American Head of the St. Petersburg Center for Genomic Bioinformatics
Inspired by genomics
Dobzhansky at St. Petersburg State University, was held at a conference that launched the start of the work of his center. Steve became one of the winners of the second megagrant competition in 2011. At that time, it was not yet known that the Government of the Russian Federation had decided to finance the most successful projects of the first and second wave megagrants, and there was great uncertainty about how the created Laboratories would continue to develop. Natalia Demina was talking.
Why did you decide to participate in the Russian megagrant competition?My friend, biologist Andrey Kozlov, nominated me for this competition, because he believed that my background is wide enough and I have a great chance of winning.
And I, especially at that moment without hesitation, considered it an honor to take part in the competition. When he asked me to prepare a grant application, I spent several days thinking about what I would do if I had the opportunity to create a new laboratory without any restrictions that I had when I worked in the US civil service for so many years (the scientist in 1986-2011 was the director of the laboratory of genomic Diversity of the National Cancer Institute USA – " <url>").
When I found out that I was among the winners in October 2011, I had mixed feelings, since I had worked at the same place for 40 years. I understood that I would not be able to combine both project management and my work for the US government. However, I already had the opportunity to retire, and I love the challenges of fate, so this project seemed to me a good opportunity to use the experience of my work, my life, my friends, all those who agreed to come to St. Petersburg. It also seemed important to me to use the cultural and social potential of Russians who were prevented by political difficulties from achieving scientific success.
We all know the example of China, which has managed to take a leading role in the economy and science for 25 years. I think that Russia also has potential if the political will helps, and not hinders the development of science. As a small part of this process, I came to Russia to try to assemble a small team of researchers to teach genomics to young guys, and this is a big field of science, and to make new friends. There is potential for research in the field of human medicine, natural history, biodiversity conservation and others. I am delighted with how our work is progressing.
Have you encountered any bureaucratic and other obstacles that made it difficult for you to work on the project?Of course, yes.
But there are always ways to overcome them. To be honest, in the USA I faced much more complicated bureaucratic problems when studying the human genome and endangered species.
I have worked in different countries of the world, in Africa, India, Australia and China. And there were opportunities and problems everywhere. If you have patience, sooner or later you will find people who light up your ideas and who can help. And these people know how to overcome bureaucratic problems. So I hope that if I learn a little Russian, read books about the history of Russia, and listen to my colleagues, I will understand how to deal with difficulties in Russia.
But science is a terrific unifier, scientists in any country are interested in finding the truth, they don't know the answers, but they are looking for the truth. They want to move to uncharted lands where no one has been, and they do it, regardless of the political problems created by the authorities.
I have been collaborating with Alexey Kozlov since the late 1970s, despite all the turbulence. I have been working with my Chinese colleagues for 30 years, going through all the difficult years. I worked with my American colleagues, overcoming difficulties (laughs).
In general, science is a pleasant activity, because the people who do it have a big heart, come up with amazing ideas and they are open to new things. They want to help society, they want to change the world for the better and they are ready to start from scratch. And it doesn't matter what nationality a person is.
St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with an amazing history, the Hermitage and the Neva are pleasing to the eye. I am shocked by this building of twelve colleges, in which Peter the Great planned to place his ministries. So for me, it's all like an adventure into an unknown part of the world.
Where will your laboratory be located? How many people will work in it?St. Petersburg State University has allocated us space in the building of the Faculty of Chemistry on Vasilievsky Island.
This is a small area of 400-500 sq. m., we will have 15-20 young employees there within two years, which meets the conditions of the grant. But besides that, colleagues from other countries will come to us. We also plan to find additional resources. Russian megagranters have a lot of money, but they are not enough to establish a center of the same level as BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute, one of the world's leading centers for genome sequencing – "Polit.<url>") in China or the Sanger Institute in Cambridge (one of the leading centers in the Human Genome project – <url>).
I think there are resources in Russia that can be brought together to create a competitive research center in the field of genetics, perhaps with collaboration with someone else or maybe with the help of private investors and philanthropists. We know that there are billionaires in Russia. What do they want to spend the money on? Maybe someone will be interested in spending them on opening the "book of life", in order to understand why genomics is so fascinating?
Are you going to meet them and talk to them?I'll try.
Why did you decide to become a biologist? Are your parents scientists?No.
My father was a radio engineer, he created radio and TV stations, all that was the pride of science and technology of the XX century. My decision to become a scientist was third on my list of priorities. The first priority was to become a professional baseball player, the second – a singer and dancer on Broadway. But both paths required a rare quality, namely talent. And I was good at science and I said to myself: "This is mine." I didn't have the talent to become a professional athlete…
And why biology, and not, say, physics or mathematics?I think this is because, as a student, I admired the advancement of biology into the secrets of the gene, and what Feodosiy Dobzhansky and his contemporaries did.
Have you met Dobzhansky personally?Oh yes, he was one of my teachers!
Dobzhansky's work served as a source of inspiration for my entire generation of scientists. But by the time I entered graduate school, he was 60 (F. Dobzhansky is a Russian-American geneticist, one of the founders of the synthetic theory of evolution, born in 1900, went to study in the USA in 1927, died in 1975 – <url>). My professor was his student, I met him several times, we talked a lot. I really wanted to be his graduate student, but bureaucratic problems at the place where he worked did not allow me to do it. I graduated from a small college that wasn't well-known enough to be accepted into that graduate school. So when we met him later, he said to me, "Steve, you just had to write to me directly!" and he would have taken me.
That's why you chose his name for your center.I took his name because I wanted the center to bear the name of someone who St. Petersburg University could be proud of.
After all, he started his scientific research here. He moved to the USA, and he is a famous evolutionary biologist and population geneticist. In fact, he was the founding father of empirical and experimental population genetics. When he started his research, these areas were in their infancy, he developed them. These were areas of biology that other researchers didn't really respect at the time, they thought it was much more important to study the work of genes than to study flies that fly in deserts or around trees. But Dobzhansky was fascinated by the processes of evolution – and since then, population genetics, which he started, has developed into three areas in which I was lucky to work.
Firstly, it is only thanks to the tools that have been developed by population geneticists that discoveries in the field of the human genome have become possible. Research on the discovery of new genes, in the field of AIDS, cancer and other complex diseases, came out of the approaches of population genetics.
Secondly, it is a forensic medical examination, DNA identification for murder and rape charges. The jury demands DNA tests, and they are all based on statistical population genetics.
Thirdly, it is the conservation of biodiversity. A third of the species that exist on Earth are threatened with extinction. Understanding the history of these species is not always based, but often on genetic research. And these genetic studies are considered an important point of any program to preserve the population of an endangered species.
I was lucky to participate in all three areas of research, they all started with population genetics.
How will your cooperation with Pavel Pevsner and his laboratory go?Pavel came to genomics with experience in computer science.
I came to this from biology. But we have reached the same point in different ways – we are both delighted with the achievements and possibilities of genome sequencing. So we decided to form a formal partnership with Pavel Pevsner, who heads the Laboratory of Algorithmic Biology, and Andrey Kozlov, who heads the Biomedical Center. And the three of us will combine our expert capabilities and develop a joint research program that will be better than the one that any of us could come up with individually.
We hope that young scientists, postdocs, will be able to gain knowledge and experience in these three areas that will make them competitive and at the level of the best achievements of our fields of science.
Are you going to continue the work of the center after two years of the grant, why will you look for money for this? Is this your hope or any good reason to expect that you will find this money?This is my goal, and this is Pavel's goal and Andrey's goal.
We will work together to create a successful scientific center. Besides us, there is also Alexander Grafodatsky from Novosibirsk (from the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of Novosibirsk – "Polit.ru"), who made a report at the conference and his colleagues. And Olga Ufyrkina from Vladivostok (from the Institute of Biology and Soil Science, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences – " <url>"). We plan to cooperate with St. Petersburg geneticists such as Sergey Inge-Vechtomov. Many colleagues have already agreed to work with us in a single team in a virtual center that has different "houses". It so happened that I will work here, but we will all work for the same goal.
Will it be an informal center?Yes, an informal virtual center.
Are you going to live here in St. Petersburg for many months?According to the grant requirements, I have to be here at least 4 months a year.
And in fact, maybe I'll be here even more. At the same time, I have to visit the USA, although I fulfilled my promise and retired, but I have postdoctoral students who need my attention, I have invitations from Harvard, from the Smithsonian Institution, from Peking University in China, which I hope to use in the next few years. I will also try to attract colleagues to cooperate. Our laboratory is actually an international enterprise.
In the corridor, I talked to the conference participants after the report of the Chinese colleague Yang Huanming (Dr. Henry Yang) from BGI (Beijing Institute of Genomics). They said, "What are we going to do in 10 years? China will take all sequencing into its own hands." What do you think about the future role of American or European science in the light of the development of science in China? Are you afraid of the advance of Chinese science?
No, I am very happy and delighted with what the Chinese are doing. They are very open, they have taken leading roles in data-sharing. They are interested in making our world a better place because they are scientists. They are scientists first, and then the Chinese. They have mastered sequencing technology perfectly, and have already done a lot along the way.
But they were in the same position that Russian science is in now, 20 years ago. There were few of them, Henry Young was one of them, Henry was working in his garage with a sequencing machine that he could barely afford, and his business began to develop. I think what the Chinese have achieved is excellent, and the same can happen in Russia. You need support and openness (openness) from the government and the private sector and the academic community.
Did you participate in the meeting of mega-graduate scientists with President Medvedev? I was invited to this meeting, but I couldn't come.
But I would be glad to meet with the President of Russia and the Minister of Science. But I think the most important thing is to give talented young scientists the opportunity to engage in cutting–edge science, which I was lucky to do.
Do you communicate with other recipients of mega grants, do you exchange experiences? Yes, of course.
We discuss different things, usually they talk about what they don't like (laughs), and I prefer to talk about what I like. I am here and I see potential opportunities and I am glad that many of my friends have come here, and my other friends (I have a lot of them) are going to come to St. Petersburg. They want to look at our center and help him.
And the last question. How would you like to see your center in 10 years? I hope that it will be an independent center (self-standing), where Russian scientists and students will come to receive training in the field of genomics from Russian researchers and leading scientists.
And my photo will be on the wall – as one of those who created this center, but it will be led by a Russian who is suitable for this role.
So you are not going to remain the head of this center in 10 years?
I hope not. I want young people to do this. I will be happy to remain an employee of this center in 10 years, but I don't want to be its head. Because I have the genes of a scientist in my DNA, not an administrator, and right now I'm trying to put everything together to make it work.
However, I have learned one secret in my life – it doesn't take much time to teach young people everything I know. Maybe a few weeks or months. That's why they start doing business even better than I do. I have to be ready to start learning from them.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.08.2012