The Hindu : National : "Ignoring basic science is dangerous"

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Thursday, Jan 04, 2007
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"Ignoring basic science is dangerous"

Priscilla Jebaraj

If you don't focus on basic science, there will be nothing to apply: Israeli Nobel laureate

— Photo: V. Ganesan

HONOURED: Manmohan Singh with Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover at the 94th Indian Science Congress in Chidambaram on Wednesday.

CHIDAMBARAM: "A scientist should not think of applied science. It's very dangerous," warns Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover.

In a public lecture at the Indian Science Congress being held here, the Israeli scientist said that India could not hope to succeed by focussing investment in applied sciences to the detriment of basic sciences. "Policy-makers should be very careful about limiting science to practicality," he said.

Fast track programmes and quick-fix solutions were not the way to build scientific success, he told The Hindu . "You cannot climb two steps at a time, skipping a step. It must go from bottom to top. You cannot jump to the top straightway. No way!" he said.

Prof. Ciechanover observed that the relevant criterion should not be whether a particular branch of research was solving problems, curing people or benefiting society. "The basic question should be: is it good science? If it's good science, it will lead to good results."

He cited his own Nobel-winning research, which ultimately led to the development of a drug to treat a fatal cancer, as a prototype of this method. In the mid-1970s, while still a graduate student, he worked with professors (and subsequently fellow Nobel laureates) Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose in a field that was largely ignored at the time. "Everyone talked about protein synthesis. No one cared about protein degradation," he said.

However, malfunctioning of the protein degradation system could cause serious diseases, including cancers such as multiple myeloma and uterine cervical tumours, as well as disorders that affected the brain, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's syndrome.

Drawing upon discoveries made about the complexity and specificity of the human genome, the three scientists found that a protein named ubiquitin was responsible for marking proteins for destruction. From their original research to the development of the PS-341 drug that cashed in on that knowledge to treat multiple myeloma took three long decades.

"We never thought of applied science. We were not thinking of medicines and drugs. We dealt with basic biological processes," said Prof. Ciechanover. Without basic research, there would have been no drug development. "If you don't focus on basic science, there will be nothing to apply."

He pointed to the American system of investing money in research varsities, giving them complete freedom, as a good example to follow. That is the reason the U.S. produced the largest number of Nobel laureates. "It's not about size; with all due respect, I must point out that the U.S. population is one-fourth of India's," he said.

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