The Surging News reporter Yang Baobao
On the evening of June 23, local time, the award ceremony of the "World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award" was held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.
Hu Hailan, executive director of the Center for Neuroscience at Zhejiang University in China, received the World's Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award for her major discoveries in social and emotional neuroscience. She is currently one of the youngest laureates in the world and the 7th Chinese winner since the award was established. Hu Hailan's pioneering research has revolutionized people's cognition of mental health, cracked the "code" of emotions, and provided a theoretical basis for innovative therapies and new drug development for depression.
The other four 2022 award-winning scientists are Cuban infectious disease scientist Maria Guzmán, Hungarian-American biochemist Kataline Corrico, Rwandan public health specialist Agnès Binaguajo and Spanish embryologist Angela Nieto. In addition, UNESCO invited 10 winners from 2020 and 2021 to present the awards. Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, no offline award ceremonies have been held in these two years.
"The brain is arguably the most complex system in the universe. Billions of nerve cells are interconnected, forming trillions of nodes that magically run, producing functions such as thinking, emotion, and learning. Although the mystery of the cranial nerve has always been an "unsolved mystery", Hu Hailan still believes that "one day in the future, based on our understanding and cognition of the neural mechanism behind mental illness, human beings will be able to create a cure solution that will free patients with mental illness from suffering." ”
Group photo of the winning female scientists
A major breakthrough has been made in the study of the mechanisms of depression
In modern society, depression has become one of the most serious mental illnesses affecting human life, and the pandemic of new crown pneumonia has become the fuse that ignites the crisis of public mental health. According to The Lancet, nearly 30% of the world's population suffers from depression. At present, breakthrough research in the field of depression is even more precious.
Traditional antidepressants generally have the disadvantages of slow onset of action, wide targets, and large side effects. More than a decade ago, clinicians led by John Crystal at Yale Graduate School unexpectedly discovered that the surgical anesthetic ketamine is effective for depression. At a very low dose, ketamine can have a rapid antidepressant effect in patients. Traditional medicines generally do not begin to slowly exert efficacy until 6-8 weeks after administration, while ketamine works within a day or even a few hours, and in patients with refractory depression (ineffective with traditional drugs) the efficiency reaches 70%. In patients with suicidal ideation, ketamine can almost eliminate suicidal ideation within an hour.
Know it later to know why it is so. After the clinical discovery, for more than a decade, basic research scientists have been working to study how ketamine works quickly.
"This is a very big fundamental science question for us because it helps us understand what the real core mechanism of depression, such a complex brain disease, is." 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. Hu Hailan said.
In 2018, Hu Hailan's team made a major breakthrough in research in this direction. In the study, Hu's team found that there is a small nuclear mass in the brain that plays a very large role in mediating negative emotions, and they call it the "anti-reward center" in the brain. When there is abnormal activity within the nuclear cluster, or when it enters a state of high discharge, it can overly inhibit the brain's "reward center." The "reward center" is the source of the nuclear pleasure and heart pleasure associated with dopamine and serotonin, as well as the chemicals associated with reward feelings. This may be the reason why people enter a depressed state.
Hu Hailan's team also found that ketamine can work quickly because it can quickly block the excessive discharge or excessive activation state of the "anti-reward center", thus acting as a switch. In the process, they also identified two or three new, different molecular targets that could serve as targets for potential antidepressants.
At the same time as the breakthrough in basic research, the team also began to do translational applied research. At present, the team has two research directions related to applications, one is to cooperate with other laboratories at home and abroad, hoping to modify the molecular structure of ketamine, retain its antidepressant effect, and remove its addiction and other side effects. The second is to expand the target. The team has found that at least one molecular target and the target of ketamine act in the same pathway. "We predict that after blocking this target, there will also be antidepressant effects, for this target there are now drugs to treat other diseases, we have begun to cooperate with the clinical team two or three years ago, with the old drug new ideas to treat depression, these work is in progress." Hu Hailan said.
It generally takes 10-20 years from breakthroughs in basic research to successful clinical drug research. Drug safety, side effects, chemical group design optimization, and the collection of large amounts of clinical trial data take time. Hu Hailan hopes that everyone will remain optimistic, but not in a hurry, "understanding the mechanism of the disease, that is, taking the first step in the long march." ”
Jean-Paul Agon, President of L'Oréal's Board of Directors and President of L'Oréal Corporate Foundation (right), and AUDrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO (left), present Hu Hailan (center) with the 2022 World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award
The most important quality of a scientist is "resilience"
In Hangzhou No. 2 Middle School, Hu Hailan is recognized as a bully in the eyes of his classmates and teachers, and the physics teacher and biology teacher of the middle school guide Hu Hailan's interest in scientific research. But she was interested in brain science, still in college. She was initially sent to the physics department of Peking University, but she felt that the physics department was relatively mature, and "there are still many unknowns in the field of life sciences that are worth exploring." So she chose to turn to creatures.
In the Biology Department of Peking University, Hu Hailan initially majored in biochemistry and molecular biology, which is a popular direction that the best students in the Biology Department want to enter.
However, during college, Hu Hailan was deeply attracted by the book "Neurobiology - From Neurons to Brain" co-authored by Steve Kouvler and John Nichols, and decided to choose brain science as the main direction of future research.
"I realized that a lot of the signals in the brain are electrically transmitted, that they can be observed, recorded, and altered. This realization made me suddenly enlightened that there were so many directions to explore. This allowed Hu Hailan to find a career that he was willing to fight for all his life. In her opinion, brain science is full of unknowns, and this is the research that really excites her.
When applying for graduate school admission, Hu Hailan resolutely gave up the original direction and chose to turn to the direction of neuroscience and brain science. After reading her Ph.D., her research interests were studying the neurodevelopment of Fruit flies. The research was done smoothly, but Hu Hailan also realized that the field was very mature. Scientists, including her mentor, have asked and answered the most important questions in the field. If she continues to stay in this field, although comfortable, it is difficult to have a big breakthrough.
So when applying for a postdoctoral fellowship, Hu Hailan resolutely made a second "career change" and chose an area of more interest to him: animal behavior and the brain mechanisms behind it. This shift was a very big challenge for her, a lot of technology needs to be re-learned, and the first year or two is almost spent in a process of trial and error and groping. But she persevered.
"In this case, persistence is the embodiment of resilience, that is, to pursue what you are interested in, and to endure loneliness and setbacks for a long period of time." Hu Hailan said.
Frontier science is a field full of unknowns, in which scientists who explore are always in constant failure and trial and error. Have there ever been a time during this long process when it was boring and difficult to stick to?
Hu Hailan's answer was "never": "I'm sorry I never felt that scientific research is a boring thing, and my scientist friends around me don't seem to complain that scientific research is boring." In our opinion, scientists are the best profession in the world, and it's the state and society that fund you to do what you're really interested in. ”
In Hu Hailan's view, devoting himself to science must be out of interest, finding something that is willing to fight for a lifetime, and all persistence is a kind of happiness. And the most important quality of engaging in science, she believes is resilience, "indomitable in the field of scientific research is not a metaphor but a reality." She mentioned the advice given by a friend's mentor, "If 50 percent of the trials have the expected results, it should be abandoned because it's not innovative enough." ”
"We spend more than 70 percent of our days facing failure or temporary unsuccessful experiments. Therefore, the exercise of toughness is also the basic skill of experimental scientists. ”
On June 21, local time, Hu Hailan made a special report at the French Academy of Sciences.
In the face of scientific truth, different genders are equal
After completing her Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies in the United States, Hu Hailan returned to China to begin her independent research career. In 2015, she won the "China Young Women Scientist Award" jointly established by L'Oréal China, the All-China Women's Federation, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Chinese National Committee for UNESCO, which is also an extension of the "World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award" in China. In 2022, she won the World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award.
In 1998, UNESCO and the L'Oréal Group of France jointly established the World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award, which annually selects five outstanding women scientists from different regions of the world to recognize their pioneering work in solving important scientific problems and support their scientific research. The award is the only one in the world today that awards women in science on a global scale.
During the award in Paris, Hu Hailan was most impressed by the exchanges with other female scientists. Affected by the epidemic, this is the first offline award of the "World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award" in three years, accumulating 15 female scientists in three sessions, including from the field of life sciences and the strongest brains from the fields of computer science, chemistry and engineering.
For several days, these female scientists often participate in various activities together on a daily basis. There is also a special link at the French Academy of Sciences, where everyone shares and communicates their work with everyone, spanning a wide range, from the new crown vaccine to the black hole, from embryonic development to data encryption...
"Everyone enjoys this feast of science. In the past few days, I have become very good friends with some of them, and I have also talked about the possibility of scientific cooperation. Hu Hailan felt that this was the biggest gain of her trip.
Although she has won many awards related to "female scientists", Hu Hailan laughed and said, "In the face of the truth and facts of science, different genders are equal." Like other women scientists, she does not emphasize her femininity in her daily life, "because the hypotheses we propose, the experiments we design, and the conclusions we draw don't have a higher or lower accuracy or success rate because we're women." ”
But she did notice that in the media, her female identity has always been emphasized, "which reflects the fact that female scientists are a minority." ”
"If one day the proportion of female scientists reaches 50% or more, and people no longer subconsciously think that this kind of special and rare time, I believe that this gender label will naturally disappear." Hu Hailan said.
Among her students, the proportion of women is very high, reaching 70%-80% at most. Hu Hailan believes that each student has its own characteristics and advantages, in research and teaching, she will treat every student equally, "if you must emphasize or extract such a gender characteristic, it is also a labeling behavior." ”
Today, the world is beginning to focus on eliminating gender inequalities in science. At the level of China's national policy, a series of policies have also been introduced in recent years to favor female scientists, such as the appropriate relaxation of age restrictions for female applicants in the Young Talent Program, and the fertility-friendly working environment.
"These are particularly welcome developments." Hu Hailan believes that in addition, the practices of some countries in the world are also worth learning, including the recruitment settings of independent scientific research positions in many countries, the minimum proportion of women in fund applications and forum reports, and many international conferences require female participants to reach 30-40% and so on.
In addition, the support of male scientists for female scientists and the cooperation between male and female scientists are also very important. The jury of the World Outstanding Women Scientist Achievement Award included many male scientists, including the winner of the Fields Medal, who also participated in the event.
"The world needs science, and science needs women". Hu Hailanxiang, "With the faster promotion and better implementation of policies, we will see more outstanding female scientists and outstanding women blooming in the scientific community." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Yan Zhang