At the age of 30, Serina Liu became the head of a research team at the Institute of Neuroscience, China Academy of Sciences.
It is the dream of young people doing scientific research to set up their own research groups. Serina Liu himself had never thought that this day would come so quickly.
In 2018, the news that the world’s first somatic cloned monkey was born in the Institute of Neurology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was released, which was one of the most remarkable developments in the global scientific community that year. Behind this major breakthrough is a young team of "Dr. Tu", and Liu is really one of them.
Serina Liu stood out from the crowd thanks to the innovative mechanism and system of Institute of Neurology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After years of follow-up interviews with the Institute of Neurology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the reporter found that the best scientific research soil is accumulating here. After 20 years of exploring the reform of scientific research system, this young research institute is moving towards the ideal of becoming the world’s top scientific research institution. Aiming at the forefront of the world’s science and technology, a lean and efficient research team is marching forward bravely, striving to lead and promote the upgrading of strategic industries with major breakthroughs in basic scientific research, and make contributions to building an innovative country and building a world science and technology power.
To grow up "lining", not talent "hat"
In 2010, Serina Liu was admitted to the Institute of Neurology of Chinese Academy of Sciences from Shandong Normal University to study for a master’s degree, and joined the macaque platform hosted by her tutor Sun Qiang. In 2016, Dr. Serina Liu graduated and published a research paper on genetically modified monkeys with autism in the top international academic magazine Nature. With his academic achievements during his doctoral period, there is no problem in applying for top foreign laboratories. Serina Liu finally decided to stay and continue his postdoctoral research in the institute.
Go to a good foreign laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher, and after publishing one or two good articles, apply to return to China to be a "thousand young people" — — This is the ideal growth track for most doctors in the field of life sciences after graduation. Moreover, with the "hat" of talents, the support of research funds, preferential policies for settling down and so on can follow. However, if you choose to go abroad, most of you can’t continue the project of "making cloned monkeys", and you can only do "short, flat and fast" projects in other directions.
The purpose of Serina Liu’s stay is to continue to work on making monkey models of brain diseases. He knows that this is the breakthrough direction of the key layout of the Institute of Neurology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and he is eager to join in it. One of the main reasons why most brain diseases can’t be effectively treated is that the current mouse model for developing drugs is far from that of humans, and most of the drugs developed are ineffective or have side effects when tested in humans. The production of disease model monkeys will bring unprecedented bright prospects for the mechanism research, intervention, diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases.
Muming Poo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Neurology, also convinced Serina Liu that only by breaking through the somatic cell cloning technology of nonhuman primates can we truly solve a series of shortcomings faced by macaques as experimental animals, establish a competitive advantage in brain science research in China and become an international leader.
"The domestic scientific research conditions are different, and the state pays more attention to personnel training. It is an inevitable trend to make more and more world-leading achievements in China." Serina Liu said, "In my opinion, no place can provide me with better opportunities and support than the nerve center."
"For a young scientific research talent who gives up studying abroad and is willing to stay at home to challenge major scientific problems, if the challenge fails, can we correctly evaluate his ability and let him still have a good development prospect?" When Sun Qiang led the team led by Serina Liu to experience numerous failures and achieved the first major breakthrough in the world’s somatic cloning of monkeys, Muming Poo raised a question worth pondering.
In July 2018, more than eight months after the birth of the cloned monkey, Serina Liu left the station early after only one year of postdoctoral work in the Institute of Neurology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was officially hired as a researcher and became a research team leader of the Institute of Neurology.
In the past year, Serina Liu has obtained the same research start-up funds and operation funds as other researchers in the institute. His laboratory is 130 square meters, equipped with five employees, and recruits one or two students every year. "This is enough for a research group that has just started." Serina Liu said that he intends to complete the optimization and efficiency improvement of somatic cloning monkey technology in three to five years, and at the same time, open some interesting topics step by step, such as the neurobiological mechanism of puberty initiation in primates.
Serina Liu’s growth trajectory is just one of the cases in which the nervous system does not take the usual path and innovates the system and mechanism.
Speak by skill, not by title.
"The research team leader recruited by the Institute of Neurology only looks at whether there is a good job, not whether there is experience in studying abroad." When Serina Liu hesitated to go abroad, Muming Poo’s words reassured him.
This is not an exception, but a performance-centered talent use and evaluation system that the Institute of Neurology has been insisting on for many years.
In 1998, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council made a major decision to build a national innovation system, and decided that the Chinese Academy of Sciences would launch a pilot project of knowledge innovation. As one of the important strategic arrangements of the pilot project, Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Institute of Neuroscience in November 1999, with Muming Poo as its director. At that time, the situation could be called "being ordered at a critical moment", and Muming Poo became the first foreign director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"Only by establishing a brand-new institute of modern scientific research system and using a new system and mechanism can we attract talents." At the beginning of its establishment, Muming Poo made up his mind to innovate the operation and management of scientific research institutes and vigorously reform the traditional scientific research evaluation and incentive system. His goal is to establish a top scientific research institution which is recognized by international peers and whose operation mode can be replicated and popularized in China.
Since 2003, the Institute of Neurology has taken the lead in introducing an international scientific research evaluation system among national scientific research institutes. Here, heroes don’t ask the source, talents don’t have the distinction of "foreign soil", and researchers should speak by skill, not by title. Even well-known experts should abide by the strict assessment requirements of the institute, and even without a diploma, they can be hired as deputy senior professional and technical posts. All work is to create a good ecological environment for scientific and technological innovation.
When receiving the olive branch from the nerve, Sun Qiang was still a little-known university lecturer. He graduated from Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities with no overseas study experience. At the age of 36, he had just been awarded the deputy senior title and experienced the failure of developing transgenic monkeys. He once considered whether to give up the research on nonhuman primates. At an academic conference, I learned about Sun Qiang’s practical foundation and technical level for many years. Muming Poo introduced him as a full-time senior engineer and entrusted him with the task of building a research platform for nonhuman primates.
To work here, Sun Qiang only made one condition to Muming Poo: to bring two veterinarians with only junior college education. Although their education is not high, they are a very important part of the scientific research team and need spirituality and concentration to achieve the ultimate.
At the beginning of 2018, the world’s first cloned monkey "Zhong Zhong" and "Hua Hua" cultivated by Sun Qiang’s team appeared in Cell magazine. This achievement, independently completed by scientists in China, is known as "a milestone breakthrough in the field of biotechnology in the world". The birth of the cloned monkey also proves that China has reached a stage from gradual and incremental innovation to a major breakthrough.
Are "Dr. Tu" and "Dr. Tu" not as good as those who have drunk "foreign ink"? Obviously not. Major breakthroughs, such as synthetic insulin, have been made by local scientists in China, most of whom are young scientists. In Muming Poo’s eyes, young people are the most innovative when they are 25 to 35 years old, but many excellent students go abroad as postdoctoral fellows, and devote the time that they can do experiments wholeheartedly to foreign laboratories in order to become "foreign talents" and get the talent "hat" smoothly.
"It seems that if you don’t go abroad, you can’t find a good job, and you don’t pay enough attention to the local talents you cultivate. This kind of employment orientation must be changed." Muming Poo regrets, "truly successful people don’t necessarily have to go abroad. It is very important to keep excellent doctoral and postdoctoral students in domestic first-class scientific research units and give them opportunities for innovation. There must be various mechanisms to encourage such talents. "
This is what the nerve has been trying to do. Under the leadership of Muming Poo, the Institute of Neurology has continuously deepened the reform of mechanism and system, and made in-depth and extensive explorations and attempts in the innovation of system and mechanism such as postgraduate training, team research to promote cross-integration, selection and promotion, and evaluation.
Yan Wang, secretary of the Party Committee of the Institute of Neurology, summed up the basic principles of talent work in the Institute of Neurology — — Provide a relatively stable scientific research environment, so that scientists can focus on research work; Carry out strict international assessment and implement a benign flow mechanism; Guide researchers to resist pressure and temptation, so that young scientists can work in a down-to-earth manner.
With these three rules, the breakthrough is ahead, and all it takes is time. Of course, it is very important to delve into major issues.
Stick to "big problems" instead of "short-term" topics.
"Big problem" is a key word deeply rooted in the culture of the Institute of Neurology.
It is precisely because of aiming at major scientific problems that the non-human primate research platform is built and perfected. In fact, since 2002, many research institutions in the world have started the research on somatic cell cloning of nonhuman primates. In 2010, Mitalipov, a scientist from Oregon Primate Research Center, led a team to successfully transplant cloned monkey embryos, but unfortunately, the success failed, and the embryos ended in abortion after 81 days of development.
However, due to the high investment cost and long output cycle of primate research, at first, many researchers who took mice as experimental objects inside and outside the Institute of Neurology were not optimistic about the investment in somatic cloned monkeys. In 2009, Muming Poo made a public opinion, and used the director’s fund layout to build a non-human primate research platform. That year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences tried out the only stable support policy for the whole hospital system, including the director’s fund. Since 2012, the non-human primate research platform project has been supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences. The background is that the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a national strategic scientific and technological force, launched the strategic pilot science and technology project (Class B) "Study on Brain Function Linkage Map" in this year. This special project is one of the first five Class B pilot projects initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is earlier than the start time of related "brain projects" in the United States, Japan and the European Union.
In 2014, the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched the "First Action" plan, which outlined the reform of the classification of research institutes and comprehensively promoted the reform of institutional mechanisms. In the same year, based on the Institute of Neurology, the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Brain Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences was established, becoming one of the first four centers for Excellence and innovation established by Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 2015, during the planning of "China Brain Project", scientists in China put forward a "one body and two wings" architecture, that is, the neural principle of brain cognition as the "main body" and the new means of diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and the new brain-like intelligent technology as the "two wings". The Chinese Academy of Sciences responded quickly and planned the coordinated development of brain science and brain-like research. The Center for Excellence and Innovation in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology, jointly planned by Institute of Neurology and Institute of Automation, was formally established in this year.
Major changes have spawned major outputs. Perhaps coincidentally, on November 27th, 2017, the 18th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute of Neurology, the somatic cloned monkey "Zhongzhong" was born. In Muming Poo’s view: "The reason for our success is that we saw that this problem can be solved and stuck to it, while most foreign laboratories gave up. Our success is due to the cohesion of a group of cutting-edge talents. "
"If you want to make a breakthrough scientific discovery, you must do important problems. I hope that the teachers and students of the Institute of Neurology have the confidence to do the best work, have the confidence and courage to do important problems, and eventually make breakthrough scientific discoveries. " Muming Poo is convinced. The "baton" of evaluation is also guiding everyone to explore innovative major scientific issues in line with the direction of national strategic development, rather than simply doing the topic of "fast, safe and easy to publish articles".
At the end of November every year, it is the "big gathering" of the Institute of Neurology. After the establishment of the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology, this tradition continued and became the "big gathering" of the whole center, and the performance evaluation of the year was carried out at the same time as academic exchanges. The evaluation results are the basis for researchers to apply for annual research funds and adjust performance allowances, and directly affect their funding and promotion opportunities.
The results of performance evaluation are divided into three grades: A, B and C. Members who have been rated as C for two consecutive years will be required to make rectification, and the annual performance allowance will be stopped during the rectification period; Members who have been rated as C for three consecutive years will be asked to withdraw; Members who have been rated as A for two consecutive years will be given priority in promotion assessment.
Yan Wang remembers that when it was first implemented, the impact was great. Some researchers can’t figure out: why did they get a C in the evaluation because they have sent so many papers with high impact factors? Because the evaluation criteria are different, the "paper-only" evaluation system has been broken since the end of 2015, focusing on the contribution to the team’s key projects, excluding the results unrelated to the team’s projects; There are significant innovative achievements in the key areas of the center layout; The investment in interdisciplinary communication includes multi-unit "squatting" teaching and research, and guiding dual-tutor graduate students.
What are good results and big results? What kind of achievement is a major breakthrough? "It is a major breakthrough to open up new scientific research fields and achieve milestones in the original scientific research fields. Looking around the world, the world’s top scientific research institutions have such achievements. Every scientific research field has well-known major unsolved problems, and it is the real leader in this field to continuously make major breakthroughs in one field. " Muming Poo said.
It is necessary to "explore freely" and "tackle key problems by team"
"It has been 5 years since I returned to China. Let’s see when I can get the first clinical approval." On July 8, Yang Hui, a researcher at the Institute of Neurology, wrote this sentence in a circle of friends, with a smiling expression of high morale.
In 2014, 29-year-old Yang Hui became the youngest researcher in the Institute of Neurology, and served as the leader of the primate disease model research group and doctoral supervisor. "90% of rare diseases are incurable. Can we do something with gene editing?" Yang Hui said that rare diseases are actually not rare. There are more than 7,000 rare diseases found in the world, with more than 300 million patients, more than cancer patients. The goal of him and his team is to develop more efficient and safer gene editing tools and build a research and development platform for treating rare diseases. "The first gene drug in China will not be too far away".
In the first half of this year, Yang Hui’s research group had a bumper harvest, and published two papers in Science and Nature. It was the first time in the world to confirm the off-target effect of single-base gene editing, and then further repaired the off-target "loophole" and established a new generation of single-base gene editing tools. The young researcher said frankly: "I’m still very uneasy, and I’m most worried about disappointing the students’ efforts day and night. Teacher Pu is still helping us to change articles over and over again during the Spring Festival holiday. Thank you for your efforts and hope that the results will benefit China patients as soon as possible. "
The birth of somatic cloned monkeys undoubtedly brought Yang Hui closer to her dream. Starting from 2018, a monthly seminar on cloned monkeys will be held. In addition to the main personnel of the primate platform, many research groups of the Institute of Neurology will participate, expecting to bear more innovative fruits in deep cross-integration. Sun Qiang said that on the basis of successfully constructing the world’s first batch of somaclonal monkeys with dysrhythmia, more efforts are being organized, and the efforts of the Institute, the Center of Excellence and even the whole country are gathered to develop a variety of disease model monkeys and tool monkeys developed by somaclonal monkey technology as soon as possible. "Many research groups in the Institute have cooperated with us."
In Muming Poo’s view, at present, breakthroughs in most fields require cooperative research, and establishing a concise and efficient research team is the key to a major breakthrough. "The biggest challenge in the biological science community at present is to establish an effective research team." The molecular mechanism and variety design of synthetic bovine insulin with full activity, high yield and high quality rice are not the results of individual combat. To make breakthrough work on major issues requires the team spirit of sincere cooperation, hard work and perseverance of each member, and puts the task and goal of team research above personal gains and losses.
This is also the first-class scientific research culture that Muming Poo has always advocated, and the first-class scientific research institutions should have. "Looking for the development direction of the frontier of science must be free to explore. However, with the development of science and technology, it is difficult to make a real breakthrough only by individual’s free exploration. Therefore, it is an inevitable trend for young and middle-aged scientists to abandon the limitations of fame and fortune, cooperate with each other and jointly answer important scientific questions. "
At the beginning of its establishment, the Institute of Neurology insisted on joint team research as the core way to solve major problems, and actively explored the establishment of scientific research systems and mechanisms that take into account collective goals and personal interests, demand orientation and free exploration. Here, most of the personal interests of scientific researchers are respected, most of their personal expertise is found, and valuable and distinctive frontier research fields are basically covered.
Muming Poo has a profound understanding of the training methods of Chinese and Western scientists, and he hopes to promote the establishment of a new scientific culture in the nerve center and cultivate intellectuals who inherit China’s traditional values. In his view, Chinese researchers should have the spirit of selflessness, and more importantly, they should have the feeling of "worrying about the world first, and enjoying the world later" of China traditional intellectuals, so as to serve the country with scientific and technological achievements.
"Please don’t buy things you don’t need in the near future. I am very seriously opposed to the idea of spending all the unspent funds before the end of the year. If we can’t use up the money, it means that we don’t need it. We must return it to the Chinese Academy of Sciences or other sources. This is the correct attitude of a scientist with social responsibility. " Muming Poo once sent an email to the research group leader in the institute.
In his view, it is a basic social conscience that researchers should use research funds cautiously. The level of scientists is expressed by ideas and innovation, not by the latest models of instruments they have. The wind of "grabbing" resources once appeared in academic circles is a waste to society. The practice of the Institute of Neurology also proves this point. The rapid development depends not on the input of resources, but on the ideal of building a world-class scientific research institution and persisting in promoting the reform of the system and mechanism.
At the beginning of his tenure as director of the Institute of Neurology, Muming Poo once put down his grandiloquence: "I have never been so confident in successfully establishing a world-class research institute on the land of China. This will be a research institute that will be recorded in the history of science in China. As the first director of the Institute of Neurology, I am determined to do my best to turn the Institute of Neurology into a fertile soil where the seeds of scientific invention will sprout, take root and blossom. "
This year, 71-year-old Muming Poo will soon witness the 20th year of this research institute, which has devoted countless efforts to it, and complete another major turn. In the near future, it will continue to complete its mission and responsibility under the name of "Center for Excellence in Innovation of Brain Science and Intelligent Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences".
Innovation, innovation, and innovation.
Fusion, fusion, re-fusion.
This is the result of the times and the general trend. At present, the research of brain science and intelligent technology is facing unprecedented development opportunities. After 20 years of intensive cultivation, a research team led by outstanding scientists and with outstanding young scientists as the main body has become increasingly mature and has become a main force in the research of brain science and intelligent technology in China. After 20 years of reform and innovation, the rivers crossed, the bridges crossed and the roads traversed have been integrated into the great process of China’s scientific and technological innovation to overcome difficulties and become a cornerstone to consolidate the innovation-driven development strategy. (Reporter Yan Weiqi)
Image source: the idea of the worm
