Kaire – a detective who listens to her heart

  • Published: 6 September 2021
Solis BioDyne is very lucky to have Kaire on its team. Kaire, whose childhood dream was to become a teacher, now works as a product development and technology specialist and helps onboard new employees as a mentor. She excels at this. Kaire’s desire to realize her talents as a teacher ended up being limited to working as a children’s summer camp supervisor and co-authoring a biology textbook for secondary school students. Today, she is a demanding and diligent mentor for many new team members, paying attention to detail in both her own work and that of others.
 
Kaire’s childhood was active in every sense of the word. An energetic child, she liked to manage and organize everything: be it school events, extracurricular activities, or courses. Making plans and keeping to them helped Kaire achieve her goals almost every time. Good communication skills helped the lively Kaire channel her energy into work early on and she, therefore, tried her hand at various projects during summer holidays, selling spring flower badges for charity, clearing fields from stones, selling raspberries and honey at the market, and assembling boxes in a cardboard manufacturing company. 
An active lifestyle also supported Kaire in her studies. Eager participation in an extracurricular biology club, subject contests and support from her secondary school biology teacher helped Kaire place 5th at the national biology Olympiad in 11th grade, and her interest in genetics, reproduction, and microscopy led her to study biology at university. Studies at the University of Tartu opened the door to traditional student life and everything that comes with it. Kaire fondly remembers the fun times had in the dorm and continues to be friends with several people she met during her first years at university. During her biology studies, Kaire became interested above all in subjects related to anatomy, developmental biology, and physiology and found her specialty thanks to an advertisement for a research group studying the development of the heart. Joining a Developmental Biology Department research group that studied the development of the outflow tract of the heart made her realize that she had found her calling. 
 
The writing of Kaire’s Master’s thesis on the topic of the expression patterns of transgene Cx43-cre-eGFP in mouse (Mus musculus) embryogenesis was delayed due to the births of her two children. Even though she did not graduate from the Master’s program in the nominal period of study, she managed to combine raising small children and writing her research paper and visit the lab every day to conduct tests for her thesis while taking care of her two-year-old daughter and newborn son. 
 
A new chapter in Kaire’s life began when she joined Solis BioDyne during her doctoral studies. Having started with basic lab production, she moved through various production processes, finally stopping at product development. Fulfilling various tasks from preparing solutions and quality control to participate in product development projects gave her the opportunity to grow together with the company. “I’ve found it very interesting to observe the development of Solis BioDyne as a company and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to be part of making Solis BioDyne better. It’s fascinating to see how we are becoming more professional and known in the world,” Kaire summarises her 10 years of experience in the company.
 
Kaire sees constant change and development as an opportunity to learn and grow. “A developer’s job often resembles that of a detective: you need to draw conclusions and make further plans on the basis of small clues and partly available information in order to prove your theory. Each new piece of information brings you closer to the result. Working at Solis BioDyne has developed my ability to draw conclusions and make generalizations – to see connections where they don’t seem to exist at first glance. This constant detective work keeps the mind sharp and trains your memory. It’s good to be able to remember different bits of information for a long time,” she points out.
 
Kaire’s most memorable experience at Solis BioDyne was the development of the SolisFAST® enzyme and the product range containing it – participation in the creation of this enzyme up until its market launch was an opportunity to be involved in creating a product from the development stage to its delivery to customers. “This kind of inclusiveness is important, as it creates a feeling of responsibility and ownership. Generally speaking, it’s the good feeling I get when I’m doing my job or when I think about working at Solis BioDyne. It’s almost impossible to put it in words, but the fact that I have worked and am still working at Solis BioDyne creates a kind of inexplicably good feeling,” says Kaire. 
 
Kaire’s personal life is not far from her professional life in terms of excitement. Development-related work continues at home – gardening and experiments in the kitchen keep a sparkle in Kaire’s eyes and happiness in her heart. Baking and trying out new recipes and exciting flavor combinations is Kaire’s way of dealing with stress and has become a fun hobby to practice with her daughter. Her own home, which she started creating from scratch five years ago, is now mostly completed apart from the garden, which gives her plenty to do. 
“I design planting beds, plant plants and hope that they will grow properly. After work I drive home, change my lab gloves for gardening gloves and start working,” she laughs.
In creating her own home, Kaire was responsible for the paperwork, design, and invoices. She considers this experience a valuable, albeit time-consuming lesson. Kaire’s attention to detail, regularity, consistency, and desire to make a maximum effort was of great help. “I always try to follow a rule I’ve established for myself and others – if you do something, do it properly, otherwise there’s no point in doing it at all,” Kaire summarises her motto. This is also the mindset she passes on to all new developers who join Solis BioDyne. If Kaire has any time left over, she uses it to fulfill her duties as an aunt and babysit for her sister and brother, taking care of their five children. 
 

Asking Kaire what her advice would be for her 20-year-old self still standing in front of the university, waiting for her first lecture, she does not have to think long and the advice is so good that it is worth sharing with other young people.

“Know that your choices are right and everything will come to you when the time is right. You can’t control everything and every one and you can’t bear the weight of the world worrying about whether everything goes as well as possible. You need to trust life and fate and your life will turn out as well as it’s supposed to. In hindsight, you’ll see that the decision you made was the only one you could have made at the time and the other options were not right for you. Everything turns out well and you don’t need to regret anything”.
 

Do you want to know more about Kaire? Read her answers to our questions. 

  •  What are the three things you would bring to a desert island?
I would bring things, but above all, I’d bring my husband. He’ll keep us alive in the wilderness. I’d also bring sticks for making a fire and something efficient against insects. I can’t bear the itching from insect bites. This could be a woolen blanket because insects can’t get through it at night and I can’t sleep without a blanket. I’d also bring a metal pot, so I could boil water.
  • If you were a superhero, what would your superpowers be?
I’d like to have the superpower of being in several places at the same time. I’d like to have a Kaire-mode button that makes time move at a pace that’s suitable for me.
  • What are your three favorite books you would recommend to others?
Books are like songs: I don’t have any all-time favorites. I’ve liked different books at different periods in my life, but recently I’ve mostly read up on how to construct utility systems or gardening tips. I think fairy tales are the only favorites that have stuck with me over the years.
  • What’s the key to happiness?
I treasure human relationships the most – family, loved ones, and friends. If I have the right amount of everything in my life, my professional and private life are in balance and I get to enjoy some entertainment and experience good emotions every now and then, I’m very happy.
I’m also known for being very accident-prone, so every time something happens, I’m happy that it wasn’t worse.
  • What is one song you could listen to all day long?
I’ve never been so obsessed with a band to listen to their songs for days on end. I wasn’t a fan of anyone even when I was young. My fast-paced life currently only allows me to listen to songs on the radio when traveling between work and home. As you can’t go to parties very often these days, I don’t even know much about current songs. ????