Editor’s note:
When I was growing up we were asked to write an essay on what we thought the future would look like. As budding young ladies we painted a dreamy picture with women Presidents, CEOs, and do-it-all mommies. This is 2018- a time when the #metoo movement co-exists with women still being paid 80 cents to the dollar (as compared to men). Are we progressing? Maybe. There are still several subconscious biases and challenges to overcome when it comes to that extra X chromosome. Do women in STEM then give up trying to reform societal rules and overcoming obstacles? Never!
Keep reading to know inspiring stories about great women who faced and braced their dreams against all such odds!
Historically the face of science has been that of white men in lab coats. Although it is unfair to downplay the various contributions of these men, it is a bigger disservice to ignore the contributions of other scientists- women and those of color. Living in the time of the #metoo movement, talking about shattering glass ceilings, asking for equal pay, discussing women empowerment, it is important to go back in history and revisit some of the important contributions made by women.
Conducting scientific research is hard. Why? Because nature is complicated and the process of deciphering it is unsurprisingly arduous. The women discussed in this article have been chosen because of the additional challenges they had to face in their quest for scientific answers. If the process of scientific discovery isn’t exacting enough, these women also had to make their breakthroughs surrounded by naysayers. The following article is, therefore, an attempt to shed light on two astounding journeys of women Nobel Laureates who were investigating biological processes. Hopefully this article will inspire fellow scientists, male and female alike.
Decoding the structure of the cellular translator- the ribosome
Ribosomes are crucial for the synthesis of proteins. To this end, they are proficient in translating cellular codes, akin to translating Chinese to English at the rate of 5-50 characters per second. This process is unending and is essential to cellular life. Given their importance, the scientific community was interested in visualizing these components inside the cell. However, given their odd shapes, it was a difficult task to accomplish considering the logistics of crystallography.
This research problem was investigated by the lab of Ada Yonath, who is now known to be a titan in the field of crystallography. This method is used to study structures that are characterized by a repeating pattern over a three-dimensional space. However, crystallography is more complicated when the structures in question are large, unstable, and asymmetrical, such as ribosomes. Therefore, the scientific community was convinced that ribosomes would be impossible to visualize through crystallography.
Yonath’s training was in understanding the structures of large biological molecules. Naturally when the time came to set up her own lab, she continued the same theme. When Yonath decided to grapple with the use of crystallography to study ribosomes, she was met with skepticism and disbelief. What followed was a stellar career of 20 years, where she elucidated critical aspects of ribosomes- their structure, activity, and mode of action of antibiotics that target ribosomes.
Where did it all begin? Yonath was born into a poor family in Jerusalem. Her childhood was marked by her father’s illness, living in cramped quarters, and doing odd jobs to support her family after her father’s death. Nonetheless, with the support of her mother, she pursued her passion for investigating scientific questions. After obtaining her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, she spent time training in Carnegie Mellon University and MIT. Yonath then returned to the Weizmann Institute to establish the only protein crystallography lab in Israel in nearly a decade. Her work and her physical appearance has given rise to a new saying in Israel- “Curly hair means a head full of ribosomes”.
Mining a 1000-year-old text for the cure to malaria
Youyou was the only daughter in a family of five children. Her family valued education, allowing her to study in the best regional schools. Her interest in medical research was spurred by the incidence of contracting tuberculosis at the age of 16. To this end, she pursued pharmacy with the goal of seeking new medicines. Due to her expertise in using modern scientific approaches to study traditional Chinese herbs, she was recruited by the Chinese government in 1967 during the Vietnam war. The research goal was to combat a form of chloroquine-resistant malaria, which was the prevalent cause of death among Chinese soldiers. Chloroquine enters the red blood cells, where the malarial parasites reside, and causes a buildup of toxins that ultimately destroy the parasites. Unfortunately, the use of this compound in mass drug administrations may have led to resistant parasites, which were able to pump the drug out and therefore remain unaffected. Youyou scoured through traditional Chinese literature and found 2000 recipes within three months. One of the compounds, which was extracted from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), proved to be effective after Youyou had established the extraction procedure. In the interest of saving time, she also tested the compound on herself. The mechanism of action of the compound, known as artemisinin, remains unknown but is thought to bind to a large number of targets in the malarial parasite.
Youyou’s dedication to her work was remarkable. In addition to dealing with the demands of her project, she had to contend with upheaval in her personal life. Her husband was sent away to training camp by the government and forcing Youyou to send her daughters away to live with family and friends. Her success story is even more intriguing considering that her name, Youyou, was adapted from the sentence “Deer bleat “youyou” while they are eating wild Hao”. Hao is the Chinese name for Artemisia, the group of plants that are used as the source for artemisinin.
The obstacles that Yonath and Youyou faced were unfortunately not unique. There are several women Nobel laureates who overcame the challenges of their gender, their childhood struggles, and learning disabilities to become renowned scientists in their field: Carol Grieder used the skills that helped her battle dyslexia to uncover the processes involved in cellular aging; Marie Curie made important breakthroughs in the absence of a proper lab to become the first person to win the Nobel prize in two different fields; Gerty Cori was refused research positions and was offered a meager pay and was able to pursue her work only because of her husband, one of many examples where men supported women in their scientific pursuits. Of course there are several other women scientists who were rebuffed by the Nobel prize committee but nevertheless made significant contributions to their field: Annie Cannon who observed and classified more than 200,000 stars over 40 years, Rosalind Franklin who played a pivotal role in discovering the structure of DNA, and Lise Meitner who discovered how nuclear fission works.
It has long been stated that women do not have enough role models in the STEM fields. This could not be further from the truth. Furthermore, it is heartening to see that the representation of women in life sciences has gone up from 38% in 1990 to 47% in 2017. Hopefully the same trajectory continues in the other STEM fields where women continue to be underrepresented. After all, they have quite a vibrant past to live up to!
Author:
Ananya Sen is currently a graduate student in Microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When she’s not studying oxidative stress, she is busy pursuing her passion for scientific writing. Currently she contributes articles to ASM, ScienceSeeker, and her own blog where she discusses the history of various scientific processes. She is an ardent reader and will happily discuss anything from Jane Austen to Gillian Flynn. Her graduation goals include covering all the national parks in the U.S. with her sidekick Oscar, a Schnauzer/Pomeranian mix.
Editor & Blog design:
Dolonchapa is a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU Langone working on Infectious disease with a focus on cell wall metabolism to identify new targets for therapeutic attacks by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common opportunistic human pathogen. She also serves as the Co-Chair of National Postdoctoral Association’s Outreach Committee. She believes in the power of technical storytelling as an effective tool for scientific outreach and looks forward to practicing this art as an editor at Club SciWri. Follow her on Twitter.
Illustrator:
Vinita is a post-doc at Stanford University, USA and had been a PhD student at International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS, Göttingen, Germany). Her research area focuses on cellular and molecular neuroscience. Other than enjoying ‘being a scientist’, she has also been working on science education. Presenting science in an easy and fun way is what she loves doing through her platform “Fuzzy Synapse”. She is a fun, enthusiastic and curious person, passionate about traveling, loves celebrations and bringing smiles around her. Follow her work as Fuzzy Synapse at Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
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