For the past 25 years Dr. Ivan has studied the molecular responses to hypoxia and his signature paper published in 2001 in the journal Science was recognized as essential for the Nobel Assembly’s decision on the 2019 Prize for Medicine or Physiology. His group was the first to describe the noncoding arm of the hypoxic response and introduced the concept “hypoxia-regulated miRNAs” (HRMs). More recently, his team characterized a long noncoding RNA termed LincNORS which responds to multiple microenvironmental and developmental cues and is associated with sexual maturation traits in all relevant population studies.
1. How could you describe the research area in which you are active and its relevance to human health?
Understanding how cells and organisms respond to changes in ambient oxygen; the significance of genetic variations for human phenotypes; noncoding RNA genes.
2. What determined you to pursue a career as a researcher, especially in a foreign country?
The curiosity to discover something new in the world. I left Romania at a time when this was hardly a dilemma.
3. Who inspired and inspires you as a scientist?
George Emil Palade, Fred Sanger, Alfred G. Gilman among many others.
4. What do you consider to be the most important stages in the process of carrying out research work and how do you think young researchers can be supported by more experienced mentors?
Learning how to ask questions and pursue answers without conformation biases. Especially these days, a rather rarely cultivated value. Teaching students and young scientists how to pursue science driven by curiosity and logical fallacies is the most challenging by also potentially the most rewarding enterprise of our age.
5. What do you think would be the key points to be achieved at the level of a course on an educational topic in the field of biosciences, to stimulate creativity and capture the attention of young researchers?
I am particularly keen to teach them how to integrate large genomic datasets to test the validity of published studies and generate sound hypotheses. This is rarely taught in both undergrad and graduate courses.