新闻周刊:非洲基因对癌症研究很重要(8)（在线收听）

Tackling that problem tugs at the heart of what H3Africa could mean—for the continent and for science as a whole.

解决这一问题将会触及到“非洲H3”对非洲大陆和整个科学的意义的核心。

As de Vries sees it, reconceptualizing Africa as a land of scientific excellence “depends on what you think scientific excellence is.”

正如德·弗里斯所看到的，将非洲重新定义为科学卓越之地“取决于你对科学卓越的看法”。

African laboratories may never sequence a genome in 24 hours.

非洲实验室可能永远不会在24小时内对基因组进行测序。

That playing field, Rotimi says, “is not really ever going to be completely level.”

罗蒂米说，这种竞争环境“永远都不会是完全平等的。”

But excellence doesn't need to be restricted to technological savvy.

但卓越不需要局限于技术悟性。

“What African researchers are far better at,” de Vries says, “is understanding patient needs and community needs.”

德弗里斯说:“非洲研究人员更擅长的是了解病人的需求和社区的需求。”

Ikwueme's breast cancer patients want to tell her about their lives and feel that she cares;

Ikwueme的乳腺癌患者想告诉她他们的生活，且感觉到了她的关心；

otherwise, they aren't comfortable participating in research.

否则，他们就不愿意参与研究。

And many traditional African communities prioritize the group over the individual, which means a patient's community often needs to be consulted about, say, study participation.

许多传统的非洲社区优先考虑群体而不是个人，这意味着患者的社区经常需要咨询，比如说，参与研究。

“If I actually want to get the best from these patients,” Ikwueme says, “I need to be involved.”

如果我真的想从这些病人身上得到最好的东西，”Ikwueme说，“我需要参与其中”。

Whether Rotimi succeeds in bringing about the change he seeks is uncertain.

罗蒂米是否能成功实现他所寻求的改变还不确定。

The program is now in its last funding cycle, and its scientists will need to start competing for grant money with the rest of the world.

该项目目前正处于最后一个资助周期，其科学家将需要开始与世界其他地区争夺赠款。

They also need government support, which so far has been in short supply.

他们还需要政府的支持，而到目前为止，政府的支持一直供不应求。

Rotimi has appealed to the World Bank for help, and a new office for handling grant applications, to be peer-reviewed by Africans, is now operating out of Nairobi, Kenya.

罗蒂米呼吁世界银行提供帮助，另外一个由非洲人同行评议的处理赠款申请的新办事处目前正在肯尼亚内罗毕开展业务。

Researchers everywhere are at the mercy of government, but it's particularly challenging here.

各地的研究人员都受政府的摆布，但这在这里尤其具有挑战性。

So far, country policymakers across sub-Saharan Africa have been reluctant to see the value of the work and agree to put more money toward science.

迄今为止，撒哈拉以南非洲国家的政策制定者一直不愿看到这项工作的价值，并同意向科学投入更多资金。

Rotimi, who is now 61 and considers H3Africa a lifetime achievement, is well aware that politics could sabotage the whole effort.

现年61岁的罗蒂米认为非洲是他一生的成就，他很清楚政治可能会破坏整个努力。

“Bad government,” he says, “is probably the number one risk factor for health in Africa.”

“糟糕的政府，”他说，“可能是非洲健康的头号风险因素。

It is also poses a larger risk.

这也带来了更大的风险。

Cancer Scientists Have Ignored African DNA in the Search for Cures.jpg

A 2016 study examining whether genome research has become more inclusive of African DNA since 2009 found only a 3 percent increase.

2016年，一项关于基因组研究是否对非洲的DNA进行了更广泛的研究的调查发现，自2009年以来，只增加了3%。

Of the 2,511 genome-wide association studies completed at the time, just 19 percent included minorities.

在当时完成的2511项全基因组关联研究中，只有19%的研究对象是少数民族。

“It wasn't surprising,” says study author S. Malia Fullerton, a bioethicist at the University of Washington, “but it was rather shocking.”

研究作者S. 玛丽亚·富勒顿是华盛顿大学的生物伦理学家，他说：“这并不令人惊讶，但相当令人震惊。”

The future of medicine depends on changing that history.

医学的未来取决于改变这段历史。