Collaborative Effort and Equal Partnership in Science: A Variant Bio Standley Fellow’s Perspective
The world was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic when I was first introduced to Variant Bio in early 2021. This new collaboration between (then) the Eijkman Institute and Variant Bio was unprecedented, not only in scope but also in how it was carried out. When work in many parts of the world shifted to the digital space, so did we. We didn’t let the fact that team members were living more than 8000 miles apart from one another between Jakarta (Indonesia), Seattle (the USA), and Palmerston (New Zealand) stop us. Through countless Zoom calls and emails, we created, brainstormed, and executed an ambitious project to study the genomic diversity of Indonesian populations. Juggling time differences was only one of the challenges. Building trust to forge a good and lasting partnership was the most difficult task. To our own surprise, it worked out well. We collected nearly a thousand samples from six different ethnic groups and are excited for the next chapter of results analysis (sequencing is currently underway at the time of writing).
The opportunity to work on this project is very special for me. I had been working in the field of population genetics for six years before deciding to study anthropology for my Master’s degree. It was arguably an unusual move for researchers in Indonesia, who typically pursue postgraduate studies that are directly related to their undergraduate degrees. However, I had full support from my supervisors, seniors, and colleagues. During moments of doubt and concern over what to do next, this exciting collaboration with Variant Bio came along four months after my graduation and required both my knowledge in genetics and anthropology to succeed. Variant Bio’s decision to involve people from various disciplines is bold, pertinent, and timely when working with diverse populations around the world.
Responsibility as a Fellow
As a Variant Bio Standley Fellow, I was responsible for coordinating the implementation of the collaborative project, where we seek to find disease-associated genetic variants that could be common locally but rare globally (as Indonesian populations are underrepresented in the genomic literature). It sounds ambitious on paper. Indeed, the whole project was a daunting task, but ultimately a rewarding one. All parties learned first-hand how to overcome conflicts and challenges, and build lasting partnerships with people of different backgrounds, cultures, and expertise.
I was in charge of managing the collaboration and communication between my institution and Variant Bio, and assisting the principal investigators, Prof. Herawati Sudoyo, MS, PhD and Dr. Safarina G. Malik, in carrying out the research. As a junior researcher, it was a tremendous opportunity to be trusted to handle such a massive project. I was involved in many parts of the research, including study design, writing of the research proposals and budget; preparing all the necessary paperwork (such as agreements between institutions and obtaining local permits and ethics clearances); managing a small but effective team to coordinate logistics and travel for fieldwork; carrying out community engagement; conducting sample and data collection; involvement in lab work for DNA extraction; and maintaining frequent updates and discussions surrounding the conduct of the project. Many parts did not look like cool science stuff at all (e.g., all the paperwork and revisions), but were necessary to ensure a successful research project.
Creating a Lasting Partnership
The beginning of the project was particularly challenging. At first, both our team and Variant Bio were strangers with a similar research interest in understanding Indonesia’s genomic diversity, brought together by mutual colleagues. The first months were filled with weekly Zoom calls to brainstorm the project, design methodologies and create questionnaires, select populations, write research proposals, and submit ethics applications. Along the way, we encountered several instances of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Over time, though, we adapted to the differences in our work cultures and perspectives so that we arrived at common ground and solved our problems together. We slowly but surely built mutual trust and respect, and created a framework that worked well for both parties. After some struggle and delay with the paperwork due to a change of institution from the Eijkman Institute to the Mochtar Riady Institute for Nanotechnology (MRIN), we officially launched the collaborative project in 2022. Leadership and professionalism from both parties were essential to carrying on with the partnership.
Next came the exciting part: carrying out the fieldwork in six different sites across the Indonesian archipelago. However, this soon proved to be another challenge. The work suddenly went beyond Variant Bio and MRIN’s team, and became bigger than just us. MRIN’s team is based in Tangerang, a satellite city near the capital of Jakarta, while all of the study sites are spread in faraway corners of the country. Therefore, the project required contacting and explaining the research to potential local collaborators who could assist us in each location, survey visits to the sites to brainstorm the data collection strategy and logistics, seeking permits from local authorities, and discussing the proposed research with community members through the process of community engagement. It is only after communities were comfortable with our research plan that we conducted the sample and data collection. Thanks to our research group’s wide network of academics and medical doctors, we found great partners in each site who ensured good communication with the community and the success of the research. Additionally, on top of our own MRIN team of 11 people, we also had to recruit and train doctors, nurses, and local youth to assist us during sample collection in each location. It was a very valuable experience to be able to work with these amazing people from various places in Indonesia.
One simple but very important aspect of our collaboration was how Variant Bio’s team gave tremendous support (moral, technical, financial), but all while appreciating local knowledge and expertise. Having full trust from Variant Bio for us to conduct the field studies on our own terms, even without their team present on site, was critical to the collaboration. Involving us as local partners at every step of the project co-creation, providing us with the freedom to carry out and make decisions regarding the activities in Indonesia as we saw fit, and adapting to each of the local situations we encountered at the different sites, as well as being good listeners to what we had to say, were among the factors that contributed to this successful partnership. It shows good faith to strive for an equal partnership (which could be challenging in many cases for researchers in developing countries partnering with wealthy funding bodies or collaborators from abroad). Additionally, I also witnessed mutual transfer of knowledge where both teams were eager to learn from each other. I truly hope this sets an example for other institutions when establishing scientific research collaborations, as we have proven that this is very much possible to do and will benefit all parties involved.
Priceless Experience
In sum, I had a great time on the Standley Fellowship with Variant Bio. I am glad to be at the forefront of this unprecedented feat. I had an immense responsibility to carry out an international collaborative research project, with flexibility and independence that trained my leadership, communication, and decision-making skills. It also allowed me to meet many communities in my home country who welcomed us with open arms, and to learn something new on every trip. I visited the highest village on the Island of Java (with an ice sheet covering the land in June, even in our tropical country), I went to part of Bali that tourists do not visit (I will not gate-keep, so feel free to contact me for information on those hidden gems), I am now friends with a Bajo community famously known as “sea nomads” (I want to learn from them how to be a better swimmer), I traveled to a new province in my own home island of Borneo (where rivers are the heart of the community), I got to try, fail, and eventually made the research happen in Papua (there were always fun surprises there), and I fell in love again with Indonesia’s beautiful beaches and coastal life in Flores (the entire island and people are just magnificent).
Along the way, I met many wonderful people who tirelessly work for their communities, some of whom I now consider my dearest friends. I also had the privilege to see the beauty of Indonesia’s diverse cultures and landscapes. Most importantly of all, I learned to collaborate, to be confident in my craft, and at the same time to be humble to differences and diversity. I am forever thankful for the best and brightest teammates one can hope for, and for the opportunity to work together to turn such a behemoth task into reality, all while having a lot of fun in the process. I am proud of what we have accomplished! I will look back fondly on this experience that hopefully will make me a better researcher, and wish that this little contribution to science can pave a long way for the future of health and medicine.
P.S.: Even to this date, three years after we started, I have yet to meet in person the majority of Variant Bio’s amazing team that I worked with (many of whom I consider good friends now, so hopefully one day).
About the Author
Isabella Apriyana (Ibel) was a Variant Bio Standley Fellow from April 2021 to December 2023, when she managed the collaboration project in Indonesia between Variant Bio and the Mochtar Riady Institute for Nanotechnology (MRIN). She has a B.Sc in Biotechnology from Atma Jaya University in Jakarta, Indonesia, and an M.A. in Archaeology and Evolutionary Science from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. In April 2024, Ibel started her PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. Contact her through LinkedIn.
