“How many in this room are graduate students?” asked the speaker, who saw almost the entire audience raised their arms, at the end of the 140th Postgraduate Meeting in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Unicamp. “How many are women?”, a little more than half of the audience raised their arms. “How many consider themselves black?”, less than ten arms waved in an audience of around XNUMX people. “How many consider themselves indigenous?”, no arms were seen. “How many here are trans women?”, the speaker’s eyes had a hard time finding one or two arms in the audience.
And that was how Jaqueline Goes, a 33-year-old biomedical doctor, who became famous for coordinating the first genetic sequencing of the new coronavirus in Brazil in 2020, provoked the audience at the Unicamp Convention Center on the 10th (Friday). Jaqueline and the team of researchers from the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the University of São Paulo carried out the first genetic mapping of the coronavirus in Latin America in just 48 hours — while the global average was around 15 days. The first case in Brazil was confirmed between February 25th and 26th, 2020, and, on the 28th, the SARS-CoV-2 sequencing was carried out.
On March 13 of the same year, Unicamp suspended face-to-face activities in its campuses, being the first university in the country to adopt social distancing. “Unicamp’s pioneering spirit encouraged other institutions to take the same position. This was a wise decision”, recalls the researcher.
Four months after sequencing, the researchers and their collaborators published a study in the journal Science, showing that the cities that receive the most flights from Europe (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza) were also those that grew the most in the number of positive cases of covid-19. “We were importing viruses”, summarized Goes. This reinforced the need for social isolation measures. “I am one of those responsible for the lockdown”, joked the speaker.
Her fame earned the researcher numerous recognitions, such as the Zilda Arns Commendation and the Amélia Império Hamburger Women in Science Award. She also collects public tributes. She appeared on the Forbes list of 20 Successful Women in Brazil in 2022. She has already walked the runway at São Paulo Fashion Week and was a special guest at the parade of the Rio de Janeiro samba school Beija-Flor de Nilópolis, in 2022, whose plot exalted black people. Furthermore, Jaqueline Goes became a Maurício de Sousa character and became a Barbie doll, in a tribute from the toy factory to the women who worked on the front lines of the fight against Covid-19.
The repercussion of her image scared Jaqueline, who, at the time, considered what she did “more of the same”, also worrying because she had not done anything alone. At the time of sequencing, Goes was part of the team at Ester Sabino's laboratory (USP) along with other researchers. “Little by little, I began to understand that this exhibition was important for science and to inspire other women and black women.” Today, Goes is coordinator of the Genetic Sequencing Collaborative Network in Brazil (SEQV Br Network) and takes advantage of her projection to talk about science and give voice to issues of female and black representation.
Representation in Science
“Why are women not in all decision-making bodies, since we are 50% of the population? population? A man can have a lot of empathy, but he is not a woman”, points out the researcher, when showing the statistics that indicate the preponderance of men in the advancement of the academic career.
Just as female representation in science is urgent, so is race representation, argues biomedicine. An example is the case of the device used to detect the percentage of oxygenation in the blood using infrared lights, the oximeter, which was widely used during the covid-19 pandemic. The medical apparatus presented failures of up to 8% in black, Latino and indigenous individuals. The high probability is that the oximeters were calibrated using light skin as a reference. The situation gets worse when we consider that black people are the ones who die most from Covid-19 in Brazil.
“Anyone who does research on black people is white. Therefore, there is no way to bring the experience of thisopulation. It is not possible to do research on black people without including black people. Likewise, with Asians, indigenous people, trans people, without bringing in researchers representing these groups. It’s not just about having a diverse group, it’s about bringing in other perspectives” explains Goes. “My questions about reproducing a white, male and European science only came during my doctorate”, says Goes. “The method is happening all the time. But we need to think about how it happened”, points out the biomedical doctor.
According to the speaker, to change this reality, we need more diversity in science. To this end, she cites the importance of social mobility policies, investment in education, encouraging science, creating opportunities — such as, for example, the quota policy — and being open to new collaborations in science. “The world today is just an email away. Take the risk of leaving your comfort zone”, encourages Goes.
“The base of the pyramid [Brazilian population] is very black and female. When these women move, as Angela Davis would say, the whole society moves”, says the speaker. “If there are no opportunities, it won’t happen,” she concludes.
