The Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Randy Schekman advocates collaborative research and considers ethics training essential for early-career researchers (VIDEO)
Caption
The Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Randy Schekman, a jury member for the 2026 Jaume I Prize, visits Universitat Jaume I in Castelló, where he is holding a discussion session with around thirty researchers i advocates collaborative research and considers ethics training essential for early-career researchers.
Before the colloquium, Nobel Prize laureate Randy Schekman was welcomed by Rector-elect Jesús Lancis, accompanied by Vice-Rector for Innovation, Knowledge Transfer and Science Communication David Cabedo; Deputy Vice-Rector for Research Margarita Vergara; Director of the Doctoral School Mercè Correa; Director of the Science Communication and Citizen Science Unit Lluís Martínez; and Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Marisa Flor.
At the beginning of the discussion, moderated by Mercè Correa and Ramón Feenstra, director of the Ethics, Open Science and Research Assessment project, Professor Schekman defended the importance of basic research—the same kind of research that led him to receive the Nobel Prize in 2013. He explained that this line of research, which studies metabolic processes in cells and the role of certain proteins, could help develop biomarkers for diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Schekman is currently involved in a project bringing together more than 35 teams from 14 countries and 165 laboratories with the aim of advancing basic research in Parkinson’s disease. “A few years ago, we started working with a protein genetically linked to this disease that could be useful for diagnosis”, he explained. He also predicted a revolution in the treatment of genetic diseases, one that would be “entirely predictable and based on basic science”.
Today, he looks for people who can contribute new perspectives, not necessarily those with long publication records, but researchers who, like Lelio Orci, ask the same scientific questions while using different methods to find the answers. For Schekman, technique is not the most important thing; “the question is always what matters”.
“It was magical. He had his own way of approaching the problem, using electron microscopy and morphology, while I was working in biochemistry and genetics. We both wanted to answer the same question, but in completely different ways”, Professor Randy Schekman said enthusiastically when speaking about Italian researcher Lelio Orci.
He also stressed the need to continue educating young scientists about appropriate standards and conduct, “about what is acceptable and what is not”, and emphasised the importance of ethics training at the beginning of a research career because “I do not think a young researcher can fully understand the damage that misconduct can do to their own career; it can be devastating”.
Credit
Universitat Jaume I of Castellón
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