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Interview with Rose Leke: Urging Female Scientists to Shoot for the Moon

2016; Elsevier BV; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.pt.2015.12.008

1471-5007

Rose G. F. Leke,

Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research

Rose Gana Fomban Leke is an Emeritus Professor of Immunology and Parasitology of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaoundé I, and former director of the Biotechnology Centre of the same university, in Cameroon. She is chair of the Board of Directors of the National Medical Research Institute (IMPM). Rose has served, and still serves, on many committees for the WHO. She is Chair of the African Regional Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication, and a member of the Malaria Policy and Advisory Committee (MPAC). In 2015, she received the title of Honorary International Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, a designation that formally recognizes individuals who have made eminent contributions to a particular aspect of tropical medicine and hygiene. Her research interest is in parasitic infections, particularly pregnancy-associated malaria. Malaria infection during pregnancy is a significant public health problem, with substantial risks for the pregnant woman, her fetus, and the newborn child. In this short interview, Rose shares her motivations for pursuing an academic career, offers valuable tips for establishing meaningful mentor–mentee relationships, and highlights the value of communication in the scientific field. When I was about 6 years old, I was treated for a lung abscess. The memory of this experience, from diagnosis to surgery, kept me very inquisitive. From that moment, I decided I was going to focus on a track aligned with the medical sciences. I wanted to gain understanding of what I had gone through, and particularly of how I was treated. More importantly, I wanted to help other patients who might be faced with a similar health problem. My parents of blessed memory, my father in particular, were very supportive. My father was a school headmaster so he understood the importance of education, even for a girl child at that time. He encouraged me and ensured that I achieved my educational and professional goals. Whenever I had a chat with him, he always had one of those pieces of advice that would get me ‘fired up’. One of my favorite sayings of his, which was later refined by my oldest son, is ‘shoot for the moon, if you miss at least you will be among the stars’. When we began during the early 1990s, our research focus was on immunity to malaria in the population: adults, pregnant women, and newborns. We then decided to focus on pregnant women and newborns. Malaria during pregnancy is detrimental to the health of the mother and the growing fetus. We wanted to better understand the reasons for this, how to diagnose placental malaria, and how the presence of the malaria parasite within the placenta affected the immune development of newborns. All of these studies were conducted in partnership with my long-term collaborator, Diane Taylor, who was initially at Georgetown University but is now at the University of Hawaii. Besides conducting research, we placed great emphasis on training young scientists. Most of these young scientists have come to scientific maturity and are coming up with new research activities that have expanded the focus of our lab. Besides our traditional focus on immunity to malaria in pregnant women and newborns, we now have research activities in the areas of entomology, precisely the study of the malaria vector, causes of nonmalaria fevers, immune response in HIV-exposed but uninfected babies, and studies on drug-resistant tuberculosis. In our lab, the research and training program has been greatly supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH-NIAID), USA. Mentoring is a responsibility that demands time and commitment to ensure a mentee or young researcher achieves their professional and career goals. Most often, the problem is finding a good mentor. In a setting like mine, most established scientists who ought to be mentors are either overwhelmed with so many students to supervise or are assigned administrative functions. As such, it is difficult for most established scientists to really commit to mentoring. I believe that established scientists should recognize the importance of mentoring and actively work on developing these relationships. However, there is also importance in mentoring as a mentee-driven process. The mentee or young researcher must take ownership of the relationship, while the mentor or established scientist guides the young researcher. There is an opinion piece on the Forbes website by Glenn Llopis entitled ‘Ways to find mentors and make them matter’. Llopis mentions five things that mentees should do to make mentoring matter. I really like what he suggested and I will quickly paraphrase them. Mentees, you should:•Know your needs and be committed;•Invest and be responsible;•Be accountable to yourself and others;•Be selfless and create opportunities for your mentor; and•Make the relationship endless Every young researcher should read this opinion piece and try to set up a mentoring relationship based on these points. Setting up a lab is a very costly process. At a minimum, if you have lab space, you will need to purchase equipment for sample collection, processing, and storage. These pieces of equipment are not cheap. Generally, what I often suggest to young scientists is to not rush into setting up a lab. First identify an existing lab working in an area of interest to you. You could contact the lab requesting lab space or collaboration. Get some small funding to start with. In this way, you can easily get going with your research activities and, over time, as you grow professionally, you can then think of setting up a lab of your own. If you can not find an existing lab, an alternative way to go about setting up a lab is by applying for research grants. Some research grant programs provide funding for equipment and infrastructure. These programs award grants through a competitive process and only the most promising projects are funded. Unfortunately, the success rate of a grant proposal is very low (8–10%). The challenge here is for young scientists to be able to come up with a good research proposal that addresses a problem in their country or local settings. Young scientists should invest a lot of time learning how to write good and competitive research proposals. These proposals are characterized by having great potential, addressing a relevant local problem, and are backed up with the adequate study design. Networking or collaborating with scientists in more developed countries could also be a way to help set up a lab. Most of these collaborations start off through a small research project and, over time, they mushroom into larger projects with funds to purchase equipment and reagents and for infrastructure. I usually do not think of myself specifically as a female scientist but as a scientist just as any other. But I must say that, as a woman, I have had to take off time for maternity leave, to address endeavors for my home, and to attend to other family issues. Working in an environment such as research that is so unforgiving in terms of the unproductive and inefficient use of time, I have had to work extremely hard to compensate for times when I could not work. Planning and good management skills are necessary for a woman to keep the lab, the job, the home, and family all thriving as best as possible. Support from her family is also essential, and I thank God I have had that. To succeed in research, you have to communicate with, and relate to, people. People need to know and understand what you do. When people know what you do, they can easily approach you for collaboration. I love communicating. As such, I generally do not feel intimidated. I have never been shy to engage in a conversation or approach someone whose work I am interested in or with whom I would like to work. From my experience, most young researchers feel intimidated sometimes due to language issues, especially if they are French speaking. What I often do with my students is to train them on how to communicate their research work. This could be during a weekly lab meeting or when preparing for, and during, a conference. During conferences, I also introduce and encourage them to discuss their research interest with colleagues or peers. First let me highlight what some institutions and research grant programs, such as African Union (AU), WHO-TDR, IDRC-Canada, MasterCard, etc. are doing to support women in science. These institutions or programs have set up schemes specifically for women. They also ensure that women receive equitable representation in their other schemes. I hope that other institutions or research grant programs will follow accordingly (Figure 1). With the on-going advocacy to attract more women in the science fields, it is a prime time for female scientists to seize these opportunities and push as far as, or further than, our male counterparts. A radio or television broadcaster: I have been told I have the voice for that, and I enjoy getting important messages across. And, after speaking in advocacy for research to be prioritized at a meeting of Board Chairs and Director Generals, the DG of our National Broadcasting Establishment told me that he has a job for me whenever I need one.