Bring your genes
Konstantin Severinov: A unique genetic center will be created in Russia
Yuri Medvedev, Rossiyskaya Gazeta
Why was world science not ready for the coronavirus attack? Who will be the first to find ways to fight back? RG talks about this and many other things with Professor Konstantin Severinov, scientific director of the Biotechnological Campus project created by Rosneft Corporation.
– Looking at everything that is happening around the coronavirus, many people have the opinion that science was not ready for its appearance. He jumped out like the devil out of a snuffbox. In numerous TV shows, on the Internet, there are a variety of contradictory opinions about its nature, danger, and distribution. Your comment.
Konstantin Severinov: Those who think so do not fully understand the essence of scientific activity. This is not a restaurant where you place an order and a ready-made dish is immediately brought to you. Science gives you the best, perhaps the only method for understanding new, unknown phenomena, such as a pandemic, and gives you the opportunity to ultimately control them. But it takes time, there are no ready-made solutions. As for the specific situation with COVID-19, I would disagree with the statement that science was not ready. The epidemic was just gaining strength, and scientists have already identified the agent that causes this disease. Based on the RNA of the virus, tests have been developed to detect it. We are dealing with a new agent, so it takes time to study it, to understand how it interacts with its owner, with a person, how we respond to it. This requires serious research, numerous experiments. It's naive to think that you can manage in a month. We have an example – the AIDS virus, which was detected in 1984. It took four years for the first medicines to appear in 1988, they can only be called good very conditionally. And it was only at the beginning of this century that the disease became controlled.
Of course, in the context of a pandemic, when it is only a few months old, we do not know enough about the coronavirus. There is a scientific search going on all over the world, various hypotheses are put forward, almost always wrong, but gradually, by sorting through and discarding untenable ideas, light appears at the end of the tunnel. And this is a normal situation in science. There is no doubt that only science with its trial and error method will be able to defeat the epidemic or bring it under control.
– The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Sergeev, said that now the moment of truth has come for our science. She is expected to be able not only to find a way out of the pandemic situation, but also to predict what the future holds for us, how the world will change. In general, there is an opinion that the virus has pushed our science out of the long-standing shadow to the fore. As they say, there is no silver lining.
Konstantin Severinov: Yes, we have been hearing from many academics for many years that the only problem of our science is a lack of funding. Simply put, give us money and we will solve everything. But this is not the case. Money by itself does not solve anything. The organization of our science and its management remained largely Soviet. This is a rigid hierarchy from bottom to top, imperfect expertise, entrenched conflict of interests, rigid and often completely unnecessary administration of the work of scientists. All this interferes with the main thing – freedom of creativity, because scientific activity is creative activity. To change the situation, our science needs structural adjustments.
– The scale of the tasks set by the genetic program, according to the country's leadership, is comparable to those that solved the atomic and space projects. But our genetics, judging by publications and citations in leading scientific journals, seriously lags behind the leading countries. Its world rating is lower than that of domestic physics or mathematics. Are we capable of making that leap? And keep up with the world race?
Konstantin Severinov: To be honest, I'm afraid of the word "jerk". A big sudden leap in science is hardly achievable, the probability of jumping the wrong way and the wrong way is too high. The development of science is a gradual evolutionary process. Jumps are harmful, a clear strategic vision and forward movement in the chosen direction are more important. Will we be able to become leaders in the field of genetics? In principle, there is no reason why this is impossible for us. We are no worse than others. China's experience shows that due to very large monetary and, most importantly, human injections (they had a massive return to the country of fellow scientists from the USA and Europe) and the development of their own base for the production of reagents and equipment, it is possible to become a leader in 15-20 years, and in a number of positions to become the first power in the world in the sciences of life. If we are ready to strain for 15 years, then this is quite real. And if you lay down for 3-5 years, then there will only be a zilch, show-off and stormtrooper.
– Can we copy the successful experience of China?
Konstantin Severinov: I'm sure not, but you need to learn from them. Each country has its own specifics. As I have already said, our science needs a very serious structural restructuring.
Of course, it is extremely important to declare that genetics is a national priority, that a federal program for the development of genetics has been adopted. The question is how it will be implemented. What are the mechanisms? For example, three genetic centers have been created, which, as stated, should work at a global level. Will they be able to? Why are there doubts? The fact is that they are built on the foundation of the systems of academic and branch institutes and universities that have existed since Soviet times. If earlier they could not provide a world-class level of development, then why now the situation will suddenly change?
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation is currently developing a very interesting, in my opinion, program in the field of genetic research, where there are fundamentally new elements of the organization, there is an emphasis on scientific groups that are not associated with any heavyweights, such as, say, MSU, Pushchino and others. The leaders of these groups showed that they were able to do serious work in the Russian realities, found new forms of organizing scientific and educational activities. Perhaps these groups will become the sprouts of new scientific structures.
– Frankly speaking, the arrival of Rosneft in genetics was a big surprise. Many perceived this company as a financial resource that will give serious money to science, and scientists will finally have the opportunity to conduct research on a global level.
Konstantin Severinov: I see it completely differently. First of all, we are talking about the creation of fundamentally new organizational forms in our science. The corporation, of course, has experience in implementing large-scale infrastructure projects, has a resource, has an understanding of how to implement a genetic program. The corporation has its own scientific agenda, moreover, it will create fundamentally new opportunities for other players, and a significant part of our science will respond. After all, it's not just about creating a genomic center for genome sequencing, there will be many new initiatives.
In addition, it is very important that the corporation has extensive experience in building large–scale partnerships, practical work with investors - both in China and in Western markets. These connections and experience can and will need to be used for the development of genetic projects. I am not sure that there were similar skills and resources in the industry before the arrival of the corporation.
– You are the scientific director of the Biotechnological Campus project. It is stated that he will be engaged in genome sequencing to identify the predisposition of Russians to genetic diseases. What's new here? After all, many countries already have such centers. By the way, we have different companies offering to conduct full sequencing for money.
Konstantin Severinov: Yes, it is. In Russia there are several hundred motley devices for such work, they are scattered throughout the country and their capacities are used at best by 5-7 percent. The real exhaust from large investments is scanty. We do not have a National database of genomic data, which is also completely unacceptable.
If we manage to create a highly efficient genomic sequencing center that will be visible on the world map in two years, this will be a very significant result. He will pull a lot of other things with him. It should work like a factory, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ensuring such work will require solving many issues. Finally, we need to solve the problems with reagents, which have always been one of our bottlenecks, with the delivery of biological samples from all over the country, with the storage of the data obtained, their analysis, create conditions for doctors to use this data, as well as solve a number of related legislative issues. The center will become a backbone for scientists in many fields, it will deal not only with human genomics, but also, for example, microbiomes, metagenomics. To study what lives on us, inside us and around us. This is extremely important, for example, for the search for new antibiotics and bioactive substances. In short, there are many difficult tasks to be solved. I don't see how the current academic institutions can do something like this without external help. But, of course, we will work together with them, help them, and they will help us.
– What should change in our education so that it trains scientists capable of working at the world level?
Konstantin Severinov: Most of the universities today train people who cannot work at the world level. In three or four leading universities, the level of bachelor's education in the field of life sciences more or less corresponds to the world, but then in the master's degree, and especially in graduate school, where scientific work plays the main role, it falls. You yourself have noted that Russia does not occupy a leading position in genetics. And it would be strange if graduate students were qualitatively different from their supervisors. Of course, there are very good managers, good laboratories, but there are few of them. People who received training in these groups, and then created their own independent units, could become the centers of crystallization that I mentioned earlier, new forms of education and organization of science will be formed around them. But it takes time, we can't magically change the situation. I would like to believe that some of the graduates of our new program will become leaders of genetic research in the country in the future. By the way, Rosneft has signed an agreement with Moscow State University, and a new master's program "Genomics and Human Health" will start on the basis of the biofac in September. It is assumed that up to 10 students will be recruited to the master's program every year as part of the targeted training of specialists for our center and for the industry as a whole.
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