Love in Science: When Couples Help Change the World

“We brought our work closer and closer, until we were convinced that none of us could find a better life partner.” phrase from Marie CurieShe is considered one of the most important scholars of all time, and expresses the importance of meeting her pierre curieAnd her husband and partner in business and research.

Thanks for your studies on radiation, the couple won Nobel prize He received a doctorate in physics in 1903 with the French scientist Henri Becquerel. Eight years later, in 1911, when Pierre had already died, Marie won the Nobel Prize again, this time for chemistry.

Marie and Pierre are undoubtedly one of the most emblematic couples in science. They showed, in practice, how the complicity of ideas and ideals can produce knowledge capable of changing the course of humanity.

For now, given the covid-19 pandemic, we watched another couple make their mark in history: ozlem turise NS Ugur SahinCompany founders Biotechnology. Of Turkish origin, working in Mainz, Germany, the two spent 20 years researching specific antibodies to fight cancer cells.

During these two decades, they learned to manipulate a molecule messenger RNA (mRNA) and produces Antibodies of certain proteins. Learning could save millions of lives in what is the biggest pandemic of the past 100 years.

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When SARS-CoV-2 virus The pair took over Europe in January 2020, and the pair directed all of BioNTech’s efforts to help humanity fight Covid-19. In November of the same year, they reached a Serum Based on mRNA messages for immune cells to fight the virus.

The method they developed was so prolific that more than 20 different vaccines could be produced. They chose the best of them in preclinical studies and collaborated with the pharmacist Pfizer. The rest is history. Once again, the love, commitment to ScienceIt changed the course of humanity for the better.

I am a huge fan of Marie and Pierre Curie, as well as Ugur Şahin and Özlem Turici, among many other couples related to the advancement of science. Me and my wife, Alessandra Gorgolo, who is also a doctor, we work in the field of Neurosurgery imbued with the values ​​conveyed by these great examples.

She was born in Curitiba and raised in Goiania, where she graduated in medicine Federal University of Goiás (UFG). I have a memory of wanting to be a doctor since I was young. With effort and dedication, of course, I have built a career that I am most proud of. She has a PhD in Biophysics and Electrophysiology at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the United States, specialized in functional neurosurgery at Umea University, in Sweden, and in radiosurgery and stereotaxic surgery in Massachusetts General HospitalAssociated with Harvard University (USA).

I worked for 25 years in University of California (UCLA), in Los Angeles, where I am Professor, Founder, and Director of the Stereotactic Radiosurgery Service. I have developed apps for heart pacemaker, which revolutionized the treatment of obesity and yes Severe depression.

In California, I met Alessandra, my “half-brain,” who is also a professor at UCLA. We came back to Brazil in 2012 and built the team NeuroSapiensis dedicated to providing effective and minimally invasive treatments for all neurological diseases, from neoplastic and vascular to surgically treatable neuropsychiatric conditions.

Together, we have operated on thousands of patients Functional diseases and tumors of the brain or spineUsing the latest techniques in surgery, radiosurgery and imaging.

Since 2019, we have been part of the professional team at Vila Nova Star Hospital, by Rede D’Or, in São Paulo, where we use a file Technologies Focal radiation for the treatment of tumors and other diseases of the nervous system. We also have the support of scientists from Dor Institute for Research and Teaching (IDOR)Directed by another couple that embodies the interconnectedness of minds that love each other for the sake of science, Fernanda Tovar Mall NS Jorge Mall Netto.

Alessandra and I got up very early, about five in the morning. Out of habit and taste, I write on various topics, especially fiction, until about 7 in the morning. After breakfast with the family, with our teenage son, Lucas, who is already thinking about studying medicine, we moved the “home office” to the hospitals and the office we work in.

Lectures, lessons, trips for surgeries, etc. It is all part of our daily life. At night, tired but grateful to each other, we sleep with the certainty that the next day we will wake up with renewed energy to use scientific knowledge Produced by distinguished personalities in the care of our patients.

* Antonio de Salles is a neurosurgeon and professor emeritus at the University of California, USA, and a physician at Villa Nova Star Hospital in São Paulo.