HICOE Status – Asset or Liability?
UMBI was given a total of RM5.6 million under the HICOE programme in 2010. This amount was actually smaller than many of the LRGS projects which averages about RM7-8 million. With this amount each HICOE was asked not only to produce high end publications and graduate students on time but also to be regional in stature at the end of the programme.
We took the challenge, albeit we all know it takes time and big ringgit (I mean really many big ringgits) to propel from a national level to a regional class research institute. UMBI proposed a very challenging project on Cancer Biomarkers focusing on colorectal cancers and gliomas. Cancer research as we know is very competitive and in USA alone the National Institutes of Health invested more than USD10 billion a year on cancer research alone. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) consortium based in the USA has begun whole genome sequencing of more than 1000 tumours samples since 2007 itself. There are many more consortiums in cancer research worldwide and Malaysia is not a member in any of them, as many of these consortiums requires us to have a major dataset to be able to be a contributing member. For example, the Cancer Genome Consortium requires a member country to have genome datasets on a minimum of 500 samples for one cancer type. For whole genome sequencing, which costs USD4000 at the moment per sample, one needs to invest in USD2 million just for one 500-genome dataset. This is the reason why some of our researchers take the easier path by contributing samples and data just to get their names in very high impact publications. The lack of significant funding also means, we are unable to generate high throughput data. When the grants are small in number, samples size gets smaller and hence the study power diminishes making it extremely hard for reviewers to accept our manuscripts for publications. To make things worse for the local researchers, there is the ‘publication bias’ for researchers from this part of the world. Whilst those in big institutions with big names can get away with doing the minimum (and for some without even validation data), we the local researchers frequently gets the toughest comments from journal reviewers and asking for additional experiments and data.
Going back to the HICOE program, UMBI embarked on a total 17 research projects (for half of these the laboratory work has been completed) with 13 MSc and 4 PhD students. We are targeting 29 publications and to date (28th March) we have published a total of 6 publications including 2 in Q1 (the Plos One journal and the Free Radical in Biology and Medicine journal). For the students and publications we are on track to exceed our initial target KPIs (i.e. 12 post grad students and 8 publications). As a bonus, we also discovered a 19-gene panel (aptly named ColoPREDICT) which could differentiate poor prognosis patients with colorectal cancer from the good prognosis group. We have also established the technique of creating a transgenic mouse model of glioma (a technology transfer from our collaborator in the University of Otago).
For those aspiring HICOEs out there, please remember that although the funding seems big (again the LRGS gives even a higher ceiling of RM15 million), this wasn’t an easy journey. Being at the top means you will be the target of close scrutiny even from your own ‘colleagues’ in the university. Being at the top also means that they are people who hope that you will fail. Professional jealousy, mind you, is alive and kicking. Being at the top also means that panel members of research funding agencies think you have a lot of money. Auditors chase after what you have promised although as researchers we all know there are many factors which could delay the achievement of the outcome. For example, finding suitable research assistants who have the passion and the stamina to undertake challenging research projects. Plus a good number of GRAs who leave and could not cope with the tasks given to them. These are not mere excuses, but real every day issues facing us benchside researchers and sometimes not known by arm-chair scientists. Escort Girl Geneve
To the Ministry of Education, in particular the division handling the HICOE programme, thank you for the funding and the vision. My only suggestion is for the ministry to bring in international experts (based on the respective area of focus) to audit our performance and projects as they would the most appropriate people to tell our local HICOEs that they have reached the regional stature as aspired by the MOE.
UMBI, with or without the HICOE program, shall continue to strive hard and contribute to science, the university and the nation. I believe we are on track to become an institute with a ‘regional status’ but having said that it is a recognition for others outside Malaysia to say.
Professor Datuk Dr. A Rahman A Jamal (28th March 2014)