'Challenging and Exciting Times to be in Science:' A Keynote Address in the 3rd UPV Graduate Research Conference

UPV IPO - Lyncen M. Fernandez

2010-01-26

With the theme, "Advancing into New Frontiers," the organizers of the 3rd Graduate Research Conference held on December 5, 2009 at the UPV Auditorium, Iloilo City, could not have chosen a more fitting keynote speaker than Dr. Lourdes J. Cruz.

A Highly Accomplished Scientist
An alumna of UP Diliman (BS in Chemistry), Dr. Cruz earned her MS and PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Iowa. Dr. Annabelle Del Norte-Campos introduced her as one who "uses her expertise in Chemistry to help understand several aspects in marine life that find relevance in our daily lives."

Dr. Campos was referring to Dr. Cruz’s research on conotoxins from the venom of the Conus shell, harmful algal blooms, poisons and other marine toxins, biodiversity conservation, and drug development – all for the purpose of harnessing science and technology to alleviate the poverty of indigenous communities and poor rural communities.

Like most highly respected and dedicated scientists, Dr. Cruz started her career at the bottom of the rank and worked her way to the top. The beginning was as a Research Aide at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños and then as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Iowa and a Research Associate at the Biology Department of Kansas State University. Returning to the Philippines, Dr. Cruz joined the faculty pool of UP Manila as Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry and was promoted to Associate Professor and, finally, Full Professor. During the last 20 years, she has been a Professor at the UP Diliman Marine Science Institute.

As an accomplished scientist, she really takes pride in having advised and graduated 7 PhDs, 16 MS and 42 BS students. As a researcher, she has a long list of 134 papers published on rice biochemistry, nutritional biochemistry, metabolism of pyridine nucleotides, biochemistry of prawns, harmful algal blooms, and conotoxins and Conus peptides.

Thus, it is not surprising that she has garnered an equally long list of awards, honors, and citations not only in the Philippines but also in the international arena. These are some of them: UP Scientist III, belonging among the first batch to receive the highest award in this rank; National Scientist through Presidential Proclamation No. 1167; Achievement Award in Chemistry from the National Research Council of the Philippines; Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology; Sven Brohult Award from the International Foundation for Science in Sweden; and Outstanding ASEAN Scientist and Technologist Award in Brunei.

In March 2010, Dr. Cruz will receive the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, one of the five laureates in Life Sciences to be awarded in Paris.

Exciting Times to be in Science
In her keynote address, Dr. Cruz said that "science is exciting." Through a Power Point presentation entitled "Challenging and Exciting Times to be in Science," she pointed out that science has gone a long way since the time that researchers had to do many of their laboratory work by hand.

"Today’s scientists are very fortunate to have very sensitive and powerful tools but they are faced with many challenges and problems," she emphasized. She also explained that no one works in a scientific vacuum – scientists need to collaborate with their colleagues to advance studies in their fields, and they should make their studies known so that others may learn from them also.

For example, she noted that, although it was chemist Ascanio Sobrero who first discovered the explosive chemical nitroglycerin in 1847 at the University of Turin, it was Alfred Nobel (of the Nobel Peace Prize), a fellow student, who took the formula to Sweden to experiment with safer ways to handle the substance. Although it was primarily used as dynamites, nitroglycerin is now also used as a heart medication especially to treat angina pectoris and to lower blood pressure.

Dr. Cruz pointed out that it took about 130 years before the mechanism of how this drug works was made clear.

Her lecture also highlighted some milestones in chemistry such as the discovery of nitric oxide and how this was also used in medicine. She also talked about the study for which she is noted for — cone snails – usually harvested for shell craft and shell collection but not used in traditional medicine. She explained that, although the more common species are eaten in fishing villages others which are notorious for their deadly sting are found in some areas of the country. Of this group are the Conus marine snails.

She and her colleagues have been trying to understand the biochemistry of toxic peptides derived from the venom the Conus snail. In their studies, they were able to characterize over 50 biologically active peptides from the snail's venom. Out of these studies, conotoxins were developed and are now being used for examining the activity of the human brain.

Some of the prospects in Conus peptide research include the following: as biochemical tools in neuroscience, µ-Conotoxin derivatives as reagent for analysis of paralytic shellfish toxins in harmful algal blooms, and application as drugs or as models for designing drugs.

Lastly, Dr. Cruz dwelt on the importance of "research as a creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge" because through research, "scientific knowledge is expanded."

Starting with the development of the proposal, data gathering, submission of the project report, she said that it is of the utmost importance that the studies should be published in peer-reviewed journals especially for the benefit of the international scientific community. To achieve this, she emphasized that access to scientific literature is extremely important.

When one conducts research, Dr. Cruz said, there must be a quality assessment to include an internal self-assessment; international/national peer review (as qualitative assessment); external endorsement to include expert review and stakeholder’s input on the value or impact of research on policy and practice; and research training.

She said that research training is an important part of the qualitative assessment of research and is a critical part of building any national innovation system.
Successful outcomes are a reflection of a positive and viable research culture.

In the physical and life sciences studies, Dr. Cruz said that quality indicators relating to impact are the following: number of research students, number of highly cited papers published, number of papers in high quality journals, number of highly cited patents, success rates in securing competitively allocated research grants, invitations received to act on government advisory boards, and value of research funding donations and funding contracts from industry.

In addition, measuring impact through knowledge diffusion includes the following: communication activities, capacity building activities, extension and education activities, standard setting activities, and industry output data.

Measuring impact through knowledge engagement means that there are participation in non-academic community and economic activities; presence of jointly owned and operated technology property infrastructure such as technology and research parks, buildings, equipment, instruments; University-organised events for community and regional economic and social benefit through workshops, seminars and the like; and university facilities available for non-academic purposes (e.g., libraries, cultural centres, sports grounds).

In conclusion, Dr. Cruz said that research should respond to the challenges that face the country today especially the problem of poverty, food security, infectious and other diseases, energy security, and climate change.

Whereas before, the research collaboration paradigm only featured a 3-helix model for sustainable development to include the academe, the government and the industry, she said that it must also include the community (see figure below) for "real empowerment can happen only if there is a program for sustainable community development. (With sources from Dr. Annabelle Del Norte-Campos)