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Herawati Sudoyo: champion of basic science in Indonesia
Perspectives
Profile Herawati Sudoyo: champion of basic science in Indonesia Many scientists would envy Herawati Sudoyo’s work environment. The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, one of Indonesia’s shining scientific stars, where Sudoyo is Deputy Director, is a lush oasis in the midst of sweltering, traffic-clogged Jakarta. The white Dutch colonial building that houses the institute was refurbished recently under Sudoyo’s guidance, to offer its scientists gleaming, hightech laboratories and offices designed to have tropical greenery on all sides. It isn’t just a glossy image. The institute consistently produces cutting-edge, world-class research, but Sudoyo is all too aware of how rare this is in Indonesia—the country’s scientific output is lower than many of its southeast Asian neighbours. Sudoyo has worked at the Eijkman Institute for most of her career, ever since its launch in the early 1990s. After a medical degree at the University of Indonesia, Sudoyo travelled to Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, to study for a PhD in mitochondrial disease in a laboratory run by noted Indonesian scientist Sangkot Marzuki, now Director of the Eijkman Institute. Indonesia’s then Minister of Science and Technology and later President, B J Habibie, who Sudoyo describes as “a revolutionary, forwardthinking individual”, asked Marzuki to set up a world-class biology institute in Jakarta. Marzuki immediately asked Sudoyo to join him, and the two have been instrumental in securing the Eijkman Institute’s high reputation. Sudoyo has frequently had to defend her institute’s pursuit of high-tech research in a country that struggles to provide basic health care. From the start, “Eijkman seemed too futuristic and we were always asked what vaccines or diagnostics we were producing, but that was not our mission”, she explains. This is a dilemma that all developing countries wrestle with, and support for open-ended, blue-skies science is becoming increasingly hard to defend in this era of depleted research budgets. Sudoyo insists, however, that “while research directed at the immediate needs of the poor is clearly a high priority, investing in good-quality research for its own sake is important”. Indeed, over the years, Sudoyo and her colleagues at the Eijkman Institute have made valuable findings in population genetics. For instance, they are identifying geographical variations in genetic mutations that cause thalassaemia to help with prenatal diagnosis, and in a recent collaboration with French and US anthropologists, Sudoyo’s team discovered that a small group of Indonesian women were the ethnic ancestors of the Malagasy people from the east coast of Africa. One of the Eijkman Institute’s most compelling contributions came after the bombing of the Australian www.thelancet.com Vol 380 September 1, 2012
Embassy in Jakarta in 2004. The scale of the explosion meant that only charred human fragments remained for identification, and it was because Sudoyo’s group were able to run mitochondrial DNA from the remains through a database they had on the genetic diversity of people in Indonesia and neighbouring countries that the police force could identify the bomber in just 2 weeks. “The government was surprised and impressed by how quickly we did this”, she says. Indeed, the government was impressed enough that it increased the institute’s funding, and agreed to the development of a forensic DNA facility that is now working on such issues as child trafficking and tracking endangered wildlife species. Sudoyo’s staunch belief in the value of basic science is one that is becoming harder to defend in a country that is pushing for applied science for development. Yet one of the most striking things about Sudoyo is that she’s not bound by conventional thinking. Right from the start of her career, she pursued strands of science that might seem obscure for a researcher living in a developing country. Mitochondrial disease, for instance, is rare and was unheard of in Indonesia when Sudoyo began her doctoral thesis on it in the 1980s, but, she explains, “when you are learning techniques, it’s not so much the disease that’s important, but the scientific approaches you learn and the skill of asking the right questions”. Many scientists in developing countries struggle to return home after stints abroad because they often return to research environments that are light-years behind what they had adapted to overseas. Sudoyo says that Indonesia in the early 1990s “wasn’t advanced enough” to put her expertise to good use, and to this day has kept a strong research link with Monash University. “That was important for my career, my publications list, and for furthering my scientific knowledge”, she says. Sudoyo is also a powerful role model for women in science and has been given awards for her part in championing gender equity in science, such as the 2009 Kartini Award for inspirational women in science, named after Raden A Kartini, a prominent Indonesian pioneer of women’s rights. Sudoyo is aware that for some Indonesian women motherhood might threaten a promising career. “When you have a child, you are expected to significantly slow down your research activity. But research needs a commitment”, she says. She would like to see an era in which Indonesian women can give free reign to their scientific ambitions. After all, Sudoyo says, “if you wanted to slow down, you wouldn’t choose science”.
Priya Shetty 797
Profile Herawati Sudoyo: champion of basic science in Indonesia Many scientists would envy Herawati Sudoyo’s work environment. The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, one of Indonesia’s shining scientific stars, where Sudoyo is Deputy Director, is a lush oasis in the midst of sweltering, traffic-clogged Jakarta. The white Dutch colonial building that houses the institute was refurbished recently under Sudoyo’s guidance, to offer its scientists gleaming, hightech laboratories and offices designed to have tropical greenery on all sides. It isn’t just a glossy image. The institute consistently produces cutting-edge, world-class research, but Sudoyo is all too aware of how rare this is in Indonesia—the country’s scientific output is lower than many of its southeast Asian neighbours. Sudoyo has worked at the Eijkman Institute for most of her career, ever since its launch in the early 1990s. After a medical degree at the University of Indonesia, Sudoyo travelled to Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, to study for a PhD in mitochondrial disease in a laboratory run by noted Indonesian scientist Sangkot Marzuki, now Director of the Eijkman Institute. Indonesia’s then Minister of Science and Technology and later President, B J Habibie, who Sudoyo describes as “a revolutionary, forwardthinking individual”, asked Marzuki to set up a world-class biology institute in Jakarta. Marzuki immediately asked Sudoyo to join him, and the two have been instrumental in securing the Eijkman Institute’s high reputation. Sudoyo has frequently had to defend her institute’s pursuit of high-tech research in a country that struggles to provide basic health care. From the start, “Eijkman seemed too futuristic and we were always asked what vaccines or diagnostics we were producing, but that was not our mission”, she explains. This is a dilemma that all developing countries wrestle with, and support for open-ended, blue-skies science is becoming increasingly hard to defend in this era of depleted research budgets. Sudoyo insists, however, that “while research directed at the immediate needs of the poor is clearly a high priority, investing in good-quality research for its own sake is important”. Indeed, over the years, Sudoyo and her colleagues at the Eijkman Institute have made valuable findings in population genetics. For instance, they are identifying geographical variations in genetic mutations that cause thalassaemia to help with prenatal diagnosis, and in a recent collaboration with French and US anthropologists, Sudoyo’s team discovered that a small group of Indonesian women were the ethnic ancestors of the Malagasy people from the east coast of Africa. One of the Eijkman Institute’s most compelling contributions came after the bombing of the Australian www.thelancet.com Vol 380 September 1, 2012
Embassy in Jakarta in 2004. The scale of the explosion meant that only charred human fragments remained for identification, and it was because Sudoyo’s group were able to run mitochondrial DNA from the remains through a database they had on the genetic diversity of people in Indonesia and neighbouring countries that the police force could identify the bomber in just 2 weeks. “The government was surprised and impressed by how quickly we did this”, she says. Indeed, the government was impressed enough that it increased the institute’s funding, and agreed to the development of a forensic DNA facility that is now working on such issues as child trafficking and tracking endangered wildlife species. Sudoyo’s staunch belief in the value of basic science is one that is becoming harder to defend in a country that is pushing for applied science for development. Yet one of the most striking things about Sudoyo is that she’s not bound by conventional thinking. Right from the start of her career, she pursued strands of science that might seem obscure for a researcher living in a developing country. Mitochondrial disease, for instance, is rare and was unheard of in Indonesia when Sudoyo began her doctoral thesis on it in the 1980s, but, she explains, “when you are learning techniques, it’s not so much the disease that’s important, but the scientific approaches you learn and the skill of asking the right questions”. Many scientists in developing countries struggle to return home after stints abroad because they often return to research environments that are light-years behind what they had adapted to overseas. Sudoyo says that Indonesia in the early 1990s “wasn’t advanced enough” to put her expertise to good use, and to this day has kept a strong research link with Monash University. “That was important for my career, my publications list, and for furthering my scientific knowledge”, she says. Sudoyo is also a powerful role model for women in science and has been given awards for her part in championing gender equity in science, such as the 2009 Kartini Award for inspirational women in science, named after Raden A Kartini, a prominent Indonesian pioneer of women’s rights. Sudoyo is aware that for some Indonesian women motherhood might threaten a promising career. “When you have a child, you are expected to significantly slow down your research activity. But research needs a commitment”, she says. She would like to see an era in which Indonesian women can give free reign to their scientific ambitions. After all, Sudoyo says, “if you wanted to slow down, you wouldn’t choose science”.
Priya Shetty 797