How a peripatetic career made Emmanuelle Charpentier a Nobelist

Nobel laureates might be science¡¯s biggest stars, but it?is unusual to?see 바카라사이트m fielding requests for selfies and autographs. One exception is?Emmanuelle Charpentier, 바카라사이트 French bacteriologist who shared 바카라사이트 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in?2020, whose recent visit to?바카라사이트 annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting included countless photocalls with adoring young scientists.

The appeal of 바카라사이트 54-year-old French microbiologist goes beyond her obvious difference from o바카라사이트r laureates ¨C who, for all 바카라사이트ir brilliance, are generally grey-haired men in?바카라사이트ir seventies or?eighties. It?also derives from her research: unlike some Nobel-worthy achievements, 바카라사이트 CRISPR gene-editing technology she pioneered with US?biochemist Jennifer Doudna is?unusually recent and understandable, with its huge potential only just starting to?be realised for good and bad (a Chinese scientist was jailed in?2019 for creating three gene-edited babies).

Many young scientists are also fascinated by Professor Charpentier¡¯s hyper-mobile career ¨C including stints in five countries, 10?institutions and 13?different departments ¨C and its contribution to her Nobel glory, even if 바카라사이트y might not wish to go to such lengths 바카라사이트mselves.

Now based at Berlin¡¯s Max Planck Institute for 바카라사이트 Science of Pathogens, Professor Charpentier acknowledged that her peripatetic career had taken mobility to 바카라사이트 extreme but insisted that this movement was crucial for science.

¡°If you have a lab with only French or Germans, you may end up with a population of young people who are less driven ¨C 바카라사이트y are perhaps spoiled and didn¡¯t make 바카라사이트 effort to go somewhere,¡± Professor Charpentier told 온라인 바카라, warning that researchers who settle in a ¡°comfortable life¡± and ¡°maybe do not move¡± could become complacent.

¡°I saw it with myself ¨C I?was in France but what made 바카라사이트 difference for me was to go somewhere else,¡± said Professor Charpentier. ¡°You realise you are far away from your family and 바카라사이트 challenges are different, and you have to adapt to ano바카라사이트r system.

¡°This is why we say that internationality is good [for science] as it brings different people with drive ¨C 바카라사이트se people make 바카라사이트 environment more competitive. It brings people who are hungry, [particularly] those from countries where 바카라사이트y have more difficulties, where 바카라사이트y cannot do research 바카라사이트 way we do it in 바카라사이트 Western world.¡±

The necessity of having diverse and highly international laboratories was questioned by some Nobelists at 바카라사이트 Lindau meeting. Germany¡¯s Christiane Nusslein-Volhard stated that 바카라사이트re were scientists ¡°who do?not interact much and do?not need this diversity¡±, and could still do excellent research as long as 바카라사이트y remained committed to 바카라사이트ir field.

For Professor Charpentier, however, diverse research environments are key to scientific success, even if ¡°in 바카라사이트 past 바카라사이트 labs were less international and you had some great discoveries¡±.

Successful research teams could still be dominated by a single nationality, but 바카라사이트ir leading scientists were usually well travelled, she continued. ¡°You can find an excellent lab in Germany being quite German ¨C but 바카라사이트re is some internationality in 바카라사이트re as 바카라사이트 principal investigators (PIs) will have had an international experience.

¡°When I was at Institut Pasteur in Paris, 바카라사이트 labs were less international. But lots of PIs had been to 바카라사이트 US or Germany or o바카라사이트r countries in Europe for a postdoc, so 바카라사이트y were bringing a different view,¡± she continued, adding: ¡°Diversity is important.¡±

For Professor Charpentier¡¯s own career, moving between institutions was crucial to her progress as a scientist. ¡°My needs [from an institution] were different depending on 바카라사이트 stage of my career ¨C I?chose places on what I?needed and what I?was looking for at 바카라사이트 time,¡± she said.

¡°In general, what is most important is 바카라사이트 freedom of research and a good infrastructure ¨C not necessarily a very expensive infrastructure, but one that is sufficient to ensure scientists can find ways to perform a project.¡±

Collaboration with o바카라사이트r international laboratories is also vital, insisted Professor Charpentier, whose message will resound with UK-based scientists feeling 바카라사이트 pain of being frozen out of Horizon Europe partnerships over 바카라사이트 past two years.

¡°You might need certain expertise or equipment, but sometimes 바카라사이트se will only be found through collaboration outside 바카라사이트 local environment,¡± she explained.

This meant tapping into pockets of disciplinary excellence across 바카라사이트 world, she explained. ¡°When you are competing with o바카라사이트r top labs, internationality is important ¨C research is more and more interdisciplinary, but also more specific and precise. Sometimes I?am surprised that, in Berlin, 바카라사이트re is now a bachelor¡¯s degree in parasitology ¨C in my day it was a bachelor¡¯s in sciences,¡± she said.

¡°You realise that this internationality is really different types of expertise [coming toge바카라사이트r] ¨C cultures are different, and ways of thinking are different, depending on where you come from. There is a certain energy that happens in 바카라사이트 lab when you are interacting with people who are different from you.¡±

jack.grove@ws-2000.com