The Russian invasion of Ukraine: a humanitarian tragedy and a tragedy for science
2022; Springer Nature; Volume: 23; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.15252/embr.202255164
ISSN1469-3178
Autores Tópico(s)Economic Sanctions and International Relations
ResumoOpinion11 April 2022Open Access The Russian invasion of Ukraine: a humanitarian tragedy and a tragedy for science Halyna R Shcherbata Corresponding Author Halyna R Shcherbata [email protected] Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany Search for more papers by this author Halyna R Shcherbata Corresponding Author Halyna R Shcherbata [email protected] Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany Search for more papers by this author Author Information Halyna R Shcherbata *,1 1Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] EMBO Reports (2022)23:e55164https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202255164 PDFDownload PDF of article text and main figures. ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InMendeleyWechatReddit Figures & Info In the eyes of the civilized world, Russia has already lost the war: politically, it is becoming ever more isolated; economically as the sanctions take an enormous toll; militarily as the losses of the Russian army mount. In contrast, the courage of Ukrainian people fighting for their independence has united the Western world that is providing enormous support for those Ukrainians who fight the Russian invasion and those who have fled their war-torn country. Once this war is over, Ukraine will have to heal the wounds of war, reunite families, restore its economy, reestablish infrastructure, and rebuild science and education. Russia will have to restore its dignity and overcome its self-inflicted isolation. Europe’s unity in condemning Russia’s war of aggression and showing its solidarity with Ukraine has been impressive. This includes not the least welcoming and accommodating millions of refugees. We, the scientific community in Europe, have a moral obligation to help Ukrainian students and colleagues by providing safe space to study and to continue their research. First, European research organizations and funding agencies should develop strategies to support them in the years to come. Second, efforts by EMBO, research funders, universities, and research institutions to support Ukrainian students and scientists are necessary. As a first priority, dedicated and unbureaucratic short-term scholarship and grant programs are required to accommodate Ukrainian scientists; such programs have been already initiated by many organizations, for example, by EMBO, Volkswagen Stiftung, Max Planck Society, and the ERC among others. These help Ukrainian scientists to stay connected to research and become integrated into the European research landscape. In the long-term and after the war, this aid should be complemented by funding for research centers of excellence in Ukraine, to which scientists could then return. Even though the priority must be to help Ukrainians, we must also think of students and colleagues in Russia who oppose the war and are affected by the sanctions. As the Iron Curtain closes again, we have to think differently about our ongoing and future collaborations. Although freezing most, if not all, research collaborations with official Russian organizations is justified, it would be a mistake to extend these sanctions to all scientists and students. There is already an exodus of Russian and Belarusian scholars, which will only accelerate in the next months and years, and accepting scientists who ask for political asylum will be beneficial for Europe. The fraction of Russian society in open opposition to the war is, unfortunately, smaller than that officially in support of it. At the beginning of the war, a number of Russian scientists published an open letter on the internet, in which they condemn this war (https://t-invariant.org/2022/02/we-are-against-war/). They clearly state that "The responsibility for unleashing a new war in Europe lies entirely with Russia. There is no rational justification for this war”, and “demand an immediate halt to all military operations directed against Ukraine". At the same time, other prominent Russian science and education officials signed the “Statement of the Russian Union of University Rectors (Provosts)”, which expressed unwavering support for Russia, its president and its Army and their goal to “to achieve demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine and thus to defend ourselves from the ever-growing military threat” (https://www.rsr-online.ru/news/2022-god/obrashchenie-rossiyskogo-soyuza-rektorov1/). Inevitably, Russian scientists must decide themselves how to live and continue their scientific work under the increasingly tight surveillance of the Kremlin regime. History is repeating itself. Not long ago, during the Cold War, Soviet scientists were largely isolated from the international research community and worked in government-controlled research. In some fields, no one knew what they were working on or where. However, even in those dark times, courageous individuals such as Andrei Sakharov spoke out against the regime and tried to educate the next generation about the importance of free will. Many Soviet geneticists had been arrested under Stalin’s regime of terror and as a result of Lysenkoism and were executed or sent to the Gulag or had to emigrate, such as Nikolaj Timofeev-Resovskij, one of the great geneticists of his time and an opponent of communism. As a result of sending dissident scientists to Siberia, great educational institutions were created in the region, which trained many famous scientists. History tells us that it is impossible to kill free will and the search for truth. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major humanitarian tragedy and a tragedy for science at many levels. Our hope is that the European science community, policymakers, and funders will be prepared to continue and expand support for our colleagues from Ukraine and eventually help to rebuild the bridges with Russian science that have been torn down. This commentary has been endorsed and signed by the EMBO Young Investigators and former Young Investigators listed below. Acknowledgement I wish to thank all colleagues who commented on the draft of this manuscript and those who endorsed it. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Disclosure and competing interests statement The author declares that she has no conflict of interest. All signatories are current and former EMBO Young Investigators and endorse the statements in this article. Igor Adameyko Karolinska Institut, Stockholm, Sweden Bungo Akiyoshi University of Oxford, United Kingdom Leila Akkari Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands Panagiotis Alexiou Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Hilary Ashe Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom Michalis Averof Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), France Katarzyna Bandyra University of Warsaw, Poland Cyril Barinka Institute of Biotechnology AS CR, Prague, Czech Republic Frédéric Berger Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria Vitezslav Bryja Institute of Experimental Biology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Janusz Bujnicki International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland Björn Burmann University Gothenburg, Sweden Andrew Carter MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom Pedro Carvalho Sir William Dunn School of Pathology University of Oxford, United Kingdom Ayse Koca Caydasi Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey Hsu-Wen Chao Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan Jeffrey Chao Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland Alan Cheung University of Bristol, United Kingdom Tim Clausen Research Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, Austria Maria Luisa Cochella The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA Francisco Cubillos Santiago de Chile, University, Chile Uri Ben-David Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Sebastian Deindl Uppsala University, Sweden Pierre-Marc Delaux Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales, Castanet-Tolosan, France Christophe Dessimoz University, Lausanne, Switzerland Maria Dominguez Institute of Neuroscience, CSIC - University Miguel Hernandez, Alicante, Spain Anne Donaldson Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom Peter Draber BIOCEV, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Vestec, Czech Republic Xiaoqi Feng John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom Luisa Figueiredo Institute of Molecular Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal Reto Gassmann Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Porto, Portugal Kinga Kamieniarz-Gdula Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland Roger Geiger Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona, Switzerland Niko Geldner University of Lausanne, Switzerland Holger Gerhardt Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany Daniel Wolfram Gerlich Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna, Austria Jesus Gil MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College London, United Kingdom Sebastian Glatt Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland Edgar Gomes Institute of Molecular Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal Pierre Gönczy Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland Maria Gorna University of Warsaw, Poland Mina Gouti Max-Delbrück-Centrum, Berlin, Germany Jerome Gros Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Anja Groth Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), University of Copenhagen, Denmark Annika Guse Centre for Organismal Studies, Heidelberg, Germany Ricardo Henriques Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal Eva Hoffmann Center for Chromosome Stability, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Thorsten Hoppe CECAD at the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany Yen-Ping Hsueh Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Pablo Huertas Andalusian Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine Centre (CABIMER), Seville, Spain Matteo Iannacone IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy Alvaro Rada-Iglesias Institue of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria (IBBTEC)University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain Axel Innis Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie (IECB), Pessac, France Nicola Iovino MPI für Immunbiologie und Epigenetik, Freiburg, Germany Carsten Janke Institut Curie, France Ralf Jansen Interfaculty Institute for Biochemistry, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany Sebastian Jessberger HiFo / Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland Martin Jinek University of Zurich, Switzerland Simon Bekker-Jensen University, Copenhagen, Denmark Nicole Joller University of Zurich, Switzerland Luca Jovine Department of Biosciences and Nutrition & Center forBiosciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Jan Philipp Junker Max-Delbrück-Centrum, Berlin, Germany Anna Karnkowska University, Warsaw, Poland Zuzana Keckesova Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry AS CR, Prague, Czech Republic René Ketting Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Mainz, Germany Bruno Klaholz Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC), University of Strasbourg, Illkirch, France Jürgen Knoblich Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna, Austria Taco Kooij Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen, Netherlands Romain Koszul Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Claudine Kraft Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universität Freiburg, Germany Alena Krejci Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic Lumir Krejci National Centre for Biomolecular Research (NCBR), Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Arnold Kristjuhan Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Estonia Yogesh Kulathu MRC Protein Phosphorylation & Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee, United Kingdom Edmund Kunji MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom Karim Labib MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee, United Kingdom Thomas Lecuit Developmental Biology Institute of Marseilles - Luminy (IBDML), France Gaëlle Legube Center for Integrative Biology in Toulouse, Paul Sabatier University, France Suewei Lin Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Ming-Jung Liu Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Malcolm Logan Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, King’s College London, United Kingdom Massimo Lopes University of Zurich, Switzerland Jan Löwe Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom Martijn Luijsterburg University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands Taija Makinen Uppsala University, Sweden Sandrine Etienne-Manneville Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Miguel Manzanares Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), Madrid, Spain Jean-Christophe Marine Center for Biology of Disease, Laboratory for Molecular Cancer Biology, VIB & KU Leuven, Belgium Sascha Martens Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Austria Elvira Mass Universität Bonn, Germany Olivier Mathieu Clermont Université, Aubière, France Ivan Matic Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany Joao Matos Max Perutz Laboratories, Vienna, Austria Nicholas McGranahan University College London, United Kingdom Hind Medyouf Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt, Germany Patrick Meraldi University of Geneva, Switzerland Marco Milán ICREA & Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Barcelona, Spain Eric Miska Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute,University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Nuria Montserrat Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC), Barcelona, Spain Nuno Barbosa-Morais Institute of Molecular Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal Antonin Morillon Institut Curie, Paris, France Rafal Mostowy Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland Patrick Müller University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany Miratul Muqit University of Dundee, United Kigdom Poul Nissen Centre for Structural Biology, Aarhus University, Denmark Ellen Nollen European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing, University of Groningen, Netherlands Marcin Nowotny International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland John O'Neill MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kigdom Tamer Önder Koc University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey Elin Org University of Tartu, Estonia Nurhan Özlü Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey Bjørn Panyella Pedersen Aarhus University, Denmark Vladimir Pena London, The Institute of Cancer Research, United Kingdom Camilo Perez Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland Antoine Peters Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), Basel, Switzerland Clemens Plaschka IMP, Vienna, Austria Pavel Plevka CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Hendrik Poeck Technische Universität, München, , Germany Sophie Polo Université Diderot (Paris 7), Paris, France Simona Polo IFOM - The FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan, Italy Magdalini Polymenidou University of Zurich, Switzerland Freddy Radtke Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland Markus Ralser Institute of Biochemistry Charité, Berlin, Germany & MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom Jan Rehwinkel John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom Maria Rescigno European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan, Italy Katerina Rohlenova Prague, Institute of Biotechnology, Czech Republic Guadalupe Sabio Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain Ana Jesus Garcia Saez University of Cologne, CECAD Research Center, Germany Iris Salecker Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Paris, France Peter Sarkies University of Oxford, United Kingdom Frédéric Saudou Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience, France Timothy Saunders Centre for Mechanochemical Cell Biology, Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, Warwick Medical School, Coventry, United Kingdom Orlando D. Schärer IBS Center for Genomic Integrity, Ulsan, South Korea Arp Schnittger Biozentrum Klein Flottbek, University of Hamburg, Germnay Frank Schnorrer Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IBDM, Turing Centre for Living Systems, Marseille, France Maya Schuldiner Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Schraga Schwartz Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Martin Schwarzer Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Claus Maria Instituto de Medicina Molecular Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal Hayley Sharpe The Babraham Institute, United Kingdom Halyna Shcherbata Institute of Cell Biochemistry, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany Eric So Department of Haematological Medicine, King's College London, United Kingdom Victor Sourjik Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany Anne Spang Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland Irina Stancheva Institute of Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Bas van Steensel Department of Gene Regulation, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands Richard Stefl CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Yonatan Stelzer Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Julian Stingele Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany Katja Sträßer Institute for Biochemistry, University of Giessen, Germany Kvido Strisovsky Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry ASCR, Prague, Czech Republic Joanna Sulkowska University, Warsaw, Poland Grzegorz Sumara Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland Karolina Szczepanowska International Institute Molecular Mechanisms & Machines PAS, Warsaw, Poland Luca Tamagnone Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, University of Torino Medical School, Italy Meng How Tan Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Nicolas Tapon Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, United Kingdom Nicholas M. 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Taylor University, Copenhagen, Denmark Sven Van Teeffelen Université de Montréal, Canada Maria Teresa Teixeira Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Eukaryotes, IBPC, Paris, France Aurelio Teleman German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany Pascal Therond Institute Valrose Biology, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France Pavel Tolar University College London, United Kingdom Isheng Jason Tsai Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Helle Ulrich Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Mainz, Germany Stepanka Vanacova Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Henrique Veiga-Fernandes Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Lisboa, Portugal Marc Veldhoen Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal Louis Vermeulen Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands Uwe Vinkemeier University of Nottingham Medical School, United Kingdom Helen Walden MRC Protein Phosphorylation & Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee, United Kingdom Michal Wandel Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, PAS, Warsaw, Poland Julie Welburn Wellcome Trust Centre, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Ervin Welker Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary Gerhard Wingender Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey Thomas Wollert Institute Pasteur, Membrane Biochemistry and Transport, Centre François Jacob, Paris, France Hyun Youk University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA Christoph Zechner MPI für molekulare Zellbiologie und Genetik, Dresden, Germany Philip Zegerman Wellcome Trust / Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Alena Ziková Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre AS CR, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic Piotr Ziolkowski Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland David Zwicker MPI für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen, Germany Previous ArticleNext Article Read MoreAbout the coverClose modalView large imageVolume 23,Issue 5,04 May 2022This month's cover highlights the article Melanopsin elevates locomotor activity during the wake state of the diurnal zebrafish by Marcus Dekens, Kristin Tessmar-Raible and colleagues, showing that the light activated non-visual photoreceptor Melanopsin (Opn4) represses genes encoding melatonin synthesis enzymes in the pineal and thereby regulates daytime swimming velocity in the diurnal zebrafish. The cover image shows a closeup of a sagittal section through the wild-type mature zebrafish brain, with the epiphysis cerebri or pineal gland (red) on top of the telencephalon (red: dopa decarboxylase mRNA; blue: nuclei; green: actin). The pineal gland produces melatonin (floating molecule), the indicator of darkness. (Confocal image by Marcus Dekens and Marko Pende, Vienna BioCenter. Copyright: Marcus Dekens.) Volume 23Issue 54 May 2022In this issue RelatedDetailsLoading ...
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