The following perspective is by ICIS Member, Javier Mora, Ph.D., University of Costa Rica, Faculty of Microbiology. We welcome your comments and feedback, either to Prof. Mora (javierfrancisco.mora @ ucr.ac.cr) directly or to the ICIS Managing Director, Stephanie Flores (sflores @ cytokinesociety.org).
Research in cytokines and immunology plays a pivotal role in understanding the physio-, and pathological processes involved in a wide range of biological contexts such as developmental biology, autoimmune diseases, cancer, infections, and chronic inflammatory disorders. Performing high-quality research in cytokine biology and immunology has several challenges, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including a series of logistical, financial, educational, and infrastructural difficulties.
The most prominent and fundamental barrier in LMICs is the lack of funding. Research in immunology, particularly cytokine biology, requires access to expensive equipment and reagents. In LMICs the financial support to purchase research reagents and consumables is limited and insufficient. Additionally, the cost of importing such materials can be more expensive than in other countries, and supply chain issues often lead to delays or shortages, limiting our ability to perform cutting-edge research. Moreover, funding from local governmental agencies and universities usually does not include financial support to cover publication fees, travel expenses to present data in international conferences, or to hire PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Additionally, international grants are highly competitive and with the limitations mentioned above, it becomes more difficult to create a solid research platform to obtain support from international funding entities. These limitations directly affect the capacity of researchers in these regions to engage in long-term projects that could lead to significant scientific breakthroughs.
Furthermore, international partnerships are essential for improving the research quality and impact. However, researchers in LMICs often face barriers to collaboration due to geographical, financial, and institutional limitations. In other fields, such as tropical biology, collaborations with LMICs are “attractive” as it represents the opportunity to collect biological material that is not possible to obtain elsewhere. However, in most cases in cytokine biology and immunology this is not the case. Additionally, networking and scientific discussions of new findings take place mostly in international scientific conferences and workshops which are often too expensive for researchers in LMICs to attend, further isolating them from the global scientific community LMICs often face a significant “brain drain,” where talented scientists and medical professionals migrate to high-income countries in search of better career opportunities and working conditions. This migration is completely understandable and justified; in a room where the walls are shrinking, the most reasonable decision is to open the door and leave the room. However, that is not always a possibility, and we as researchers that have returned to LMICs after PhD studies or postdoctoral fellows need to push those walls away (or at least stop them) to generate a change for future generations of scientists working in these regions.
Participation in the International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) represents a valuable opportunity to make visible the work of scientists in LMICs. Collaboration is key to scientific advancement, especially in specialized fields like cytokine biology and immunology. Therefore, the first important step is to identify colleagues with similar research interests in other LMICs to joint efforts and maximize the use of our resources. To achieve this, it is important to have the generation of spaces for ICIS members working in LMICs to present our data and to look for potential collaborations such as virtual seminars and workshops, as well as LMICs member meetings, which could be a way of start getting together. Additionally, it would be valuable to promote withing the inclusion committee of the ICIS the recognition and support of researchers working on cytokine biology in LMICs. Also, it would be crucial to generate opportunities withing the ICIS to connect them with experts in high-income countries working in similar fields and who are willing to collaborate with LMICs scientists.
As the famous quote says, “If you keep doing the same things, you’ll end up getting the same results”. In LMICs we must do things differently if we want to promote our research and to establish better and solid collaborations. Opportunities like this newsletter to expose our perspective and to get more involved in organizations such as ICIS are important paths to take a step forward to a more inclusive field. Even though the number of ICIS members working in LMICs might be low, the implementation of new initiatives to strengthen cytokine research in these regions could be reflected in an increase of scientists joining the field despite the challenges we face in our countries.
In my personal experience, during my PhD studies and postdoctoral fellow in Germany I performed my research on the biology, mechanism of action and anti-inflammatory effects of the novel cytokine IL-38 in the group of Dr. Andreas Weigert in the Goethe-Uiversity, Frankfurt. Afterwards, I came back to Costa Rica where I obtained a position in the Faculty of Microbiology at the University of Costa Rica. Since then, I have been working on establishing my own research group focusing on cytokine biology and immunology. Due to the lack of funding to hire PhD students or postdoctoral scientists my strategy has been to give bachelor and master students small parts of a bigger project. Currently we have two main research lines, one focusing on the induction of trained immunity by helminth antigens using a type 2 inflammatory model, and the other one based on the immune regulation induced by tumor bystander cells in glioblastoma multiforme and other cancer types. In both cases we are getting exciting results, and we are eager to collaborate with international colleagues with similar research interests. Additionally, I am promoting the creation of the Costa Rican Association of Immunology to gather scientists and clinicians working on the field to joint efforts in order to encourage and give visibility to the research in immunology from our country.
As a member of the ICIS working on LMICs, attending the annual conferences is not always a possibility, however I am motivated to find new ways to connect with other scientists and participate actively with the Society to promote cytokine research in our regions through valuable collaborations leading towards a more inclusive research field.