Proteomics to the People

For Albert Heck, public outreach is important – especially when it comes to proteomics. In collaboration with the Netherlands Proteomics Center, he produced a video with key information on the subject – something he feels the public need to be aware of. “People know what their genes and genomes are, and are starting to think about what's possible in genome sequencing and screening,” he says. “Proteomics people and biochemists know that proteins represent what actually really matters, but society doesn’t realize that yet.” He believes part of his job is to “reach out” to society and share this vital information. “They need to know that it’s the world of proteins that causes our phenotypes, causes our diseases, and affects our health.”

The team wanted to create something that would attract people’s attention, but that would also hit the right technical note. “We said it should be relatively simple but it should also be beautiful,” says Heck. “It was important for us not to make it too complex, but also not to oversell it. Plus, we wanted to keep it short – and to make sure it added to what’s already out there.”

Communicating the more complex information was a challenge: “We wanted to get to the nitty gritty of how you sequence proteins and how mass spectrometry works, which was what we had the longest discussions about. We didn’t want it to be too simplistic for experts or veer too far from the truth.”

The team worked with the video designers (sensu.org) and Utrecht University’s communications department to devise a clear strategy for ‘selling’ proteomics – an approach rarely heard of in academic spheres. “We made sure we launched it on a set day and that it would be shared not only on YouTube, but via Twitter and Facebook,” Heck says. But according to Heck, the strategy was more about sharing information with the public than about ‘marketing’ their own research. “As an academic research group you need to make every Euro you don’t put into your research or teaching count – so we had to aim to get it to society at large. I also insisted that it should be open-access in the hope that it would be used by the whole community. Until the last 20 seconds, we don’t even mention that it was made by us.”

The video is already garnering attention both from within and outside the scientific community. “We have had close to 5,000 views already,” Heck says. “Considering the topic, I’m really happy with the exposure we’ve had so far – if you look at other technical videos on YouTube, they’ve had 50 or so hits after a year, and that was what I was afraid of. I just hope that it gets the attention that it deserves.”

The icing on the cake, Heck feels, would be scientists using the video to teach the subject – and some are keen to do so.  “Some of my MS colleagues have reacted well, saying they can use the video to explain what they do. That makes me really proud – and really glad we did it.”

As yet, there are no firm plans to make any more videos, but Heck says the exposure and appreciation has given the team an ‘appetite’. “I think this is the future. We have to explain our science in modern parlance,” he says. “It depends how successful we are with this one. We are all paid by taxpayers, so we should also give something back. On the other hand, if we bring something out, we want it to be of the highest quality, and that means it takes effort – I won’t be making a video every month!”

Click here for more information and to watch the video