cancer it’s a very devastating disease
millions and millions of deaths every
year now this may sound absurd to you
but I think I have an idea
what we can do about it let’s talk
science because as a matter of fact
cancer is a complex disease in the last
decades of the previous century we came
to find that cancer is not a one gene
one disease problem instead cancer is a
network disease these networks do not
only involve genes but also RNA proteins
and metabolites and these network
structures are highly dynamic in space
and in time
this means dissecting these networks to
combat cancer requires experts from a
broad variety of scientific disciplines
ranging from biochemistry molecular
biology and cell biology to biophysics
mathematics computer science and
medicine and all these experts they have
to talk to their peers to stay on top of
the current knowledge in their
respective fields through the
state-of-the-art in their field
therefore for instance the biochemist
biochemists they go to annual
conferences and then they dig deeper
into the mechanism into the mode of
action of a single enzyme that might be
encoded by an oncogene and they try to
understand the structure to functional
relationship of this very enzyme and
don’t get me wrong this is all valid
this is all variable but we cannot
combat cancer by just studying a single
enzyme in isolation
instead of scrutinizing the individual
dots we have to connect them now what’s
absurd about all this scientists are not
acknowledged for connecting the dots
they are not acknowledged for mediating
between the
in fields of expertise but this is what
is required in order to combat cancer
you all know that there is the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or medicine for the
very best biologists and on the other
hand there’s the Fields Medal for the
very best mathematician but there’s no
prestigious award for truly
interdisciplinary scientists for
instance I am half biologist and half
mathematician and even if I were the
second-best biologist and the
second-best mathematician at the same
time which by the way I’m not but even
if I were there is there would be no
reward for me but we need to encourage
scientists to talk science even beyond
the borders of their scientific
descriptions now the question is how do
we achieve that
because we we need to do this for the
sake of of scientific progress we need
to do this to the benefit of cancer
patients we need to talk science why to
make people understand and this does not
only apply to scientists this does apply
to patients to the public to all people
too to resolve their concerns to take
away their fears and give them hope for
an ultimate cure against cancer and
ignorance alike so let me provide you
with one example we were interested in a
very fundamental process in our body
called proliferation one cell becomes
two in a certain time quite simple but
as a matter of fact this process is
deregulated in almost all types of
cancer so we investigated these
molecular neck networks that coordinate
this process and among the principal
investigators of this study there were a
biochemist there were a biophysicist
there was a computer scientist and it
was a medical doctor
and together we developed an approach
that allows us to computationally
predict and experimentally verify the
combined effect of certain cancer drugs
on the proliferation of different cell
types and this may lay the foundation in
the future for a personalized cancer
therapy for computer based patient
stratification but without a biochemist
we would have never been able to measure
the effect of these drugs on the cells
without a biophysicist we would have
never been able to set up a mathematical
model describing this process without
the computer scientist we would have
never been able to implement this
mathematical model into powerful
algorithms to solve these equations and
without a medical doctor we would never
have had access to patient material to
show that our findings are really
relevant and clinically relevant so
every single one of them every single
scientific discipline was essential to
the success of the story we needed the
biochemist the biophysicist the computer
scientist the medical doctor and last
not least maybe most importantly the
patient’s we needed to talk to each
other we needed to talk science to
convince us of the potential of this
interdisciplinary approach we need to
talk science with the patient’s in or
because otherwise they would have never
given their consent it would have never
volunteered to donate their cells so
that we can validate our findings so
talking science was really the solution
here talking science then seems really
straightforward now so why don’t we just
do it
that’s absurd okay fair enough
you may need some incentives so first
incentive promote interdisciplinary
research together with a friend of yours
back here at Heidelberg University I
co-founded a students ideas competition
on synthetic and systems biology and
students were only allowed to
participate if they form
interdisciplinary teams from different
scientific backgrounds
and then we applied that local biotech
companies for prize money which enabled
us to celebrate a huge award ceremony
and they were really awarded for talking
science in an interdisciplinary
scientific team to drive these projects
forward so that in the end all
participants could really see talking
science in an interdisciplinary team
pays off
second incentive teach high school
students I am talking science with
pupils I’m a scientific mentor and the
supervisor of projects for the
development of bio batteries or the
development of cell culture software and
all these projects are performed by high
school students the curiosity and the
commitment of these kids is truly
amazing and the motivation for me to
drive these projects forward and to
steer these projects so it may sound
absurd but my recommendation for you is
go to your old schools talk to the
pupils there listen to their ideas and
give them some advice based on your own
experience and see where this is gonna
lead you I’m sure it’s gonna be an
exciting journey certain centers create
poetry nowadays there are so many ways
to express yourself and to talk science
you can write blogs and books in fact I
gave workshops where I taught people
some science related matters and then
together with a friend we also taught
them some writing skills and then over
the course of a weekend we just wrote
science inspired short stories and they
were after all released in a precious
little book so that everyone a broad
readership gets gets access to
scientific stories so we can talk
science via these books and for this you
don’t need big publishing companies in
the era of self-publishing in the
bookstores and ebooks you just can talk
science similarly a few years back I
started to take photographs in my lab
from all these technical devices and
inspired by those machines I started to
write poems about them and I shared them
along with the photographs on social
media and what’s what may sound absurd
to you poet
as well as scientists must choose their
words carefully we transfer a lot of
meaning with our words but not only
meaning also emotions and this is where
people connect across borders and this
also came to me with rap music I was
always listening to rap music and rap
does of course also transfer a decent
vocabulary but also punchlines and and
emotions and passion and this is really
where people connect and ok this may
sound now super absurd to you but I
started to write rap songs on on my
scientific projects and I incorporated
these rap songs into short entertaining
presentation where I explained my
science to lay public and this is a
format known as signed slam and the
reaction of people to these kind of
performances is just overwhelming
a crowd full of people cheering for you
for talking science is priceless so I
mentioned this absurdity of the missing
acknowledgement for scientists who are
reaching out who are talking science
beyond the borders of scientific fields
but let me tell you from my own
experience sharing what you are
passionate about with others is
extremely rewarding so after these shows
people approached me and they say
Lawrence this was completely unexpected
I mean mathematics almost killed me in
school and now use mathematics to kill
cancer that’s amazing or they say
Lawrence I will have a deeper look into
your paper and this is truly amazing
because the story I told you about we
published this in a paper which is open
access and it’s my firm belief that free
thinkers and open minds require open
science so that they can talk science
and spread the word broadly and I think
for this talking science is really the
key talking science unlocks a world of
committed scientists and citizens alike
talking science is extremely rewarding
as we share what we are passionate about
with others and talking science spreads
the word and the ideas of good
scientific practice and
successful scientific approaches in our
case this was an interdisciplinary track
that may lead us to the computation
based patient stratification and
personalized cancer therapy so let’s
talk science it saves lives thank you
[Applause]
millions and millions of deaths every
year now this may sound absurd to you
but I think I have an idea
what we can do about it let’s talk
science because as a matter of fact
cancer is a complex disease in the last
decades of the previous century we came
to find that cancer is not a one gene
one disease problem instead cancer is a
network disease these networks do not
only involve genes but also RNA proteins
and metabolites and these network
structures are highly dynamic in space
and in time
this means dissecting these networks to
combat cancer requires experts from a
broad variety of scientific disciplines
ranging from biochemistry molecular
biology and cell biology to biophysics
mathematics computer science and
medicine and all these experts they have
to talk to their peers to stay on top of
the current knowledge in their
respective fields through the
state-of-the-art in their field
therefore for instance the biochemist
biochemists they go to annual
conferences and then they dig deeper
into the mechanism into the mode of
action of a single enzyme that might be
encoded by an oncogene and they try to
understand the structure to functional
relationship of this very enzyme and
don’t get me wrong this is all valid
this is all variable but we cannot
combat cancer by just studying a single
enzyme in isolation
instead of scrutinizing the individual
dots we have to connect them now what’s
absurd about all this scientists are not
acknowledged for connecting the dots
they are not acknowledged for mediating
between the
in fields of expertise but this is what
is required in order to combat cancer
you all know that there is the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or medicine for the
very best biologists and on the other
hand there’s the Fields Medal for the
very best mathematician but there’s no
prestigious award for truly
interdisciplinary scientists for
instance I am half biologist and half
mathematician and even if I were the
second-best biologist and the
second-best mathematician at the same
time which by the way I’m not but even
if I were there is there would be no
reward for me but we need to encourage
scientists to talk science even beyond
the borders of their scientific
descriptions now the question is how do
we achieve that
because we we need to do this for the
sake of of scientific progress we need
to do this to the benefit of cancer
patients we need to talk science why to
make people understand and this does not
only apply to scientists this does apply
to patients to the public to all people
too to resolve their concerns to take
away their fears and give them hope for
an ultimate cure against cancer and
ignorance alike so let me provide you
with one example we were interested in a
very fundamental process in our body
called proliferation one cell becomes
two in a certain time quite simple but
as a matter of fact this process is
deregulated in almost all types of
cancer so we investigated these
molecular neck networks that coordinate
this process and among the principal
investigators of this study there were a
biochemist there were a biophysicist
there was a computer scientist and it
was a medical doctor
and together we developed an approach
that allows us to computationally
predict and experimentally verify the
combined effect of certain cancer drugs
on the proliferation of different cell
types and this may lay the foundation in
the future for a personalized cancer
therapy for computer based patient
stratification but without a biochemist
we would have never been able to measure
the effect of these drugs on the cells
without a biophysicist we would have
never been able to set up a mathematical
model describing this process without
the computer scientist we would have
never been able to implement this
mathematical model into powerful
algorithms to solve these equations and
without a medical doctor we would never
have had access to patient material to
show that our findings are really
relevant and clinically relevant so
every single one of them every single
scientific discipline was essential to
the success of the story we needed the
biochemist the biophysicist the computer
scientist the medical doctor and last
not least maybe most importantly the
patient’s we needed to talk to each
other we needed to talk science to
convince us of the potential of this
interdisciplinary approach we need to
talk science with the patient’s in or
because otherwise they would have never
given their consent it would have never
volunteered to donate their cells so
that we can validate our findings so
talking science was really the solution
here talking science then seems really
straightforward now so why don’t we just
do it
that’s absurd okay fair enough
you may need some incentives so first
incentive promote interdisciplinary
research together with a friend of yours
back here at Heidelberg University I
co-founded a students ideas competition
on synthetic and systems biology and
students were only allowed to
participate if they form
interdisciplinary teams from different
scientific backgrounds
and then we applied that local biotech
companies for prize money which enabled
us to celebrate a huge award ceremony
and they were really awarded for talking
science in an interdisciplinary
scientific team to drive these projects
forward so that in the end all
participants could really see talking
science in an interdisciplinary team
pays off
second incentive teach high school
students I am talking science with
pupils I’m a scientific mentor and the
supervisor of projects for the
development of bio batteries or the
development of cell culture software and
all these projects are performed by high
school students the curiosity and the
commitment of these kids is truly
amazing and the motivation for me to
drive these projects forward and to
steer these projects so it may sound
absurd but my recommendation for you is
go to your old schools talk to the
pupils there listen to their ideas and
give them some advice based on your own
experience and see where this is gonna
lead you I’m sure it’s gonna be an
exciting journey certain centers create
poetry nowadays there are so many ways
to express yourself and to talk science
you can write blogs and books in fact I
gave workshops where I taught people
some science related matters and then
together with a friend we also taught
them some writing skills and then over
the course of a weekend we just wrote
science inspired short stories and they
were after all released in a precious
little book so that everyone a broad
readership gets gets access to
scientific stories so we can talk
science via these books and for this you
don’t need big publishing companies in
the era of self-publishing in the
bookstores and ebooks you just can talk
science similarly a few years back I
started to take photographs in my lab
from all these technical devices and
inspired by those machines I started to
write poems about them and I shared them
along with the photographs on social
media and what’s what may sound absurd
to you poet
as well as scientists must choose their
words carefully we transfer a lot of
meaning with our words but not only
meaning also emotions and this is where
people connect across borders and this
also came to me with rap music I was
always listening to rap music and rap
does of course also transfer a decent
vocabulary but also punchlines and and
emotions and passion and this is really
where people connect and ok this may
sound now super absurd to you but I
started to write rap songs on on my
scientific projects and I incorporated
these rap songs into short entertaining
presentation where I explained my
science to lay public and this is a
format known as signed slam and the
reaction of people to these kind of
performances is just overwhelming
a crowd full of people cheering for you
for talking science is priceless so I
mentioned this absurdity of the missing
acknowledgement for scientists who are
reaching out who are talking science
beyond the borders of scientific fields
but let me tell you from my own
experience sharing what you are
passionate about with others is
extremely rewarding so after these shows
people approached me and they say
Lawrence this was completely unexpected
I mean mathematics almost killed me in
school and now use mathematics to kill
cancer that’s amazing or they say
Lawrence I will have a deeper look into
your paper and this is truly amazing
because the story I told you about we
published this in a paper which is open
access and it’s my firm belief that free
thinkers and open minds require open
science so that they can talk science
and spread the word broadly and I think
for this talking science is really the
key talking science unlocks a world of
committed scientists and citizens alike
talking science is extremely rewarding
as we share what we are passionate about
with others and talking science spreads
the word and the ideas of good
scientific practice and
successful scientific approaches in our
case this was an interdisciplinary track
that may lead us to the computation
based patient stratification and
personalized cancer therapy so let’s
talk science it saves lives thank you
[Applause]
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