BIOCEV's Ruth Tachezy: Taking aim at the unexpected ****************************************************************************************** * BIOCEV's Ruth Tachezy: Taking aim at the unexpected ****************************************************************************************** If the novel coronavirus had never hit, Ruth Tachezy would have been doing other things: a funding, heading a national reference laboratory, and publishing. She would have been help at the Faculty of Science and would have been preparing for an upcoming conference and a m vacation. Instead, she opted to tackle a higher “mountain”, setting her sights on SARS-CoV that changed the world drastically in just a few months. Do you remember your thoughts when you first heard about the outbreak in China? I do. I tried to be optimistic. In interviews I wanted to calm the public and I didn’t adm that the outbreak could go global and turn into a real pandemic. I thought the outbreak wo in two or three countries, like the original SARS, that it would be contained. In a way, t they unfolded reminded me a little of 9/11. Then, I had been waiting to pay at a gas stati airing images of the planes hitting the World Trade Center in New York. I didn’t realise i I was seeing was real but thought it was“just some stupid film”. But of course, it wasn’t. the pandemic was similar: a week earlier, my son, daughter and I were watching a BBC docum pandemics and suddenly here we were… in the midst of one. It might sound strange, but in terms of your profession it must be an interesting period; I would never say I was happy to have gone through this experience but it’s true that “on a situation I had always been curious about. It was within the realm of possibility and on something like this might happen one day. But a real epidemic or pandemic is extremely dis difficult to tackle – for all of us – and is not anything anyone can be happy about. When did you first realise the gravity of the situation? Before the outbreak spread significantly in Wuhan, friends and I had been organising an an High Tatras in Slovakia. We go there every winter. I mostly leave the climbing to others n a lot of trekking and now that my kids are older they often come too and help me carry my top (laughs). But as the extent of the crisis became clear, we cancelled our plans – just restrictions the pandemic brought. Who did you get your love of the mountains from? I come from a family of mountaineers and mountain climbers. In the early 1970s, my dad, Ja founded a mountaineering club in Vrchlabí. He himself was a famous mountaineer who had bee Czechoslovak expeditions in the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, and other major mountain ranges is one of the oldest surviving members of the first expedition in Afghanistan. Since he an passionate about sports and travelled often to the mountains, my sister and I also “caught said, I suffered a bad injury in a climbing accident 10 years ago which could easily have My kids love climbing too, though: my daughter has been climbing since she was 15 and my s to dissuade a little from taking up the sport, does orienteering. Now he has gotten me int orienteering as well. We all the love the mountains, including my husband, whether on foot country skis. Do you remember your first bigger climb? My father took me to the Caucasus Mountains and I remember the climb as being extremely di long; in terms of energy I hit rock bottom. Later in life, it helped greatly: whenever I f situation where I thought I was “down”, I knew that I still had reserves I could draw upon taught me discipline, strength of will and the ability to take responsible decisions at to like that with many sports. I was a downhill skier, who attended a sports academy and race competed at university. Regular training teaches you to organise your time. But even thoug important, my parents still emphasised academic excellence. Had my marks suffered in schoo they would have let me continue doing sport. If we turn to work, the coronavirus soon became the main focus, didn’t it? At first, colleagues and I prepared testing at the Institute of Hematology and Blood Trans lab was successfully up and running, I began testing samples at BIOCEV. Usually I’d be the 7 am sometimes to midnight and at home I’d still have to prepare for the next day. The per Things are now changing: responsibilities at the department are calling; although I remain my students throughout the crisis, I still felt like it wasn’t enough. I am trying to bala now with online courses and individual consultations. I also gave a lot of interviews, for to study all of the latest information. I am continuing to follow the latest epidemiologic answer dozens of emails a day and handle numerous calls. On top of that, you have regular tasks and problems that arise. And of course each day at BIOCEV, we have to release the re hundreds of samples. What first drew you to microbiology when you were younger? I was always interested in medicine. My mum, a paediatrician, worked until she was 86! I l her to the hospital. I wondered who her patients were and what treatment they were receivi liked microbiology and recommended me a book on the subject that became my favourite. My a microbiologist at the National Institute of Public Health, was also a big inspiration for become a doctor and even to take part in rescue missions around the world. Circumstances, me at home: first the former communist regime made it impossible to travel, and later when family, I did not want to be away from my children. How did you put together your current team? There was a lot of enthusiasm. It was an emergency situation and we were in a position to are a very specific community: most of us are happy to stick to our research and there is a bit of rivalry. But here a lot of people got involved very quickly and one of the reason running so successfully was because of support from BIOCEV management, the Faculty of Scie Vice-Rector Jan Konvalinka. They made it possible to begin proper testing, quickly. Have you ever joined forces against a “common enemy” with others? With someone who might o been a rival? It happened a lot before the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989 whe enemy was the regime. That brought us together then – in the labs and even in the mountain of fun, felt safe in each other’s company, shared a lot similar views and felt very little This was a little bit similar. Do you have a favourite story from those days? The most personal one is from my marriage. My husband is a parasitologist; in 1986, before left for two years on an internship in China. There were no mobile phones, email didn’t ex took weeks to arrive and were censored. I was head-over-heels in love and he just disappea much wanted to travel to see him but wasn’t given permission by the state. So we came up w getting married at the embassy in China in line with the Helsinki Accords. But that was al know what happened? My partner filled in the necessary papers in China, and I got married a friend acting as a surrogate during the ceremony! Once married, I thought the authoritie let me go and see him. And they didn’t! They claimed I didn’t have the sufficient capital At the time, my father was at basecamp at Mt. Everest but when he heard about it, he conta in Switzerland and asked her to send me 300 dollars. I got the funds and became eligible. all the necessary documents from the ministries of education, finance and foreign affairs for three days at the then-state travel agency Čedok to get a train ticket from Ulaanbaata obstacles remained and I was able to reunite with my husband. And here we are: today, you are a top scientist and once again China is the centre of the I try to do my job as best I can and I enjoy it. In science, nothing is ever complete, the more to be done, and there are always things that could be done better. My parents didn’t relax. In the 1990s, I worked with great enthusiasm to improve screening for cervical canc focusing on related viruses. I spent a considerable part of my career fighting for vaccine papillomavirus, and it wasn’t easy and came down to money. The intensity was similar to what I am experiencing now: it was necessary to fund research and to back studies running then. It made sense to me. I always asked people I wanted to w wanted to do something together that would matter, or make a difference. Something they wo for, for which there’d be no medal. I don’t know what must have gone through their minds, rather have killed me (laughs). But the fact that people came on board was great: on your get the same results. Where are we when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic? Is the end far? Or near? I am a little afraid that the “easiest” solution, developing a vaccine for broad immunisat not just around the corner. A vaccine stimulating the production of antibodies is certainl but it may not succeed, for many reasons. Another approach can be a vaccine stimulating a capable of wiping out infected cells. That road is even more uncertain and difficult. All to be optimistic and believe we will come up with a vaccine, even if it takes longer. What about effective treatment? There might be a greater chance there: tens of thousands of molecules are being tested and some will prove effective against the illness. If they stopped the potential infection of they could be used preventively. But to manufacture enough to“cover” the entire world popu greater challenge than tackling a local epidemic. How do you see the lifting of restrictions and return to normal life? I think that the head of the country’s healthcare statisticians, Ladislav Dušek, and Profe Prymula, who is the deputy health minister, did a fine job and I think decisions that were correct. What happens next will depend a great deal on how people will behave and whether continue to respect restrictions as they are lifted. If you suddenly have crowds of people beer, that’s not following recommendations. It would be easier perhaps if the virus were “ coming days will determine where we go from here, but if people who are annoyed and tired suddenly throw all caution to the wind, there could be local outbreaks and hot spots. On t people are careful, the warmer months may see transmission of the virus stop. And then? It’s possible the novel coronavirus will just disappear one day with “a snap of the finger not very likely. If it comes back, it could become seasonal, like the flu. Ahead of us is where there will be fewer serious cases, I think, but in my opinion, it will take roughly restrictions are completely lifted. But I think it’s the only way forward. We’ll have to k on developments and in the case of sudden increases of cases, temporarily tighten restrict main task is to ensure the virus doesn’t ever swamp the healthcare system. Certainly, it h especially for families with little kids. But also for people who live alone. Ruth Tachezy, Ph.D., was born in Olomouc, in the former Czechoslovakia. She studied molecu She is a researcher in the Department of Experimental Virology at the Institute of Hematol heads the Department of Genetics and Microbiology at the Faculty of Science.