Associate Professor Francine Marques is leading critical research to improve treatment for the more than 4.1 million Australians living with hypertension. She’s a geneticist and lab-based researcher at Monash University and was named the Emerging Leader in STEM at the 2021 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.
This year, Dr Marques reached a landmark in her career and in the field when she finished her first-ever randomised clinical trial, translating evidence her team had previously identified in experimental models to humans.
Translating this type of evidence is a difficult task that usually takes many years or even decades to achieve – her team did it in an impressive 5 years. In the process, her team has been nominated for nearly 40 awards. The research holds important implications for the way high blood pressure may be treated in the future.
Here, Dr Marques shares an update on her life (she’s about to become a first-time parent!) as well as the exciting work she’s been doing over the past year since the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. She also offers some valuable advice to other women interested in making a big impact in STEM and research.
Nominations and entries for the 2022 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards close in August. Check out more here.
Can you give us any updates on your research into the development of high blood pressure at Monash University?
I lead a team with 10 fantastic scientists and clinicians passionate about improving human health and making a difference. Together, we work in many aspects of how our gut microbes and substances they produce can help us regulate our blood pressure. We have ongoing studies into how microbes communicate with us, genetic studies into the link between blood pressure and gastrointestinal diseases, and trials on leveraging microbes to lower blood pressure. It is an exciting time to be working in STEM!
How would you describe your current role and job?
I am an Associate Professor in genetics and genomics. Last year, I received a generous fellowship from the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation, which allows me to spend most of my time doing research and supporting my team. However, I get to teach some classes to undergraduate students on genetics, genomics and molecular biology, which is something I really enjoy. I also volunteer my time to service to support our research community. Some of these roles include being the Co-program manager of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia (HBPRCA), where I co-organise our annual scientific meeting, and the Chair of the Mentoring Committee of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH), where we link mentors and mentees across the world and develop new ways to support mentees and junior researchers.
What’s your career and life been like over the past year?
Life has been rapidly changing for me as I am about to become a first time parent in a few weeks. The past year has been challenging dealing with the pandemic, supporting my team and planning my parental leave as a lab head. However, it has also been very rewarding. I set up my lab 3.5 years ago, but my team has been so resilient, creative and supportive of each other, it has been amazing to watch. We are now seeing some of our hard work come through as we finalise some of the first papers coming out of our lab, which is exciting.
Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on over the past year that you’re really excited about?
Another project I am really excited about is the benefit of dietary fibre during pregnancy. We have just finalised this study where we fed pregnancy mice diets low or high in a type of fibre that feeds gut microbes. We then studied their offspring and how well their heart functioned. We identified that the offspring of high fibre mothers were less likely to develop heart disease. These findings are exciting because they may have an impact on prevention of heart disease in the future.
What do you believe urgently needs to change for women in your current area of work or focus?
When I was doing my PhD and in my early post-doctoral years, I looked up to our leaders – lab heads, heads of department/school/committees – to understand what I would need to become to be perceived as successful in the future. Life was put into perspective for me when, in 2015, I was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer. I decided that what I saw in most leaders was not the person I wanted to become and the leader I wanted to be. As a result, I developed my own leadership style. I believe that’s a general issue we observe: we keep expecting women and other underrepresented groups to fit into current the metrics of success and leadership styles, instead of changing the system to support all types of diversity and allowing authentic leadership styles. We recently published a roadmap paper where we describe many ways our research communities can better support women and other under-represented groups to achieve this.
What advice do you have for women who are looking to push the status quo on trying to achieve better outcomes for others?
To be able to change the status quo and improve diversity and equity, we need to ally ourselves with those in a similar mission. Leverage leaders and organisations where change is needed or are supportive of diversity and equity to push for big changes that can lead to a cultural shift. Change may take time but it is possible.
On a personal level, know the data of why diversity and equality are important, and don’t be afraid to speak up when needed. I know this is hard! Having clarity of my values of fairness and accountability helps me to do this – I must decide between being silent and going against my values, or being brave and living in line with my values. This makes me choose courage over comfort in many difficult situations. It also gets easier with time and practice.
What, generally, is your best career tip for making big things happen?
My best career tip is to have a diverse group of mentors at every stage of your career. Mentoring is key to improve opportunities and provide opportunities for networking and visibility. I have been fortunate to have such a wonderful team of mentors who have supported me in innumerous ways, and I try to pay it forward now. My own mentees are doing such a fantastic job, and I am proud of their achievements.
Another key aspect for me is having clarity about my mission and values – they guide me on the decisions I make daily. My personal vision is to empower and support others to become the best version of themselves – this relates to becoming the best scientist they could possibly become, but also to find a career they love, and improve and maintain their health. I love that I can achieve my mission every single day as I do research, talk to my team, mentees or students about the work they do, or engage with our community to empower them to improve their blood pressure.
As we are based in an academic institution, our lab’s mission is to build exceptional scientists that help to improve cardiovascular health. This is important to me as I believe we need to shift the focus from the science to the people – they are our major resource.
Nominations and entries for the 2022 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards close in August. Check out more here.