L'Oréal Corporate Foundation and UNESCO held a grand ceremony for the "World's Outstanding Female Scientists Achievement Award" on June 23 in Paris, France. Hu Hailan, dean of the School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine at Zhejiang University in China, has become the 2022 laureate for his major discoveries in social and emotional neuroscience. He is currently one of the youngest laureates in the world.
Jean-Paul Agon (first from the right), Chairman of the Board of Directors of L'Oreal and Chairman of the L'Oreal Corporate Foundation, Audrey Azoulay (first from the left), Director General of UNESCO, and Hu Hailan (middle) Presenting the 2022 "World Outstanding Female Scientist Achievement Award"
What made Hu Hailan choose Brain Science ? How does she feel about scientific research? How to maintain vitality and efficiency? What advice does she have for women? TOPHER interviewed Hu Hailan online last week to understand the scientist’s views from a more diverse perspective.
Researching emotions is both an interest and a social responsibility
Hu Hailan’s interest in brain science began in college. During his postdoctoral period, he focused his research on emotions and social sciences, such as the impact of emotions on learning and memory, especially emotions. related topics. For scientists, a relatively unexplored direction has a natural attraction, and depression and other emotional diseases affect a large proportion of the world's population. The progress of research will bring them a lot of help, this is Hu Hailan Another important reason to choose to do depression-related research.
Professor Hu Hailan gave a special report at the French Academy of Sciences on June 21, local time.
Traditional drugs generally begin to slowly exert their effects after 6-8 weeks of administration. However, it was unexpectedly discovered clinically that ketamine can produce rapid anti-inflammatory effects at very low doses. It has an inhibitory effect, and the efficiency reaches 70% in patients with refractory depression (traditional drugs are ineffective). For patients with suicidal thoughts, ketamine can almost eliminate suicidal thoughts within an hour.
In 2018, Hu Hailan's team analyzed the mechanism of depression itself through research on ketamine. They found that ketamine works quickly because it can quickly block excessive discharge or overactivation of the "anti-reward center" that mediates negative emotions, thereby reducing , dopamine, , and serotonin, which are related to pleasure and reward feelings. Chemicals are controlled at safe levels. In the process, they also discovered two or three new channel proteins that could serve as potential molecular targets for antidepressant drugs.
There is a long way to go for clinical application
Hu Hailan mentioned, “Understanding how ketamine works quickly is a major basic science issue for brain scientists, because it can help us understand what is the real core mechanism of such a complex brain disease such as depression. At the same time, because ketamine has side effects, understanding the mechanism can help us design and find better drugs with fewer side effects and safer drugs.”
Hu Hailan and his team are also actively promoting the practical application of scientific research results. First, we are committed to modifying the molecular structure of ketamine to remove addiction and other side effects while retaining its antidepressant effect. The second is to expand the target. At present, the team has found that there is at least one molecular target that works in the same pathway as the target of ketamine, and it is predicted that blocking this target will also have an antidepressant effect. Targeting this target There are already drugs in clinical practice to treat other diseases. Two or three years ago, the team started working with clinicians to conduct clinical tests.
However, from basic research to clinical success, it generally takes 10-20 years to study and overcome drug safety, side effects, design and optimization of chemical groups and other related issues. But understanding "the mechanism of the disease is the first step in a long march of thousands of miles," Hu Hailan said.
When asked how to balance "multiple scientific research directions and specializations", Hu Hailan said that although scientific research will have many potential directions at the same time, for example, in their laboratory, they have research on the mechanisms of mood abnormalities and depression. and the brain mechanisms behind social competitive behavior. Although these directions seem "different", in fact they have many intersections and inspire each other.
does not want to label female scientists
Although she was awarded the grand prize to reward female scientists, Hu Hailan still hopes that the media will not label female researchers by gender. "Because the hypotheses they proposed, the experiments they designed and the conclusions they drew will not have a higher or lower accuracy or success rate because of their gender. In the face of scientific truth and facts, different genders are Equality. If one day the proportion of female scientists reaches 50% or higher, and people no longer subconsciously think that this is special and rare, this gender label will naturally disappear among Hu Hailan's students. The proportion of women is very high. She believes that every student, regardless of gender, has their own strengths and characteristics. Emphasizing or abstracting gender characteristics is also a labeling behavior in itself.
In the interview, Hu Hailan mentioned that what impressed her most was the communication with other female scientists. Due to the epidemic, this is the first time in three years that the " World Outstanding Female Scientist Achievement Award " has been awarded offline. It has accumulated 15 female scientists from the fields of life sciences, as well as computer science, chemistry, and engineering. These days, the most powerful minds from different fields come together to participate in activities, share and exchange their work with each other, and different research fields collide with sparks of scientific inspiration.
"Everyone enjoyed this scientific feast. Over the past few days, I have become very good friends with several of them, and we also talked about the possibility of scientific cooperation." Hu Hailan said.
Do what you like and are good at
When she first entered Peking University , Hu Hailan was initially recommended to the physics department, but she felt that the physics discipline was relatively mature, and there were still many unknowns worth exploring in the life sciences field, which gave her challenges and With her interest in exploration, and while in college, Hu Hailan read "Neurobiology - From Neurons to Brain" co-authored by Steve Kuffler and John Nichols, she realized that " Many signals are transmitted by electrical signals and can be observed, recorded, and changed. " thus further confirmed that his research interest is brain science.
After undergoing academic training at the doctoral level, she decided to challenge herself again when applying for a postdoc, shifting from the neural development of Drosophila melanogaster to "animal behavior and the brain mechanisms behind it." Although I needed to relearn the technology, the first stage went through a lot of trial and error. But she persisted.
Regarding interests, Hu Hailan also mentioned something: " Doing things that you are interested in and good at is the most efficient, least wasteful, most happy, and most likely to produce results from a personal and social perspective." Just as she herself has never felt bored in scientific research, "In our opinion, being a scientist is the best profession in the world. It is the state and society that fund you and allow you to do things that you are truly interested in."
Science also requires calmness
Hu Hailan will choose sports, travel, and enjoy food to relieve stress. Faced with the pressure of young people, she suggests that if young people face challenges or encounter setbacks, they might as well take a break and relax temporarily. A lot of things will resolve over time. While having lofty ideals, we should also break down the big goal of learning into small achievable goals and slowly achieve them.
Hu Hailan mentioned that in addition to interest, resilience is also an essential quality for scientific research. Scientists have to endure loneliness and frustration for a relatively long period of time. "Perseverance is not a metaphor but a reality in the field of scientific research.". They may spend more than 70% of their day facing failures or experimental failures. unsuccessful. Therefore, toughness training is also a basic skill for experimental scientists.
Although some media like to report on young people becoming famous, Hu Hailan believes that scientific work should especially avoid the mentality of eagerness for success and quick success. We must respect the laws and time of science. Whether there is a breakthrough right away or it takes a long time to wait, it is possible. Therefore, in addition to the label of "female scientist", she hopes that the media should also avoid labeling scientists as "young" Tags, "Scientific research is like a marathon without knowing where the end point is. You have to adjust your own pace., sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes with a companion, sometimes alone, I don't know. The charm of where the end is, but it always makes you full of hope. "
More people need to work hard for gender equality
"The world needs science, and science needs women" Countries around the world are committed to eliminating gender inequality in the academic field. , China has recently introduced a series of policies such as appropriately relaxing the age limit for female applicants in the young talent project and creating a fertility-friendly working environment.
Hu Hailan believes that these are welcome improvements. She also shared some policies that other countries can learn from. For example, some countries have stipulated a minimum proportion of women in recruitment, forums and fund applications. Many international conferences require that the number of female participants reaches 30-40%, etc.
In addition to policy support, a female-friendly scientific research environment requires the joint efforts of all parties, such as the cooperation and support from male scientists. In this award, male scientists including Fields Medal winners participated in the entire process from review to A series of events that award awards to express support for promoting gender equality in science.
Hu Hailan believes that "women are still a minority in top scientific fields. This phenomenon deserves our attention and efforts to improve it. The world of science needs diversity and tolerance, and the door of science is open to everyone - regardless of gender, nationality, race Or culture. Diversity can bring continuous power to innovation and performance. More women in the team will help create better results, richer creativity and more possibilities."
Text | Vickie
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