In this last of five Nature Videos from this year's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on Physiology and Medicine Nobel laureate Oliver Smithies talks with Diego Bohórquez from Duke University (USA) about being hungry for knowledge.

Oliver Smithies, 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Diego Bohórquez, Duke University, USA

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Camelia-Lucia Cimpianu is trying to decide between a career as a researcher or a practising doctor. In this film, she seeks advice from Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad who faced the same dilemma as a medical student in the 1960s. Murad chose the bench, and he subsequently discovered that a gas called nitric oxide (NO) acts as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system. It turns out that NO plays a role in many diseases — and possibly in the head trauma cases that Camelia studies.

Ferid Murad, 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Camelia-Lucia Cimpianu, University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany

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In the next video of the Nature video team in cooperation with the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Nobel laureate Eddi Fischer talks to a young researcher from China, Tong Qing, about ways to combat cancer.

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This year's Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting involves over 550 young scientists from around the world. We've been talking to some of the attendees about their research, their opinions about scientific issues and their experience of the meeting. After meeting Armen Kherlopian at a Science Online NYC meet-up at Rockefeller University and discovering he was also attending Lindau, I asked him some questions about his scientific career to date via email. 

Short Bio
Armen is a Biophysics PhD Candidate at the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. Previously, he completed his BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Columbia University. As a computational scientist, Armen works on the interface of high performance computing and biological applications. When he gets a chance, he likes to sail, fence and horseback ride.

Can you explain your research area to a non-specialist in three sentences?
I use computer models to study the electrical activity of the heart, which is mediated by the interplay of ion channels, pumps, transporters, and exchangers. Disruption of this interplay can lead to disease and death, as the heart typically needs a normal rhythm to adequately pump blood to the rest of the body. Using an optimization strategy based on evolutionary biology, I study how underlying ionic changes can account for differences in cardiac function and dysfunction.

For a further introduction, my labmate, Byron Roberts, has a great post on cardiac modeling.

Do you think that what you're working on has a practical application or is it more conceptual, and does this matter to you?
I believe that the search and attainment of knowledge is valuable in and of itself. Personally though, I have a preference for working on problems with direct applications. Cardiac arrhythmia, the abnormal beating of the heart, leads to millions of cases of morbidity and mortality around the world each year. Insights on underlying arrhythmia mechanisms can lead to improved and new treatments resulting in improved quality of life and lives saved. For my research I use computer models to shed light on cellular processes not readily measured, let alone measured simultaneously. This approach works in concert with experiments, as theory informs experimental design and the resultant data can be used to make better models that have predictive value, with the goal of improving patient outcomes.

At this year’s Lindau meeting, for the first time, there is a theme. The theme is Global Health, which is essentially the application of medical science and mathematics to disease in populations. I am intrigued to see how the theme will be interwoven throughout the meeting and I myself have interest and some experience in Global Health. Several years ago I partnered with a medical student, Lisa Kebejian (my fiancée and now a pediatric resident), on a humanitarian aid project rendering operational a medical and dental clinic in rural Armenia for 800 orphans. Currently, it seems that Global Health is coming more to the forefront of international dialogue, propelled by efforts from world governments and organizations such as the Gates Foundation.

What's your average day at work like? Meetings? Lab work? Reviewing papers? Teaching?
As an upper level graduate student I have the good fortune of being able to focus exclusively on my research. My coursework requirements are complete and I don’t have too many meetings to attend. Thus, I am able to effectively channel my passion for science into my research project.

What's been the biggest challenge in your research career so far?
The scientific literature is immense and is growing rapidly. I do my best to keep aware of new developments by being an avid reader and reaching out to peers and thought leaders.

Do you think you've had any lucky breaks? Any key experiments that worked first time or an important bit of advice that you were given or a timely grant/publication?
I have been very fortunate to have an advisor, Dr. David Christini, who has fostered my natural sense of curiosity, while also providing practical guidance on how to keep making progress with my research. In addition, my DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and related supercomputing allocation have allowed me to both attain advanced computing training while enabling me to conduct modeling studies on a timescale and level of detail not possible with traditional computing methods.
 
Are there many others in the world working on the same subject as you? Do you think this helps or hinders you?
There is a Gordon Research Conference on Cardiac Arrhythmia Mechanisms, which represents an active community focused on topics related to projects in my home laboratory. I think that having multiple groups working on overlapping problems accelerates progress due to inherent information sharing via publications. Also, collaborations would not be possible if everyone worked in isolation.

What key questions do you hope will be answered in your research area in the coming years?
It would be interesting to see analysis of patient specific genetic factors enabling accurate predictions on the efficacy and risk of using particular anti-arrhythmic agents.

If you could have three wishes about your work granted this year, what would they be?
First, I plan to continue developing as a productive researcher. Second, that the conclusion of my thesis work will provide both a useful modeling approach for others and an insightful set of results regarding probing ionic mechanisms. Third, I hope to continue to instill a passion in the upcoming generation of students by remaining active with science outreach programs based out of Cornell.

How did you hear about the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and how did you apply to attend?
I heard about the meeting from my graduate school office. From there I embarked on a three phase application process: a university wide nomination process, a U.S. national competition via a sponsorship track (DOE, NIH, ORAU, or MARS), and a final international confirmation from the Lindau selection committee itself. Having been selected, I consider it a privilege to represent my school and country at the meeting, and I look forward to interacting with the Nobel Laureates and my fellow young researchers.

What are you most looking forward to about attending this year's meeting?
I hope to see examples of creative sparks, whether it is during a formal Q&A with a Laureate or even during informal conversations with my peers.

lindaunobelMadhurima Benekareddy is a 27-year-old researcher standing at the cross-roads of psychology and neuroscience. She researches the effects of trauma on the brain in its delicate stages of development, when we are children and adolescents, at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. The young brain is more plastic, and therefore can be particularly badly affected by negative - or positive - events. Trauma can even be passed down the generations. Benekareddy's area of study focuses on serotonin receptors in the brain. Benekareddy's work should interest all of us, especially parents.

I catch up with Benekareddy over email just as the 61st Meeting of the Nobel Laureates in Lindau begins to kick off. I will find her later in the week and see how she is getting on, what she is learning, and what she is enjoying. In the meantime, you can read her answers to my questions:

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Yesterday's opening ceremony was concluded with a panel session that featured Bill Gates, Nobel laureate Ada Yonath, Sandra Chisamba and Jonathan Carlson. Together they discussed how we should deal with threats to global health, such as HIV and malaria, and how young scientists could be stimulated to research these important, but relatively neglected topics.  (More)

Today the 61. Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting will be openend and Sandra Chishimba will play a special role: She will take part at a panel discussion together with Bill Gates, Nobel Laureate Ada Yonath (Chemistry 2009) and Jonathan Carlson (Microsoft Research) - maybe because Malaria is the main topic of her life. She has battled malaria both in and out of the lab. In high school, Sandra suffered from multiple occurrences of malaria, which often affected her school work. Her whole family has suffered from malaria (her brother, two sisters, parents…). So her unfortunate familiarity with malaria spurred a desire to help fight and eradicate this disease that affects so many people, particularly in developing nations.  (More)

Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome. Born in Jerusalem, she has spent the majority of her scientific career in Israel and is currently Director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She is the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Lorena Guzman from the Chilean national newspaper, El Mercurio and I talked to Ada Yonath on Tuesday afternoon about being a woman in science, why scientific data should always be shared and the challenges and inspirations she finds in life. 

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Twenty five years ago, the discovery of the ozone hole above the Antarctic made waves. The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects Planet Earth from 90% of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, diminished. Only two years later, in 1987, the Montreal Protocol was signed. There would not have been a chance to stop this ongoing reduction unless some chemists had described the possible reactions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other substances with ozone in the 1970s. These findings by Paul Crutzen, Mario José Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland, who all were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1995, led to the Montreal Protocol.

At the Lindau Meeting I had not only the chance to listen to Sherwood Rowland’s lecture about “Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change”. I even had the opportunity to talk to the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry together with two young researchers from the Global-Young-Faculty. 

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Francoise  Barré-Sinoussi won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for her role in the discovery of HIV. As she detailed in her plenary lecture on Monday 28th June, she considers a combined approach of mainly Western-led lab-based research and locally based education and treatment centres in developing countries as crucial for the control of the disease.

Martin Fenner and I talked to Professor Barré-Sinoussi on Thursday afternoon, covering topics including how to make a marriage work when one of you has a demanding job, her work in Africa and how to judge the merit of scientists based on more wide-ranging criteria than publication history.

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One unique aspect of this year's meeting is that we asked on for input also from those who were unable to attend in person, inviting them to submit questions to the Laureates via our online Q&A competition. Some of the most popular questions as voted by readers of the site are already answered by Nobel Laureates on the site. AND many will then be used in interviews with the Laureates which will be featured in a specially-commissioned Nature supplement in the autumn. 

Because the standard of questions submitted has been so high, we also posed some of them to the young scientists to see if their responses differ from those of the Laureates.

I spoke to four young scientists from the Middle East, who volunteered additional thoughts on the important issues for them in science.

Prior to the Nobel meeting young researches had the oppurtunity to send in questions - we called that section "Nobel questions, Lindau answers". In the last days I interviewed a couple of young scientists who replied to these questions - and may lead to more discussion in the commentaries of this posting.  (More)