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Your career in the life sciences

P Or Tr A IT S OF Ten reSe A r CHer S

InterpharmaAssociation of research-based pharmaceutical companies in Switzerland Petersgraben 35, P.O. Box CH-4003 BaselTelephone +41 (0)61 264 34 00E-mail info@interpharma.ch

www.interpharma.ch

Editors: Janine Hermann (Interpharma), Adrian Heuss (advocacy ag)Design: Continue AG, Basel

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank everyone involved who contributed to the success of this project. In particular, we wish to thank Martine Clozel, Caroline Kant, Debora Keller, Isabelle Schubert, Helma Wennemers, Markus Affolter, Livio Baselgia, Alex Matter, Alexander Mayweg and Luca Piali for their contributions.

Didactic note

This brochure can be used in many ways and allows for the freedom of the teacher’s methods. The teaching material may be used in a modular approach, for example when choosing a career or as part of a project week.

This teaching material comes with a companion DVD that can be used in class by the teacher. The visual material is matched to the portraits in the brochure.

The appendix contains inputs for teaching sequences, a quiz and also Internet links for a more in-depth examination of the subject. The specialist terms that appear in the portraits in italics are explained in simple language in the glossary at the end of the brochure.

© Interpharma, Basel, June 2010

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2 Helma Wennemersis Professor of Chemistry at the University of Basel. “As a chemist I can be creative and produce compounds that don’t occur naturally.”

4 Martine Clozelis co-founder of biotech company Actelion. “I find medical research the most interesting thing in the world.”

6 Markus Affolteris Professor of Development Biology at the University of Basel. “All my graduates have found a job.”

8 Luca Pialiis Head of Preclinical Immunology at Actelion. “My parents came from a poor background. It was clear to them that you can enjoy a better life with a good education.”

10 Alexander Maywegis Research Group Leader at Roche. His motto is: “Work hard, play hard.”

12 Livio Baselgiais a biology student at ETH, the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. “The longer the studies last, the more interesting they become.”

14 The Swiss superstars of research

16 Debora Kelleris working towards her PhD in cancer research in Lausanne. “The great thing about working on a doctor-ate is the independence.”

18 Caroline Kantworks at Merck Serono in Knowledge Management. “What I find especially fascinating is biology in all its complexity.”

20 Isabelle Schubertworks as a patent lawyer at Novartis. “I don’t know any patent lawyer who doesn’t love his job.”

22 Alex Matteris Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Centre in Singapore. “There are no boring days for me.”

24 Information material and tasks

28 Glossary

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Helma Wennemers studied chemistry in Frankfurt, gained her doctorate in New York and spent two years of research in Nagoya, Japan. “Getting to know the Japanese culture was fascinating. Chemistry is the same all over the world; the cul-tures on the other hand differ enormously.” For ten years she has been working at the University of Basel in the field of peptide chemistry. Over the years, she has won many prizes, including an endowed chair from Bachem. When she talks about her job, her enthusiasm is plain to see: “Research is fun.”

Wennemers describes herself as a “late bloomer” and “anti-early riser”. A late bloomer because she only began to show a real interest in chemistry at the age of 19. “Unfortunately my chemistry teacher at school did not make an especially con-vincing case.” Anti-early riser because she prefers to start morning lectures at ten rather than eight o’clock. “That’s bet-ter for me and the students”, she says and laughs. On the other hand she is often still in the office when the lights in the other rooms have long since gone out. Her partner is also a researcher and lives in Tübingen, Germany.

HeLM A WenneMer S Professor of Chemistry, University of Basel

“research is fun”When Helma Wennemers is asked what her job is and then answers: “I’m a professor of chemistry,” a lot of people are surprised. One comment that Wennemers often hears is “You don’t look like one.” The image many people have when they think of a professor of chemistry clearly does not match the image of Helma Wennemers. High time, then, to clarify some misconceptions.

“Ms Wennemers, why did you decide to study chemistry?”“I wanted to understand nature better. Chemists think at the level of molecules, which allows an in-depth understanding of nature that no other branch of science can offer. Since chem-ists are able to create compounds that don’t occur naturally, there is a lot of scope for creativity.”

“What are the advantages of working at a university?”“University researchers have a lot of freedom to build and pursue their own research projects. As a professor, I am free to choose my projects. But more freedom also means more responsibility.”

“How would you describe your job?”“It is very varied: I head a team of 14 people at the moment, discuss the research results with them, give lectures, present papers on our research at congresses, write articles for publi-cation, raise funds for research and, last but not least, I look after foreign scientists who visit the University of Basel and present their research.”

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“Why should people study chemistry?”“To understand nature better and experience its creativity. Something special about studying chemistry is the way you alternate between theory and practice. The theory that is learned can be immediately applied in practical exercises.”

“What are the requirements for studying chemistry?”“Basically we start from scratch. But then we quickly move on. At the personal level, a student should have several charac-teristics: enthusiasm for the subject and the willpower to get over a lean period. But above all they should know or quickly learn how to work on their own. During a course of study, there are no longer any teachers to give homework and keep a check. All students have to know for themselves whether they have understood everything.”

“Women professors are the exception in the natural science. What is it like to work as a woman in research?”“I’ve never had any problems with it. When I was doing my PhD in New York, I was the only woman in the lab to begin with. After a few weeks, my male colleagues came up to me and said that, since my arrival, the atmosphere had become much better, friendlier, not as edgy as it had been.”

What are the opportunities for scientists after completing their studies?

Pharmaceutical and biotech industry: after gaining their first degree or doctorate, many chemists and biologists work in indus-try, in large companies such as Roche and Novartis, but also in small to medium-sized companies.

Chemistry: the Swiss chemicals industry would be able to offer a good job to about 240 chemists a year, but only about 210 qualified chemists leave university every year.

Professorship: people with a doctorate have the option of staying at university with a view to obtaining a professorship.

School: after an appropriate course of further education, scientists can go on to teach at grammar schools.

Consulting: management-consulting firms, such as Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey, are always looking for scientists and appreciate their clear thinking.

Start-up: graduates can found their own company, a so-called start-up (see por-trait on page 4). Of course, this calls not only for a good idea, but also for an entre-preneurial spirit.

Media: it is possible to undergo further training in the field of media and to work in radio, television or the press.

Forensics/cantonal chemist: in forensic medicine, scientists are needed in the forensic labs (cue “CSI Miami”). Cantonal laboratories, which are responsible for food inspections, amongst other things, are always on the look-out for good chem-ists (cantonal chemists).

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Martine Clozel was virtually born with an interest in research. Her mother had once worked in the laboratory of Nobel Laure-ate Marie Curie as a physicist, and her father was a mathemat-ician. Her parents encouraged scientific curiosity in her chil-dren when they were still very young. As a young girl, Martine Clozel loved to play around with mathematical puzzles. She later studied medicine.

“Mrs Clozel, how did you meet your husband?”“In the first year of my studies at the University of Nancy I attended extra classes in biology every Saturday morning. Interest in these classes among the medical students was, let’s say, rather lukewarm and the large lecture hall was cor-respondingly empty. But I didn’t just want to swot up on medi-cine, I also wanted to understand the biology behind a dis-ease. One of the few other students who also attended this Saturday course was my husband-to-be Jean-Paul.”

“What did you focus on after your studies?”“On paediatrics, that’s to say on children, and later in particu-lar on neonatology, or the care of newborn babies. When I started in neonatology, the medical horizon in this specialty was still limited. At the time, in intensive care, they were only just beginning to apply new insights into how premature babies have to breathe and feed.”

In the neonatology unit, Clozel also experienced the birth of quintuplets, three girls and two boys. Clozel was the doctor in charge, and her team did a good job: they were the first quin-tuplets in France, all of whom survived. And of course this became front-page news in a number of French newspapers.

M A r TIne CLOzeL Chief Scientific Officer, Actelion

“Where else would you get a chance like this?”

A lot of people dream of starting their own company and leading it to success. Martine Clozel has realised this dream together with her husband and other colleagues. In the company, which was founded in 1997, almost 200 people from 42 countries today are developing and marketing medicines to treat pulmonary hypertension or Gaucher’s disease. Work is currently continuing in other indications, such as insomnia, pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis.

Clozel still has a special relationship to children today. For example, she personally saw to it that some of the medicines marketed by Actelion are also developed with children in mind. A lot of medicines administered to children today lack the scientific evidence for use in children, because the rele-vant studies have only been carried out in adults.

In 1987, the researcher joined Roche, where she became one of the first scientists to work on research into endothelin, a small peptide that occurs in the walls of the blood vessels. The outcome was the discovery of the active substance bosentan. Six months after the founding of Actelion, bosentan was successfully acquired from Roche and developed in Actelion to make it ready for the market. This is, as she puts it, her fourth child after her own biological children.

“You had a secure job at roche. Why take the risk and start your own company?”“We wanted to seize this unique opportunity. We were con-vinced that a medicine could be made from ‘our’ molecule. But

What does a day in the life of Martine Clozel look like?

“I like going to work every day and enjoy being able to work with so many interesting people. At Actelion I head one of the three research departments. My role is to check the results from research and establish whether there is a molecule there that could be developed into a medicine. What is espe-cially important here is the question of the safety and efficacy of a new substance. If I have time, I fly to scientific conferences, where I pick up new ideas.”

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it was also clear to all of us that it would be difficult, because it not only requires good know-how in research to succeed as a life sciences company, but also knowledge of the whole spectrum of operations through to registration. In the IT sector it may be possible to found a successful com-pany at a young age. In the life sciences it is more difficult.”

“What fascinates you about medical research?”“I find it the most interesting thing in the world. We are tread-ing paths that no one has been down before, and can help to improve the lives of a lot of people. Where else would you get a chance like this? When we launched our first medicine on the market, it was not long before the first patients contacted us. One child wrote: ‘Thanks to your medicine, my mum could take me shopping for the first time.’ A lot of people wrote to us that they can now lead an almost normal life again. These are stories that motivate you to keep going, even when things are not running so smoothly.”

Martine Clozel

• Born 1955• Studied medicine at the University of

Nancy• Assistant Professor of Neonatology and

Intensive Care, 1984• Researcher at Roche, 1987• Co-founder of Actelion, 1997• Today Chief Scientific Officer

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M A rKUS A FFOLTer Professor of Development Biology, University of Basel

“I want to get the students

excited”When Markus Affolter, 50, first met his wife, Pascale, she asked him what his goal in life was. He told her he wanted to find out, for example, why the nose always grows on the same place in a face. He wanted to understand how linear infor - mation, namely the genetic information on a string of DNA, takes on a three-dimensional form.

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Markus Affolter says today that his wife was not particularly impressed by his answer at the time. But in the meantime, the couple have been married for over 20 years and have two children. His wife works as a tax expert, and he is Professor of Development Biology at the University of Basel and still as fascinated as ever by similar questions.

“Where did you go to school?”“I went to the Kantonsschule in Aarau. Pupils there are always told that Albert Einstein also went to this school. That impressed me, I felt privileged and told myself I would make something of myself.”

“How important were the teachers in your later choice of career?”“Very important. One of the reasons why I studied biology and not chemistry or physics, for example, was my great biology teacher at grammar school. Today, as a professor, I try to give something back and be a good teacher myself. I always try to give interesting lectures. That calls for time-consuming preparation, but it’s worth it if I can instil enthusiasm for the subject into the students.”

“There are too few up-and-coming young scientists in Switzerland. Do you think this has something to do with a lack of role models?”“That is certainly an important aspect. In the world of sport there are a lot of role models, Roger Federer or various foot-ballers, for example. So children and youngsters can say: ‘That’s what I want to be.’ There are role models in the sci-ences, but they are not widely known in the general public.”

“Where did you study?”“First of all I studied biology at the ETH in Zurich for two years, and then I went to Canada. My girlfriend at the time was Canadian and, since she could not simply move away because she was in the middle of her studies to become a dentist, I decided to go to her. In Canada I took my Master’s and did a doctorate. The university I visited may not have been the most prestigious, but I was a committed student and the profes-sors appreciated that and encouraged me accordingly. If someone takes time over something, then one is happy to give that person more of one’s own time.”

“Where did you go once you had your doctorate?”“I was fascinated by the research being done by Walter Gehring, who taught me in Basel. I was very keen to work in his labora-tory. Although Gehring initially turned me down, I persisted and eventually got a position. That, by the way, is a piece of advice I can give any committed young scientist: if you really want something and know where you want to go, don’t give up.”

“Today you are Professor of Development Biology. What is your study group working on at the moment?”“We are looking, amongst other things, at the question of how blood vessels form. When vessels grow, there are forces at play. Either the cells at the back push those ahead of them from behind to the tip of the vessel, or the front cells pull the cells behind them forward. The question is: are the cells being pushed or pulled? We are performing various experiments to try and find out the answer.”

“You use the technique of life imaging for this. What is this exactly?”“This technique can be used to observe in the living organism how something occurs and grows. We can put together facts by means of experiments, but a film is more informative. It’s like in a murder case. There are often various clues that point to the culprit. But only when I find a film in which the murder can be clearly seen is the culprit finally convicted.”

“What are your hobbies?”“I like sailing. Sometimes I combine sailing with work: my favourite meeting, a conference on the fruit fly drosophila, takes place every two years on Crete, in Kolymbari. Several times already I have sailed with friends from the Greek mainland to Crete for the conference. On the boat I can gather new ideas.”

Good prospects

“What qualities are needed for a career in science?”“Of course, you need talent. But it takes more than that. You can also go a long way with diligence. You have to find out what you’re good at. Some researchers are good at planning experiments, others are good at performing and evaluating experiments.”

“What prospects do graduates have with a biology degree or doctorate?”“All my graduates have found a job. The range of jobs on offer in Switzerland is wider than many people think at first.”

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“Mr Piali, where does your enthusiasm for biology come from?”“I have to go back a bit there. My parents moved to Switzer-land from northern Italy in the mid-50s and found a new home with a widow – an educated lady, who lived in a villa that included an extensive library on the Bruderholz in Basel. My father worked as a gardener, my mother was the domestic help. It was in the garden of the villa that I took my first steps towards biology, studying the fish pond, observing the birds, turning stones. This garden was the foundation for my later career. It helped me to train in the most important thing a researcher needs: curiosity.

And on the Bruderholz I also discovered something else: ambition. For the widow it was always important that her grandchildren would go on to study. This stirred the ambition in me, and today both my brother and I have a doctorate.”

LU CA PI A LI Head of Preclinical Immunology, Actelion

“How can we prevent suffering?”

“Did your parents encourage you?”“My parents came from a poor background; today you would say ‘educationally disadvantaged’. But they quickly adapted to their new circumstances in Switzerland, for example learn-ing German within a few months. My parents always worked hard and expected their children to do so as well. They neither forced me to study, nor discouraged me. What was most important for them was that we should lead a better life than they had. And they realised that this can be achieved with a good education.”

“When you were 16 years old, your mother came down with a rare autoimmune disease. What impact did this have on you?”“That had a huge impact on me, of course. I got hold of all the information I could on the disease my mother had. This brought me into contact with immunology, because autoim-mune diseases occur when the immune system is not working properly and starts to attack parts of one’s own body. The dis-ease affected my mother’s liver in particular – she died at

Luca Piali is not normally given to climbing trees, but this tree has a special significance. It stands in the garden where Piali grew up, and this garden is at the root of his career: It aroused his ambition and curiosity.

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the age of 50. And I never let go of immunology again – it still fascinates me afresh every day. I did my PhD in the field of immunology, and today I am Head of Preclinical Immunology at Actelion. Since the long illness and death of my mother, I have constantly asked myself the question: how can we pre-vent such suffering?”

“To answer this question, you should have studied medicine rather than biology.”“That’s right, but I never seriously considered it, because I feel that medicine very often works with probabilities. That’s not my thing. Biology is more about precision. But the work with clinically relevant problems was always important to me, which is why I spent several years working at the paediatric hospital in Basel. And the focus of my present work, too, is on the future patient.”

“Another important event in your life was the birth of your son Alex.”“Alex was born in 2001 with Down’s syndrome and a heart defect. Later, the doctors also diagnosed pulmonary hyper-tension. The irony of the story is that my son now needs precisely the medicine that my employer Actelion produces.

Five years ago, the doctors declared that my son had one year to live at most. At times, his life hung by a silk thread. Today he is eight years old. Thanks to the new medicines, his prognosis has improved enormously. This experience is proof to me that research and pharmaceuticals can help to improve the lives of seriously ill people. My professional goal is to develop medicines in my work that can prevent the severe suffering of patients and their families.”

Science: good opportunities for everyone

Luca Piali

• Born 1966• Studied biology at the University of Basel• Doctorate at the Basel Institute of Im-

munology, 1990–1995• Postdoc at the Theodor Kocher Institute in

Bern, 1995–1998

• Postdoc and Project Manager at the Paediatric Hospital in Basel, 1998–2004

• Today: Head of Preclinical Immunology at Actelion

Luca Piali is convinced that science offers good opportunities for everyone, regardless of their social background (e.g. for second-generation immi-grants). Knowing the right people is not so important in science; what counts is the performance. How many good articles has a scientist published?

How many prizes has a researcher won? How respected is a scientist in the research community? To this extent, Piali thinks that the opportun-ities for advancement are assessed more objectively here and not fostered by family background or inhibited by arrogance or conceit.

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Once, as a small boy, Alexander Mayweg was ill and confined to bed. A doctor called, examined him and prescribed him antibiotics. A short time later he was fully recovered. This aroused Alexander Mayweg’s curiosity. “How do these medicines work?”, he wondered, and his career ambition was clear: he wanted to be a doctor.

A Le x A nDer M AY WeG research Group Leader, roche

“Work hard, play hard”

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Today, at the age of 33, this curiosity is still very much alive. He did not become a doctor, but a chemist. His role at Roche consists in developing new medicines for diabetes. It is this work that he sees as a great challenge and fills him with pride: “In the best-case scenario I can develop a medi-cine that can help millions of people.”

Alexander Mayweg has already seen a lot of the world; he grew up in Germany, in the USA and Asia and worked in the UK and the USA. He is married and has two small children; he has a lot of hobbies, he loves diving, for example in Sicily or the Maledives. His motto is “Work hard, play hard.”

“Mr Mayweg, what subjects interested you in particular at school?”“Even as a young boy I had a lot of interests, for example Ancient Egypt and languages, but most of all it was the technical subjects that interested me; I played with the very first Apple computer on the market, and tried to install new programs. That was quite a major task back then, and not simply done with a click of the mouse. Once I accidentally clobbered the entire hard disc of my father’s computer ...”

“Why did you decide to study chemistry?”“Chemistry is fascinating and is everywhere. Whether it’s the display on a new mobile phone or a plastic cup that you get out of the coffee-vending machine – there is always chemistry in there. Chemistry has changed the world enormously in the last 100 years. For me, chemistry was the most creative, omnipresent and interesting science.”

“What is it that you love about the job of a chemist?”“Chemistry covers an enormous range of things: chemists can research medicines, become managers in the nanotech-nology sector or discover new processes to protect the environment. Chemists can be very creative; they can produce molecules that have never occurred in the world before. There are not many jobs that offer such creativity. Some chemists are also like artists: instead of making sculptures, they build molecules, observe them and improve their properties.”

“You studied chemistry in London. Was that exciting?”“The course at Imperial College was very exciting. I learned the method of science, which is all about proving a theory with experiments and facts. The chemistry course was an ideal foundation for my present job in the pharmaceutical industry,

because it gave me the possibility of understanding the rudiments of medicine. At the end of my second year, I had the opportunity to do a year abroad. I was able to get some practical work experience with a pharmaceutical company in Chicago and got to know the American big city. There, I found that, with plenty of commitment and a little luck, I could achieve a lot in the pharmaceutical industry, from which millions of people can also benefit in the best-case scenario.”

“You then did your doctorate in the famous university town of Oxford.”“The exciting thing about PhD work is that you can delve deep into a research field, and do so at many different places in the world. At Oxford, I was fascinated on the one hand by the intellectual climate and on the other by the tradition. For example, as a newcomer in your first term you have to take part in a college admission ceremony wearing long gowns and, amongst other things, swear that you will never play with candles in the library, something that students have done for hundreds of years. To begin with, you feel a little like Harry Potter. But I really enjoyed this combination of cutting-edge science and tradition.”

My work as research Group Leader at roche

“My days vary a lot, there’s never time to get bored. As head of a project team, I currently have the task of finding a molecule with the team that stops a cer-tain protein in the body. I supervise my

people and discuss their research results with them. There are lots of meetings with other specialists and project teams. And I or members of my team are often taking part in conferences in Europe,

the USA or Asia. My work is international, just like my team, which is made up of people from Germany, France, UK and also from Asia, India and China.”

What is the right subject for me to study?

“The choice of subject is important since it sets the course for the future and should not on any account be taken lightly”, explains Alexander Mayweg. He advises young people to inform themselves thoroughly about the subject and, for example, to look at the text books they will later be working with every day. If you find things in there that don’t appeal to you, you might have to reconsider your choice. Work experience is the best way to gain an insight.

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“What is a biology course at the eTH like?”“First there is a two-year foundation course with lectures in chemistry, mathematics and biology. There are some prac-tical sessions, for example in organic chemistry, which breaks things up a little. What I found exciting in the first year were the botanical excursions to Valais with our botany professor and his assistant. On several hikes we examined the Alpine flora and I got to know my fellow students better. What I also found interesting were the extra lectures in the humanities, social sciences and political science, for example a lecture on ‘Science, Politics and the Public’.”

“What is the second year of the foundation course like?”“In the second year as well there is chemistry, along with the new subjects of physics and physical chemistry. In certain subjects, such as mathematics and physical chemistry, I really had to buckle down, but these subjects are part of the training to be a biologist. In the second year, it gets more exciting for the biologists: there are courses in cell biology, population and evolution biology, neurobiology and ecology. At the end of the first and second year, we have to sit exten-sive exams.”

“And after the foundation course, is the focus more on biology?”“The longer the course lasts, the more interesting it becomes, because from the third year I could largely choose the courses to attend myself. Now there are lectures on Mondays and Tuesdays in the morning, the rest of the time is spent on block courses lasting several weeks. For example, I attended courses in mycology, food microbiology and immunology. But even block courses in human medicine are possible, because some of the block courses are offered jointly with the University of Zurich.”

“And after the third year, the Bachelor’s degree?”“Some people take time out after the Bachelor’s degree. That’s quite possible at this point. But I decided to complete the full course in one go, so as not to lose too much time. I can still travel after my studies; for example I could do a PhD abroad.”

Livio Baselgia, 24, is in the fourth year of his biology course at the eTH zurich. He explains what you can expect of a biology course, why you should not let yourself be talked into a course of study and what he does in his spare time apart from playing poker.

The biology student

LI v IO BASeLGI A Biology Student, eTH zurich

“What happens in the fourth and fifth year, the Master’s degree part?”“In the fourth year, students write two semester papers. These papers are based on the collaboration in the research group. There are also various lectures that you are relatively free to choose from. I focused on food biotechnology. The main emphasis in the fifth year is on the six-month disserta-tion for the Master’s degree, which is also completed within a research group at the ETH. Here you already assume responsibility for a small research project.”

“Did you want to study biology from the outset?”“Originally I wanted to enrol at the ETH for electrical engineer-ing. But I knew that it was relatively easy to change to a differ-ent course in the first four weeks at the ETH. I attended lectures in electrical engineering and quickly found it was too mathematical for me. I knew that if electrical engineering didn’t appeal to me then I would study biology. I haven’t regretted it.”

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“How should one imagine student life?”“You have a lot more responsibility for your own life. If my alarm goes off too early in the morning, I don’t want to get up and I miss the lecture, then that really doesn’t interest any-one. Of course, this freedom is very tempting, you only have to think of all the student parties that take place in Zurich. But you have to know when the party is over and when the time has come to study.

During preparations for the exams in the summer, we spent a lot of time revising, from eight o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the evening, five or six days a week. There are times in a course of study when it’s all just revise, revise, revise. If you don’t have the stomach for that, you shouldn’t start a course of study and should also not let yourself be talked into it by friends or parents.”

“Did your parents instil enthusiasm for science in you?”“Not directly. My parents are both teachers who did further training in remedial teaching. When I told my cousin, who studied at the ETH, that I was interested in business or law, he said ‘You can get a qualification in business and law after your studies, for example by doing an MBA while you’re work-ing.’ So I opted for the sciences.”

“Do you do sports?”“In the winter I often go snowboarding in Graubünden. Here in Zurich I founded a floorball team with some friends, and we take part in the university championship, we’re already in the third year – and we have to defend our title from last year. With friends we organise a poker evening once a week. I listen to a lot of music, like rap and reggae.”

1950

1975

1913

1937

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THe SWIS S SUPer S TA r S OF reSe A r CH

A nobel Prize is the highest award a researcher can achieve, comparable to an Oscar for an actor. Switzerland has so far featured extremely prominently among the nobel Prizes: altogether 28 nobel Prizes have gone to Switzerland. Our little country can therefore certainly compete with the big research nations of the world. In the fields of Chemistry and Medicine, Switzerland has so far received 6 and 7 nobel Prizes, respectively.

emil Kocher | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1909In the medical profession, Emil Kocher from Bern was the first surgeon to win the Nobel Prize. He was a specialist in wound management, for which he used light chlorine solutions. On the basis of his work as a trainer for military doctors, Kocher also specialised in the treatment of gunshot wounds.

Alfred Werner (centre) | nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1913He received the prize “for his work on the binding characteristics of atoms in the molecule”. He was the first and, until 1973, also the only inorganic chemist to receive the Nobel Prize for Chemis-try.

Paul Karrer | nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1937Paul Karrer was as brilliant as he was diligent in his work as a chemist, who published over 1,000 articles in his research career, mainly on the structure and manufacture of vitamins. At the award ceremony in Stockholm, he said in his speech: “Without peace, justice, poetry and science there is no life that would appear to be worth living.”

Leopold ruzicka | nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1939Leopold Ruzicka, a Croatian by birth, was a chemist who worked especially closely with industry, not only with various perfumery companies in Geneva, but also with chemical companies like Ciba. In his laboratory, there was another Nobel Laureate in the making: Tadeus Reichstein.

Paul Müller | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1948Paul Müller attended the Free Evangelical elementary and secondary schools in Basel, but had to leave in 1916 because of bad marks. After this, he worked as a laboratory technician for various companies, including Lonza. Paul Müller received the prize for his discovery of the insecticide DDT, which led to prod-ucts that became invaluable in the treatment of typhus and malaria.

Walter Hess | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1949He received the prize for his “discovery of the functional organisation of the interbrain as a coordinator of the activities of the internal organs”. He discovered the diencephalon as the centre of the autonomic (or vegetative) nervous system.

Tadeus reichstein | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1950A Swiss chemist of Polish- Jewish origin. In 1932, Reich-stein discovered a method for manufacturing vitamin C in large quantities. Reichstein died in 1996 – at the age of 99 years.

vladimir Prelog | nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1975Vladimir Prelog completed his studies in 1929 – the world was in the midst of an economic crisis. He was glad to find a position in industry. But he wanted to return to research and therefore took up a post at the University of Zagreb. When the Nazis occupied Zagreb in 1941, Prelog fled to Zurich with his wife. In the years that followed, he researched with financial support from Ciba, amongst others, and worked at the ETH Zurich, where he rose to become Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry.

Vladimir Prelog (right) drinks a toast to the Nobel Prize with Leopold Ruzicka.

1992

1996

1978

2002

1991

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Werner Arber | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1978Like Albert Einstein, Werner Arber attended the Kantons-schule in Aarau. He spent many years of research at the Univer-sity of Geneva, and later Basel. He discovered the so-called restriction enzymes. His daugh-ter Silvia is also a successful researcher in her own right.

richard ernst | nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1991At the age of 13, Richard found a chest full of chemicals in the attic of his house. He consequently experimented with the chemicals, which led to some explosions and to an unbearable stench in the house. His parents were not particularly pleased. But they had much more cause to be pleased when, years later, their son received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of NMR (a spectroscopic method).

rolf zinkernagel | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1996As a small boy, Zinkernagel was interested in the prehistoric past of the Basel region, where he grew up, and also in how to build cabinets. That job hunting is not always easy even for a brilliant scientist is demonstrated by the fact that Zinkernagel and his wife Kathrin wrote about 50 job applications after gaining their doctorates and received only rejections. Finally, the Zinkernagels took off with their children to Australia. There, Zinkernagel discovered how the immune system identifies cells that are infected by viruses.

Kurt Wüthrich | nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2002As a small boy, the man from the Bernese lakes wanted to be a forester. Instead, he became a chemist and is to date the last Swiss scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Wüthrich is an enthusiastic skier. The question now is: who will be the next Swiss Nobel Laureate? Or rather: who will be the first Swiss female Nobel Laureate in Chemistry or Medicine?

edmond Fischer (left) | nobel Prize for Medicine, 1992 Edmond Fischer was born in Shanghai, but his parents sent him to a boarding school on Lake Geneva at the age of just seven years. At school, he and his best friend each made a decision for life: one would become a scientist, the other a doctor. In this way, the two friends would eradicate all the diseases on the planet. Fischer became a chemist and later revealed the secret of phosphorylation.

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“I want to get to the top”

Debora Keller is working towards her doctorate at the Swiss Institute for experimental Cancer research (ISreC). Despite her 26 years, she already has a lot of experiences behind her, having lived in Africa for 13 years and learned various languages. Here she explains why she also wants to work in cancer research in the future and why she loves climbing.

DeB Or A K eLLer PhD student, ISreC/ePF Lausanne

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A doctorate in cancer research. How should we picture that?

“Normally a doctorate lasts three to four years. During this period, you can concentrate totally on a particular problem.” Debora Keller decided on the subject of her doctorate together with her Professor, Pierre Gönczy: during cell division, genetic information (the DNA, in the form of chromosomes) is dupli-cated and distributed to the two daugh-ter cells. In cancer cells this precisely regulated process is disturbed, and cells often occur with too few or too many chromosomes. Gönczy’s research group has discovered a protein called HsSAS-6, which is required for correct

cell division, and is now trying to find out how it works.

“The great thing about a doctorate is the independence”, says Keller. When studying for a degree, she also had to work independently, she says, but working towards her doctorate she is much more responsible for her own project. “At the end of my doctorate, I will know how to approach difficult problems in cancer research.”

“When I was small, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. Unfortu-nately, that came to nothing; my eyesight was too weak. Today I am 26 years old, but I still have plans to be a high-flyer. This applies both to my hobby, climbing, where I would soon like to go on a climbing tour of severity grade 7a, and to my role as a researcher, where I would like to lead my own research group in a few years. At the moment I am in the first year of my doc-torate in the field of cancer research. As a small girl, I would never have thought that I would one day become a cancer researcher. This career ambition only developed later on, at grammar school, and in my studies I noticed how close to my heart research and discovery are.

exciting childhood and youthMy childhood and youth were shaped by a lot of changes. My mother is German, and my father French and Swiss. Since they both worked as missionaries, we were on the move a lot: we lived in France for two years, then in Africa for 13 years, in Niger, then another year in Germany and finally in the South of France, where I also started to study. I have been living on Lake Geneva since 2007. When I have finished my doctorate, I shall have lived in the same place for five years – for me that is almost a settled life.

A lot of people ask me whether the constant travelling was not stressful, but for me it was fine. This way, I learned to adapt to different life situations, and I can make good use of that in my job in science, which is international in its orientation. And I speak French, German and English, which also helps me to compete in an international environment.

Studies of biotechnology in three countriesI attended the three-year course in biotechnology at the Ecole supérieure de biotechnologie Strasbourg, a trinational course that takes place at the Universities of Basel, Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg and combines the fields of biology, physics and technology. I picked up a lot of practical work experience on this course.

I completed two periods of work experience, one in Oxford – where the first thing I bought was an umbrella – and one at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, which is now part of the ETH Lausanne.

I did my eight-month dissertation at the University of California in San Francisco, likewise in cancer research. That was fantastic! We had a great team, worked hard, but also took time to drink a beer in our favourite pub called the Fishbowl or to organize a table-tennis tournament in the insti-tute. After this experience, I knew that I would like to head my own research group one day.

relaxing by climbing and being with friendsMy life does not revolve solely around the lab. To clear my head, I like to climb at least once a week, indoors during the winter. When you’re climbing, it’s important to believe in yourself, to trust in your own abilities and in the person tied to you. By climbing, I have got to know my own limits, but also learned to overcome them.

I like to go out with friends, sometimes we organise a ‘girls evening’, go for a meal and to the cinema. Lausanne offers a pretty good choice of places to go. The company of my friends is important to me; although I work hard, even in the evening or sometimes on Saturday or Sunday, I would never neglect my friends for work. They are too important to me.”

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The Internet offers access to a wealth of information, and the last few years have seen a positive explosion in the volume of the World Wide Web. A similar development has also been seen in science, because scientists create new knowledge on a daily basis. This is shown by a glance at the international database Medline, which is mainly set up for issues relating to medicine and biology. An average of 2,000 new articles are published here every day. Altogether, the database contains over 18 million scientific entries.

CA r OLIne K A nT Knowledge Management researcher, Merck Serono

On the Internet, search engines such as Google help us to keep an overview. Knowledge management (KM) works in a similar way. Caroline Kant is also devel-oping a kind of “Google for scientists” – special search engines tailored to the needs of scientists.

Caroline Kant concerns herself with KM in the field of research and development at Merck Serono. For the development of new kinds of medicine in this field, an approach is needed that combines the sciences, such as chemistry, biology, pharmacology and pathology. KM has the function of gathering the information for researchers that allows them to make optimum use of existing knowledge in a given field.

One possible application of KM in par-ticular consists, for example, in using a certain software to find and analyse all the information in the specialist literature concerning a specific protein and its receptor. With the aid of the computer, hitherto unknown links may be dis-covered between a protein and its recep-tor. “Knowledge management is no sub-stitute for the scientific creativity of the scientist, but it can support them”, explains Kant.

The knowledge manager

In view of this flood of information, it has become impossible for researchers to retain all the information relevant to their field at all times and to find the needle in the haystack. It is now the task of Caroline Kant to define strategies and develop methods and computer programs so that people can find their way around this labyrinth. The 33-year-old Swiss biologist works for Merck Serono in Geneva in the Knowledge Management department, or KM for short (see box: What is knowledge management?).

Caroline Kant’s career development has been unusual. She grew up in Geneva, where she attended school. In primary school she benefited for the first time from the scientific know-how of her father, a chemist, and the creativity of her

mother, an artist: together, the three of them made a volcano of papier mâché and let it erupt in front of the class. “Of course I was the star of the day”, says Kant smiling. Ever since this day, she also knew that, later on in work, she would want both to satisfy her scientific curiosity and to give expression to her creative streak.

Later on, Kant studied biology at the University of Geneva. “I wanted to have a solid scientific foundation and understand

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how the processes of life work.” After completing her studies, she left Switzerland and the world of science and attended a design school in Los Angeles. Her first job after this training was in a company specialising in the reorientation of fashion labels.

After the birth of her daughter, the fashion world suddenly did not seem as tangible to her any longer, so she changed to the IT sector and worked with a start-up company in Silicon Valley that was developing “supercomputers”. After six years in the USA, she returned to Geneva, where she completed her biology studies and then worked in a laboratory. Then, after two years of research at the university, she realised that she did not want to go down the academic career path. “What interested me more than basic research was to understand biology in all its complexity and to look for concrete possibil-ities for application.”

She looked for and found a job at Merck Serono in Geneva, initially as coordinator of clinical studies. The career step offered her the opportunity to get to know the world of the pharmaceutical industry. “The interesting thing about this work was the perspective of being able to help sick people.” When a new group known as Knowledge Management was created as part of a comprehensive restructuring at Merck Serono, she applied for the dream job in the new department – with success.

When she is not in the office, Caroline Kant looks after her eight-year-old daughter; she cooks using the methods of molecular gastronomy and engages in sports; she jogs and does yoga.

The knowledge manager

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Isabelle Schubert Patent Lawyer, novartis

The patent lawyerIsabelle Schubert demonstrates that it is certainly possible to reconcile career and children. And her example also shows that a scientist is not necessarily confined to the laboratory and that the foundation provided by studying sciences can open up many avenues.

Isabelle Schubert is a patent lawyer, so she works at the interface between science and law. It is a job that calls for people with diverse interests, and that is also true of Schubert. Even at school she actually liked every subject, “except physics, that wasn’t my thing”. And the spectrum of her career ambitions was accordingly wide, ranging from doctor to forester. After grammar school, Schubert first went to Canada as an au pair for a year to perfect her English, then studied molecular biology, before becoming involved in patent law. Today, she has a management function in the patents department of Novartis. “My job is challenging. It calls for a sharp, analytical mind and the kind of person who can get on with a lot of different people. You have to be able

to cope with stress and to handle the pressure of deadlines. I don’t know any patent lawyer who does not love his job.”

Isabelle Schubert is a mother of two daughters aged 7 and 12 years. She works four days a week and looks after her girls on her free day. When they were younger, she took the chil-dren to the company’s internal crèche. She relaxes with yoga.

“Ms Schubert, how did you hit on the idea of becoming a patent lawyer?”“I wanted to be a lawyer originally. My stepfather, who is a patent lawyer himself, then gave me the idea. To become a patent lawyer, you need a science degree, for example in

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biology, chemistry or engineering. Of these, biology interested me the most.”

“After your biology studies you went straight into patent law?”“Not at first. After my studies, I suddenly felt that maybe research was something for me. I looked for work in Latin America to improve my Spanish, and eventually landed in Ven-ezuela, in an institute close to Caracas. There I not only found new things about serotonin receptors, but also my future husband. After a year, we returned to Switzerland. For a time, I toyed with the idea of tagging on a doctorate, but then I saw that this did not fit into my schedule. I wanted to become a patent lawyer and I already knew that I wanted to have children. Doctorate, patent lawyer and children – there just wouldn’t be time for all three, so I dropped the idea of a PhD.”

“How long did it take to qualify as a patent lawyer?”“After the science degree, three years of work experience in the field of patent law is compulsory. This is followed by a tough examination to become a European patent lawyer, which up to 70 per cent of people fail. So after passing the exam, you can be proud of possessing a qualification that is accepted throughout Europe.”

“Are there different ways of becoming a patent lawyer?”“A lot of candidates attend a course beforehand. For example, there is a postgraduate course at the ETH Zurich, which is a good preparation for the exam. There are other courses in London and Strasbourg.”

“Do all patent lawyers work in large companies?”“Most patent lawyers work either in a practice or in the patents department of a large company, such as ABB, IBM, Novartis or Roche.”

“What kind of people are patent lawyers?”“Patent lawyers are often people who are interested in science, but no longer want to work in the lab themselves. They argue cases and like to win their cases through argu-ment – for example, before the court in patent disputes.”

What does a patent lawyer do?

Patents protect inventions. It is all about enabling a person who invents something to profit from it for a set period of time and preventing others from copying the invention and also making money from it. The patent lawyer writes patents. He gets together with the researchers, who explain the inven-tion to the patent lawyer. The most import-ant question of all is: what is new about the invention? Because you can only patent something that is new. The lawyer writes a patent specification, an extensive document that sets out what the invention is about, what experiments have been done and to what the patent protection should apply. This text then goes to the patent offices, which accept or reject the application.

Patent lawyers in pharmaceutical com-panies have a lot of functions. For example, if a company wants to take over a biotech company and its drug candidate, then the patents department is needed. It has to examine how well the future active sub-stance of the biotech company is protected. It also has to find out whether a competitor could block the future product. Patents are very important for companies, and the level of responsibility borne by patent law-yers is correspondingly high.

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Born in Basel, Alex Matter went on to carve out an impressive career in research. He headed the cancer research depart-ment of the pharmaceutical company Ciba and later also of Novartis. His staff at the time were scattered all over the world – Basel, Japan, New Jersey. Until the beginning of 2009, he was Director of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore.

He has devoted almost his entire life in research to the fight against cancer. He had to put up with setbacks. He repeatedly tried to tackle cancer and beat it using new substances, and he repeatedly failed in his efforts.

A Le x M AT Ter CeO experimental Therapeutics Centre, Singapore

Alex Matter already knew when he was a young lad what he wanted to be: “At the grammar school I attended, I read almost all the books in the library. What especially interested me were the biographies of famous researchers, books about robert Koch or Louis Pasteur.” One of the books was called “The microbe hunter”. At the age of twelve, Matter knew he wanted to become a researcher, ideally a microbe hunter.

The microbe hunter

But apart from the setbacks, Matter also enjoyed success: under his leadership, a cancer medicine was developed, a medicine for a certain form of leukaemia. More than 50,000 patients have so far benefited from it. He was also respon-sible for the development of an active substance for the treatment of breast cancer and HIV/AIDS. These medicines have helped countless people and saved the lives of many of them.

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“Mr Matter, what does it take to be a successful researcher?”“It takes the willpower to keep learning something new. In research, you often set long-term goals. So a researcher must have the perseverance to stick to the pursuit of these goals over the long haul. I have grappled day and night with the sci-entific problems I had to solve. Only if you stay so focused and work hard will you succeed. This also means that family and hobbies often take a back seat.”

“What are your hobbies, when you have time for them?”“I love to travel. This year, for example, I was in Bhutan for two weeks. In South-East Asia I have now seen almost every country. But I don’t like mass tourism; I go my own way. Another hobby of mine is mountaineering. Being close to nature is important to me.”

“What fascinates you about research?”“The fact that there is always something new to discover. Every experiment is a journey into the unknown. I also like the competitive element in research. It’s all about being quicker than the competition, because in science too it is only the best and the fastest that win. But research also has a social ele-ment. Over the years, I have made a lot friends. I know people in the USA, in Asia and in Europe that I always like to visit.”

“What does a normal day in the life of Alex Matter look like?”“There are no normal days with me. As Director of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore, I am responsible for about 100 researchers and other staff. We are engaged in research on tropical diseases such as tuberculosis, dengue fever and malaria, and we want to discover new medicines for these diseases. As director of the institute, of course, I have a lot of duties, which also include information events in

Borneo, where I recently explained the treatment of malaria to an audience of 200 veiled women.”

“You developed a very successful cancer medicine. What does it take to get a medicine on to the market?“It’s like a good cake: there are many good ingredients that are important. First you need a project manager who is con-vinced of the task, is committed to it and shields the team when things are not running so smoothly. Then you need good cooperation within the team, a sense of belonging. It takes inspiration to master the difficult phases. And without a lot of money, nothing will happen, because research is time con-suming and expensive.”

Stations in the career of Alex Matter

Studied medicine in Geneva“At that time, in the 60s, when I was a stu-dent, the University of Geneva was the lead-ing place in Switzerland for research in molecular biology. What especially fascin-ated me was pathology, researching into the causes and development of diseases.”

researcher in Geneva, Harvard (USA) and LondonAfter this, Matter spent several years in medical research, in cancer research, and also in immunology. “I especially benefited as a researcher from my stays in Harvard and London.”

Meteoric career in the pharmaceutical industryLater on, he worked in various pharmaceut-ical companies, including Roche in Basel, Schering-Plough in Paris and Lyon, then Ciba and finally Novartis, back in Basel. He quickly became Group Leader and later Head of Department.

AIDS medicines for the developing worldToday, Matter is especially engaged in help-ing the millions of people suffering from AIDS in developing countries. With his foundation Esperanza, he wants to help develop low-cost AIDS medicines.

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InFOrM ATIOn M ATerI A L A nD TASKS

Life Science Learning Centerwww.lifescience-learningcenter.ch andwww.lifesciencezurich.ch

School classes, individual pupils, teachers and the interested public have an opportunity here, at the pulse of up-to-the-minute science, to carry out experiments themselves, to be infected with the fascination for life sciences and also to dis-cuss critically the importance of scientific findings for society together with researchers. The range on offer is wide: the “search for the secret code in living creatures” is offered for primary classes (4th to 6th school year); various kinds of work experience in molecular biology and gene technology are offered for classes from secondary level II. And for especially motivated grammar school pupils there is an opportunity to complete a two- to three-week period of training in research – under supervision and in a team of scientists.

On the next four pages, pupils and teachers will find some ideas for using the material presented in this brochure, for example in the form of• a list of companies that offer taster courses or work experience in the life sciences,• suggestions for group work,• information for pupils in their last year of school who are looking for an idea for their Matura essay.

The range of offers presented on this double-page spread are a non-representative selection.

novartis School Laboratorywww.schullabor.ch

The School Laboratory is a professionally supervised lab with 24 workplaces that offers school classes the opportunity to gain hands-on experience of science. Laboratory courses on genetic engineering are also offered for groups of pupils aged 17 or older and for interested adults. For teachers of senior classes there is also an opportunity to attend a gene helix workshop and then carry out experiments themselves at school. But the School Laboratory is not only concerned with genetic engineering: teaching materials on nutrition, water, soil and clothing are also available to school classes from the 6th school year upwards.

The Mobile Gene Laboratorywww.forschung-leben.ch/service/genlabor

Do you want to experience gene technology in your own classroom? The Mobile Gene Laboratory provides interested teachers and their classes with a glimpse of molecular biol-ogy in practice. With expert supervision, pupils can carry out simple gene technology experiments themselves. The fol-lowing teaching objectives are pursued:• To provide a deeper knowledge of the theory• To let pupils perform the basic techniques of molecular

biology themselves• To offer a glimpse of current research fields• To create a platform for questions and discussions

The Mobile Gene Laboratory is an offer of “Research for life”. A small contribution towards costs is payable.

Technorama – The Swiss Science Center, Youth Laboratorywww.technorama.ch

On three floors and in over 500 exhibits, the Technorama offers visitors an opportunity to experience and ‘grasp’ sci-entific phenomena through their own experiments in a play-ful way. Apart from the permanent exhibition, there is also a Youth Laboratory that focuses on chemistry and biology. Here, young researchers can experiment, for example, with a scanning tunnelling microscope or a high-speed camera and explore life in a pond.

Teachers can book the Youth Laboratory for any morning from Tuesday to Saturday for a maximum of 3 school classes. In the afternoon and at weekends, the Youth La-boratory is open to all visitors.

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Genetic research Dayswww.gentage.ch

Genetic Research Days are held every spring. The varied range of Gene Days offers, amongst other things, the opportunity to complete a trial day in a research lab. Dozens of research-ers throughout Switzerland are on hand to provide individual support to interested people for a whole day.

Conversely, researchers may also be invited to visit a school, where they will present a paper on their research work, answer questions on the subject and also on the job and everyday routine of researchers.

The Gene Days are supported by a total of 26 organisations and institutes, including the Swiss National Science Founda-tion.

Support for Matura essayswww.maturitywork.scnat.ch

Over 250 research groups from universities, industry and practice open their doors for sponsorship. They place their skills, their infrastructure and their instruments at the dis-posal of final-year Matura pupils for four half-days (or more) to support them in their Matura essays.

The support is aimed at all pupils, not only those who want to specialise in natural sciences.

Biotech Learning Centrewww.interpharma.ch/biotechlerncenter

Pupils and teachers find information and examples of mod-ern biological and medical research here. The text content is structured so that it can be used for presentations or as background information for teachers. Apart from the texts, there are also graphics, photos and films available as free downloads. The individual chapters are supplemented with work sheets to help structure the teaching and also news-paper articles on the subject concerned. The Biotech Learn-ing Centre is aimed at pupils of senior classes at vocational schools and grammar school level.

The following are some of the topics addressed:• Biotechnology and genetic engineering: a journey to

our genes• How a medicine is developed: a long road• The new generation of cancer medicines• Monoclonal antibodies: beating cancer with antibodies• The huge potential of stem cells• The dilemma with animal experiments• Vaccination: self-defence for the immune system

roche Genetics education Programwww.roche.com

The Roche Genetics Education Program consists of a CD-ROM (available in nine languages) and can also be found in an online version (available in eleven languages). It covers various subjects, including an introduction to genetics, the genetics of complex diseases and pharmacogenetics. Further information for teachers is contained in the ‘teach-er’s manual’.

Udder cell

Egg cell

Embryo

Cloned lamb

Donor nucleus

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InFOrM ATIOn M ATerI A L A nD TASKS

Martine Clozel

Group workMany medicines are not approved for use in children, but are administered to children in the category of so-called off- label use. Since a child weighs less than an adult, the child is given a correspondingly smaller amount of the medicine. But the child’s body may react in quite a different way from the body of an adult. To prevent this, corresponding studies should be carried out in children and young people.

Are clinical studies allowed in children and young people? What is the case for it? What is the case against ?

Information materialHealth dossier: www.interpharma.ch/de/forschung/Dossier-Gesundheit.asp

• Children are not small adults – not in the case of medicines either (07/2005)

• Is research with children allowed? (02/2006)• To ensure that children no longer have to take bitter

medicine (05/2008)

Markus Affolter

Markus Affolter could not have gained his insights without the help of fruit flies and zebra fish. Research is dependent on such model organisms and experiments with them.

Is the genetic modification of animals permitted or is this an inadmissible interference in nature? Are animals allowed to be bred to serve as suppliers of organs for humans? What is the difference between genetic modification and breeding?

Informationwww.interpharma.ch/biotechlerncenter/de/Gentechnisch- veraenderte-Tiere.asp

Helma Wennemers

Listen to the radio episode of Helma Wennemers of Radio DRS:http://www.chemie.unibas.ch/~wennemer/hp/Index.html(“on the air”, “February 2006, Chemie als Feindbild”)

What do you think of when you hear the terms chemistry and organic? Why do you think that is?

Isabelle Schubert

Guide for a debate on patentsThe following groups are formed: one group collects informa-tion on the case for patents, the second group on the case against patents. Each group assigns two speakers, who then present their group’s case in the arena, followed by discus-sion. A facilitator will also be needed to lead the discussion and to make sure that both parties have about the same amount of time to speak. The facilitator also opens the dis-cussion for votes by the other pupils.

Material can be found here, for example:www.interpharma.ch/biotechlerncenter/de/Patente.asp

Alexander Mayweg

As a small boy, Alexander Mayweg was treated with antibiotics and was surprised by the effect of these medicines. Find out how antibiotics work. Why do antibiotics only work against bacteria, but not against viruses?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotika

Debora Keller

At which universities in Switzerland can you study biology and chemistry? How long does such a course take? What sub-jects are taught on these courses?

www.berufsberatung.ch

Could you also imagine working in cancer research? Why? Why not?

Livio Baselgia

Where can information be found on choosing a course of study?Many universities offer advice on studies. Experts are on hand to advise you about a course of study and everything related to it.

www.berufsberatung.ch

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Alex Matter

As a small boy, Alex Matter read books about famous researchers, such as Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur. What did these two scientists discover? Today, Alex Matter researches on new medicines for malaria. How is malaria transmitted? Draw the life cycle of the parasite that causes malaria.Where and in what way could the cycle be interfered with to stop the spread of malaria? Where could medicines be used selectively to target the parasite?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria

Quiz: What’s the symbol?

In the background to each of the ten portraits in this brochure is a symbol. Find out what the symbols stand for.

Helma Wennemers:

Martine Clozel:

Markus Affolter:

Luca Piali:

Alexander Mayweg:

Livio Baselgia:

Debora Keller:

Caroline Kant:

Isabelle Schubert:

Alex Matter:

Hel

ma

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str

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de; M

arti

ne C

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tan;

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ebra

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;

Luca

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s; A

lexa

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May

weg

: str

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f the

bra

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inin

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; Liv

io B

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bac

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i;

Deb

ora

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chr

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; Car

olin

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Further offers on the Web

• Academies in Switzerland: www.akademien-schweiz.ch

• Biovalley College Network: www.biovalley-college.net

• Gene ABC: www.gene-abc.ch

• Internutrition: www.internutrition.ch

• Roche training material on genetics: www.roche.com/de/research_and_development/ r_d_overview/education.htm

• Science et Cité: www.science-et-cite.ch

• Schweizer Jugend forscht: www.sjf.ch

• SimplyScience: www.simplyscience.ch

• Science olympiads: www.olympiads.ch

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GLO S S A rY

Antibiotics | Antibiotics are substances that kill bacteria or inhibit their growth. They come from fungi, bacteria or are produced synthetically.

Chromosomes | Chromosomes are structural forms of DNA and proteins that contain the genetic information of a living organism. They contain for example the information needed to produce proteins. Every cell of a higher organism with a cell nucleus is equipped with the full set of chromosomes. The set of chromosomes in humans comprises 2 × 23 chromosomes in the somatic cells.

Clinical study | The most common form of clinical study is the clinical testing of medicines, an investigation conducted in humans with the purpose of researching or proving the clinical or pharmacological effects of medicines or determining side effects.

DnA | DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) carries the genetic information. It represents the chemical substance of the genes. The basic building blocks are adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine, phosphate and deoxyribose. The linear sequence of these building blocks is called the DNA sequence.

Doctorate/Dr/PhD | A doctorate is a PhD (Latin for philo-sophiae doctor). It usually takes three to four years to obtain a doctorate or PhD.

Drosophila | Drosophila melanogaster, also known as the fruit fly. It has long been the “pet” of geneticists and an important experimental animal in basic research.

Gene | DNA segment that carries the instructions for building an individual protein or for RNA. The insulin gene, for example, carries the information for building the insulin protein.

Human medicine | Human medicine is the science of preven-tion, detection and treatment of diseases and injuries in humans (in contrast to veterinary medicine, which focuses on animals).

Immunology | Immunology is the science that is concerned with the biological and medical aspects of the body’s own defences (immune system).

MBA | MBA stands for Master of Business Administration, a course of management study that is intended to cover all essential management functions.

Molecule | A stable chemical compound that is made up of single atoms and has a characteristic property.

nanotechnology | Nano-scale technologies, a nanometre is one billionth of a metre (10−9 m).

nMr | Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a method used for elucidating the structure of molecules.

Patent | Patents are protection rights for intellectual prop-erty. Patents protect investments, because a patent allows the inventor to protect his invention for a limited period and to prevent others making commercial use of it. The inventor receives a patent in return for disclosing his knowledge in a description, which thus also gives other researchers access to new knowledge.

Peptide | Peptides are small proteins (amino acid chains) that perform important functions in the body.

Phosphorylation | With the aid of the molecule ATP and its phosphate groups, proteins are activated by transferring the phosphate group to them. This is an important and basic prin-ciple of biology.

Postdoc | Postdoc is the abbreviation for postdoctoral researcher. This is a scientist who is employed, for example, at a university on completion of a doctorate (PhD thesis), dur-ing which he collaborates in research projects.

Protein | Proteins are not only those substances of which the cells are largely made up, but are also responsible for almost all vital functions in the body. Proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids.

Pulmonary hypertension | Pulmonary hypertension is caused by increased resistance in the blood vessels of the lungs and increased blood pressure in the pulmonary circulation. Patients suffer from severely impaired physical capability, disorders of the circulation and tiredness.

receptor | A receptor may, for example, be a protein on the surface of a cell. A messenger substance docks onto the receptor, which transmits the signal to the inside of the cell.

restriction enzyme | These enzymes can cut the DNA at cer-tain points rather like scissors. Restriction enzymes are one of the most important tools of biotechnology.

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entry into the life sciencesAre you interested in science? Would you like to taste the atmosphere in a lab to see whether research might be something for you? These companies, for example, offer the opportunity to take part in taster days, work experience or tours of the company (on request).

A selection of companiesActelion www.actelion.chAmgen www.amgen.chBachem AG www.bachem.chBASF www.basf.chBayer www.bayer.chCiba AG www.ciba.chCilag AG www.cilag.chClariant www.clariant.chDSM AG www.dsm.comems-Chemie AG www.ems-group.chFirmenich www.firmenich.comGivaudan www.givaudan.comGalenica www.galenica.chLonza AG www.lonza.chMerck Serono SA www.merck.chnestlé SA www.nestle.chnovartis www.novartis.chPfizer www.pfizer.chSyngenta AG www.syngenta.chSiegfried www.siegfried.chroche www.roche.chvifor www.vifor.ch

Making role models known

Pupils and teachers are always complaining about a lack of role models in the life sciences. The fact is that there are a lot of role models among biologists, chemists and doctors, but they are often not well known enough.

This brochure is designed to change this by offering a glimpse into the fascinating world of the life sciences. It presents a snapshot of ten journeys through life: by fi ve women and fi ve men from all over Switzerland. From the eTH student through the chemistry professor to the founder of an international company. Why did they choose to study biology, chemistry or medicine? What is their work like? Anyone interested can fi nd answers to these questions in the brochure and the companion DvD fi lms.