A snail's tale, by Dr. Lourdes Cruz
Scientists often seem to work at a snail’s pace when it comes to discovering something new and beneficial to society. That’s because behind every successful experiment published there are hundreds of failed ones, and to keep pushing forward requires an unreserved amount of patience and perseverance, as well as some pretty damn good luck. So as scientific inquiries go, a snail’s pace is actually a commendable speed, but a snail’s carapace — why, that’s an even better contribution.
Professor Lourdes J. Cruz of the Marine Science Institute of UP Diliman was recently awarded the prestigious “For Women In Science” award in Paris, France along with four other female scientists from around the world. Representing the Asia Pacific region, Prof. Cruz is the first Filipino and the first from the ASEAN region to be recognized in the 12-year-old competition held jointly by UNESCO and the L’Oreal Foundation. Her work on venomous marine snails, which began in the ’70s, led to the discovery of conotoxins that can serve as pharmaceutical probes used to study brain function. They have already been used in developing Prialt, a new painkiller that is a thousand times stronger than morphine.
The award is significant as it caps a lifetime of work her and her collaborator, Dr. Baldomero Olivera, have accomplished between the Philippines and the University of Utah. The 67-year-old biochemist is also recently retired, and has committed her full prize money of $100,000 to Rural LINC, an NGO that she established in 2001. If scientists often seem to work in an ivory tower, or rather a cold lab detached from the rest of society, Prof. Cruz is an example of a researcher who can build a bridge between microscopic tissues and socio-economic issues, one who does not forget the complex, unquantifiable mess of humanity that makes up our world. As a woman, this comes naturally, though not without difficulty, as women scientists with families and other concerns will attest. And though she has hung up her lab coat, science still informs her way of life as she introduces scientific methods to help uplift poor communities. The professor is indeed proof that science needs women.
She Studies Sea Snails By The Sea Shore
Her father was a chemist, her mother a dentist, and at a young age, Lourdes Cruz discovered she had an aptitude for science. “My father taught us that education is very important, it’s something nobody can take away from you,” she says. After majoring in chemistry at the University of the Philippines, she went on to receive her master’s and PhD in biochemistry from the University of Iowa. Her initial foray into the world of poisonous snails was triggered by the desire to find out what in these snails actually killed people. The Conus geographus, familiar to beachcombers and collectors as the shell with trippy brownish-and-white patterns, is the deadliest among the Conus species, having evolved as a slow-moving predator in the highly competitive coral reef community.
“There were many things that we couldn’t do in the Philippines when I first found the active component in the venom,” Prof. Cruz recalls, elaborating on the lack of science funding and equipment in the country. “The analysis was not sensitive enough, so I had to go to Utah. There we learned that these were peptides.” The collaboration turned out to be fortuitous, as the Philippines had an abundance of marine specimen while labs were well-funded and supplies cheaper in the States.
But despite being a surprisingly dangerous animal (the little cone snail hunts for fish by extending a harpoon-like tooth filled with venom, which paralyzes its prey), the threat to humans remains low. You can surely outrun a snail after all, unless you stick one inside your swimming trunks, as one sting victim in Batangas unfortunately did. Developing an antivenin seemed impractical, and the research team only realized that the peptides they were studying could be used for something else entirely when they consulted with electrophysiologists.
“They helped us find out what type of venom acted upon calcium channels, which are important in releasing neurotransmitters,” Prof. Cruz describes. “The cone snail toxins are very specific and can distinguish between the types of channels, which have different functions in the brain. This is the key to their success as tools in neuroscience, and their success in developing drugs against pain.”
The conotoxin, a type of peptide, acts as a painkiller by inhibiting calcium channels. The market for painkillers is huge, and Prialt is the only non-opioid treatment for pain, and an alternative to the highly-addictive morphine. Another toxin, called conantokin, is being studied for its potential in developing anti-epileptic drugs (fun fact: conantokin was coined from the Tagalog antukin, because of its calming properties). The neurological world has found a gold mine under a sea shell, and the Philippines, as a center of marine biodiversity, is home to at least 200 species, of which only 30 or so have been studied. Moreover, each type of venom has up to 200 active agents. “There’s still a lot of hidden treasures there,” Prof. Cruz says. “They might disappear if we don’t hurry and study them.”
Fruits Of Her Labor
Prof. Cruz, nearing retirement age, started asking herself what she has contributed to her country outside of science: “I’ve been working in the lab the whole time, what have I really done to help my people, especially the poor communities?” Almost 10 years ago, she put up the Rural Livelihood Incubator, a program that mobilizes science and technology to alleviate poverty, particularly among the indigenous Aetas, the women farmers and the fisher folk in the Bataan province.
“Bataan is our pilot site. We’re hoping that whatever we learn from that area can be applied to other communities,” she explains. The program centers around biodiversity and conservation projects, teaching the Aetas how to gather fruit from the forest trees, which they can sell to the women farmers who run a fruit processing facility. The Aetas will also be growing and replanting a variety of seedlings, helping in the reforestation process. Prof. Cruz adds, “The lowlanders used to cut down the trees for charcoal, but now they know how to earn a yearly income from making jams, jellies and wine from the fruits.”
The original camp was set up on land that the government was supposed to return to the Aetas but hasn’t yet. Prof. Cruz, with her prize money, just purchased a piece of land to serve as a new base, since they are going to be kicked out of the old one. She is keeping a promise to Lawrence Ong, the friend who introduced her to the community and who said before passing away, “Please don’t stop helping the Aetas gain their independence.” Rural LINC engenders real sustainability by helping the Aetas for a definite period of time, after which they in turn are supposed to help other communities.
“We’re very impressed because she wants to help her community and give back her prize. She’s very modern, in a way,” says Valérie Nowak, deputy CEO of L’Oreal Foundation. “She’s very generous and wants to make science help people in a concrete way.”
Women On Top
Ever since Prof. Cruz received that midnight call from Prof. Günter Blobel, jury president and 1999 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, her life has been a flurry of activity and press interviews. Photographers and filmmakers flew to the Philippines to document her life; the full-page feature she received in Le Monde sparked a wider, general interest in her work. In Paris for the For Women in Science Week, the professor was booked back to back for conferences, panel lectures and TV interviews. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to know more about this Filipina scientist who opened up new pathways in pharmacology and neurology and still gave her reward back to society.
At the L’Oreal-UNESCO awards ceremony on March 4, Prof. Cruz stood amongst four other accomplished women who represented the strongest and most innovative female scientists from their region: Rashika El Ridi from Egypt, as the awardee for Africa and the Middle East, Anne Dejean-Assémat from France, representing Europe, Alejandra Bravo from Mexico, for Latin America, and Elaine Fuchs from the US, for North America. All their stories were equally compelling, and while they worked in diverse fields from stem cell research to tropical disease vaccines, what they had in common was an incredibly supportive family and an upbringing that highly valued education and hard work. Most, if not all of their own parents, worked in the sciences as well. Growing up in this environment also gave them ability to face, without fear, the challenges of being a female in a male-dominated field. They also never stop asking questions, nor stop trying to find the answers to questions no one else dares to ask.
These five women are in some good company — two of last year’s laureates went on to receive the Nobel Prize in their respective areas. A worldwide network of over 900 women scientists have signed the Charter of Commitment to inspire future generations and encourage other women scientists to act as agents of change. Prof. Cruz is keeping this commitment, and will serve on the jury of the first L’Oreal-UNESCO fellowship program for young female scientists in the Philippines this year. She notes that other Asian countries whose governments have poured money into the sciences have leaped forward in progress, while our budget allocation for science and technology accounts for less than one percent. Hopefully this award, a global recognition for achievements with limitless implications, will show that Filipinos aren’t just boxers on the world stage, we are also brains.
