research, there are three things that he is particularly fond of, as he revealed to Susanne Kutter: a very colourful painting from Senegal, a historical light microscope and a bronze statue of Prometheus. 

Anyone entering Björn Schumacher’s office at the modern and functional CECAD research building in the centre of the university hospital campus is surprised by the number of things that are quite atypical for a research laboratory: Large-format paintings, plastics, antiquarian furniture and historical research utensils decorate the prosaic room.

Most striking is the almost wall-sized painting by a Senegalese artist that Schumacher bought over twenty years ago during a holiday there. It moved into CECAD with him in 2009 – ever since he has started working here. When he works at his computer, the picture hangs right behind him above the sideboard. Schumacher knows that it can be seen whenever he is on Zoom or in other online meetings – which he likes: “It shows diversity and zest for life, which is also expressed in the richness of colours.”

The painting depicts scenes of traditional daily life in Senegal, such as fishing, collecting firewood or cooking. The genome researcher said: “It provides a good contrast to what we do here in the laboratory every day. It shows a certain vitality.” 

Somewhat closer to his research is a historical light microscope in a case that stands on the left-hand side of the sideboard under the painting. It dates back to the 19th century. “My team gave it to me as a gift, they discovered it – and it is of course a very interesting contrast to the microscopes that we use in the laboratory nowadays.” But Schumacher also knows: “In the past, cell biology was founded with microscopes that seem so simple today. But they nevertheless laid the foundations of what we know today at the cell biological level. Even chromosomes were discovered and researched with such simple devices in the 19th century.”

For him, looking at the microscope today means seeing the enormous development within just a few decades, “from this simplicity, when we practically knew nothing about cellular processes, to the high-resolution complexity of today.”

The bronze plastic on the sideboard to the right below the Senegalese painting is just as symbolic and metaphorically significant. The piece represents Prometheus, who, according to Schumacher, “brought knowledge to humankind and was punished for it his whole life.” It is therefore a “symbol of knowledge and insight,” according to the researcher.

Schumacher received the sculpture in 2009 from the then Minister of Science of North Rhine-Westphalia as the winner of the State Innovation Prize for his research on the mechanisms of ageing. Specifically, he researched how cellular longevity reacts to damage to the genetic material, the DNA. And this is precisely what Schumacher and his team are still working on intensively today. In this regard, this work of art creates a connection to Schumacher’s current scientific work in ageing research at CECAD. 

Björn Schumacher is keen on the colourful contrast to everyday lab life and the memory of the beginnings of human curiosity for science and cell biology.