SPOTLIGHT 1015
Development 137, 1015-1016 (2010) doi:10.1242/dev.050138
© 2010. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
An interview with Rong Li
Rong Li is an Investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, USA. Her lab is made up of a lively team who
are all fascinated by cellular asymmetry, division and evolution. Rong joined Development as an editor in 2009. We interviewed
Rong to find out about her work and career, her interest in developmental biology and her new role with the journal.
You started your own lab at Harvard –
how did that happen?
At what age did you realise you
wanted to be a scientist?
When I was in high school. I was very
interested in science and it was also
expected of me, partly because both my
parents are geologists and partly because of
the attitudes prevalent in China in the early
80s. High school students with good grades
in maths and physics were given a lot of
encouragement to take their study of science
and technology further.
How did you choose your college?
I applied to a US college – Yale – as I was
planning to study molecular biology. To be
honest, I hardly knew what molecular
biology was at the time but I was certain that
I would have to go abroad to get the best
education possible in that field of science.
I was recruited by Marc Kirschner, who had
just moved to Harvard Medical School to be
the Chair of Cell Biology. Marc was one of
my professors at the University of
California, San Francisco, a scientist I really
admired. I left David Drubin’s lab at UC
Berkeley before I had any publications as a
postdoc, because I just couldn’t pass on an
opportunity to work alongside Marc.
Were there other important mentors
in your life?
I left China for the US when I was very
young. Being far from home and my family,
I couldn’t have gone very far without lots of
mentors at each step of my career path. They
include a senior chemistry professor who
went out of his way to tutor and encourage
me when I had tremendous difficulties with
the language as a freshman at Yale, the
people I worked with as an undergrad who
introduced me to the art of experimental
biology, one of my graduate mentors, Tim
Mitchison, who later became a close
colleague in the same institution, and, of
course, Marc Kirschner, who gave me
unwavering support when I struggled
mightily as a starting Assistant Professor.
Did you ever want to be anything
else?
An artist! As a child I was very interested in
art and did a lot of drawing and painting. At
home this wasn’t considered a promising
basis for a future career but, after reaching
Yale, I signed up for a double major, taking
roughly equal numbers of courses in
Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Interview by Kathryn Senior*
Freelance Science and Medical Writer
*Author for correspondence
([email protected])
I left China for the US when
I was very young. I couldn’t
have gone very far without
lots of mentors at each step
of my career path.
If I had to name my one most important
scientific mentor, it would be my PhD thesis
advisor Andrew Murray. Andrew taught me
how to think and what to strive for in
science. Over the years, Andrew has always
helped me maintain a balanced perspective
and has been an important source of advice
and inspiration.
You run many different research
projects at Stowers – which do you
enjoy the most?
The best thing about being at the Stowers is
that I can focus on my interests without
distraction. When I moved my lab there in
2005, I made a conscious decision to
investigate questions that are truly
fascinating but are risky and open-ended,
either by adding new approaches to
scientific lines of enquiry I was already
pursuing or by developing new lines of
research. This decision has shaped all of our
current work. I particularly enjoy projects in
which the outcome of each step is
unpredictable, as they produce the most
surprising and exciting findings.
If you could find the answer to one
developmental biology question
tomorrow, what would that question
be?
I would want to know how precise and
reproducible developmental patterns arise
as a result of dynamic, often promiscuous
interactions of lots of molecules present in
fluctuating amounts. I’m intrigued by the
idea, as elaborated in Stuart Kauffman’s
book, The Origins of Order, that biological
systems operate on the edge of chaos.
Kauffman argues that such systems are best
able to coordinate complex tasks and are
poised to evolve under selective forces. It
will be interesting to explore this idea in
specific cellular and developmental
systems. The complexity and dynamic
nature of developmental systems will
require the application of non-traditional
approaches.
What have you discovered in your
scientific work that has been a real
surprise?
I love surprises, even if they prove me
wrong, and I’ve had a few good ones! One
surprise that had a profound impact on how
I think about biological systems came from
DEVELOPMENT
and Fine Art. In the end, though, science
won, because I thought it would be easier to
pursue art as a hobby rather than the other
way around.
1016 SPOTLIGHT
You run a large group – how do you
find the management and mentoring
side of science?
I learned a lot from my own mistakes
running a lab at Harvard, which was much
smaller than the one I have right now (about
20 people currently). When I was rebuilding
my lab at Stowers I decided to change my
approach to become a much more dedicated
mentor. This is one side of science that I
really enjoy these days.
Where would you like to be and what
would you like to be doing in 20 years
time?
I’d like to be exploring the subject of
theoretical biology because I personally feel
that the post-genomic biology needs some
overarching theories. I also enjoy the mental
process of receiving and integrating diverse
kinds of information and trying to figure out
how the information is connected and what
general principles it may convey. I’ve also
always envied the fact that theorists can do
their work from anywhere – my husband
and I both grew up in China but have
happily transplanted ourselves into the
American culture. We hope to have the
opportunity to experience living in other
cultures too.
How did you become involved with
the journal Development?
I came on board at the invitation of the new
Editor in Chief, Olivier Pourquié. He was at
Stowers for several years before his
departure to head the IGBMC in Strasbourg.
One of Olivier’s goals is to add a cell and
systems
biology
perspective
to
Development, which I believe is worthwhile
because fascinating and wide-open cell
biology problems abound in developmental
processes. I also think that studying cell
biology in the context of development rather
than in generic cell culture models is much
more meaningful. It is so important to find
ways to move beyond specific gene-centric
views and to promote studies that attempt to
explain morphogenetic phenomena from the
perspective of complex dynamic systems.
I’d like very much to contribute to this
effort.
What do you enjoy about your role
with the journal?
I get a lot out of being the first to read some
of the best work in developmental cell
biology. Through the process of evaluating
these manuscripts, I hope to learn a lot more
about developmental biology, get to know
and interact with researchers in this
community, and help shape new
perspectives for research on developmental
systems.
What do you feel is the main benefit
of the journal in this field of science?
Development is a leading journal in the field
of developmental biology. It serves the
developmental biology research community
by dedicating itself to the best work in this
field, and hopefully also by broadening the
vision and approach of the field with
cutting-edge thinking and methodology in
cell and systems biology. The fact that all of
the Editors are scientists themselves with
expertise in various areas separates
Development from journals whose Editors
are not research scientists. Free access to
certain papers and freely available color
figures are two other outstanding features
that are highly appreciated by the research
community, especially in this time of
funding shortage.
One of Olivier’s goals is to
add a cell and systems
biology perspective to
Development, which I
believe is worthwhile
because fascinating and
wide-open cell biology
problems abound in
developmental processes.
What do you do to take a break from
science?
I have a lot of hobbies outside science, such
as arts, sports, good food and wine, and
travelling. I’ve always thrived on working
hard and playing hard, ever since my
student days. When I return home from
work, my favourite outside activity
nowadays is playing with my children.
If you could give one piece of advice
to a young scientist starting out on
their first degree today, what would it
be?
To realise that a large percentage of
experiments fail miserably on a daily basis,
especially if one strives to answer
significant questions. The key to
maintaining the energy and drive to move
forward continuously is to recognise that
each non-trivial negative result reveals
something useful. This can be a glitch in
thinking or a problem in the experimental
approach. Being able to learn something, no
matter how small, from a negative result
takes you forward because it enables you to
be better at designing and interpreting the
next experiment. Quantum leaps in the
discovery process are built upon many small
steps that seem insignificant individually.
What one thing would people be
surprised to learn about you?
We have a small weekend farm outside
Kansas City in a beautiful area of rolling
meadows, hickory woods and creeks. We
grow, with the help of a professional farmer,
alternating crops of corns and soybeans, and
have a good-sized vegetable garden. Both
my husband and I grew up in a big city but
the farmland all around Kansas City
prompted us to try a rural lifestyle. So far,
weekend and holiday living on a farm has
been a most unusual and rewarding
experience.
Which of the following would you
mind the least: doing a parachute
jump, going deep-sea diving or being
stranded on a desert island – and
why?
I haven’t done any of these, but I’d
definitely put deep-sea diving on my to-do
list. Falling from the sky, by whatever
method, holds no appeal for me, and I’d
miss my family too much if I were stranded
on a desert island.
Reference
Kauffman, S. A. (1993). The Origins of Order: SelfOrganization and Selection in Evolution. New York:
Oxford University Press.
DEVELOPMENT
studying a yeast cell. We supplied a nonpolarised yeast cell with high doses of
activated Cdc42 GTPase and were amazed
to observe that it polarises robustly, albeit in
random directions, without the influence of
any existing spatial asymmetry. Before this
experiment, we had thought that the origin
of cell polarity came from the inductive
power of external, pre-existing spatial cues,
such as existing structural ‘landmarks’ or
diffusible chemoattractant gradients. The
unmistakable ability of cells to break
symmetry and polarise without these cues,
just by reaching a certain internal
biochemical state, highlights the principle of
‘self-organisation’. I had heard of this but
never really considered it in my own work;
now, I think about it all the time, even when
considering problems outside cell polarity.
Development 137 (7)