Hello to the entire SciGi family, my name is Elina THIBEAU-SUTRE and I’ve been in a post-doctoral position since February 15, 2022, for two years at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
My thesis helped to establish and develop methods for studying Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia worldwide.
There are indeed still many studies on this disease, because despite its definition more than a century ago, disagreement persists on the triggering mechanisms and ways to slow its progression.
A thesis useful to society
Today, my colleagues and I are working to produce methods to help doctors better understand and diagnose the different forms of this disease. These methods, called deep learning, are actually a type of artificial intelligence composed of artificial neural networks inspired by the human brain. As these new methods are still in development, they still have some issues.
In the field of Alzheimer’s research, there is a real problem with the reproducibility of experiments conducted with these methods: two research teams performing the same experiment can obtain very different results, which means no conclusion can be drawn.
Thanks to my thesis entitled: Reproducible and interpretable deep learning for the diagnosis, prognosis and subtyping of Alzheimer’s disease from neuroimaging, I was able to officially become a researcher. I showed what the flaws were in the methods used that led to this lack of reproducibility, helped to better interpret the results of these methods, and produced a code base that allows researchers to conduct experiments in an environment that prevents these flaws.
I started in my laboratory with a 6-month research internship. Even though it’s not part of the thesis, it guided its course, and it was also a good way to ensure that I liked the environment before starting a thesis, which is still a contract that lasts at least three years.
I would say that the main stages of my thesis can be summarized as a period of uncertainty where you don’t really know where you’re going, then the discovery of something potentially interesting, and finally the rush of writing the article to submit it before the deadline.
My academic journey
I did my high school in my hometown of Pau, where I passed a scientific baccalaureate. I then decided to do a scientific preparatory class at the Louis Barthou high school, still in Pau, mainly because I wanted to continue playing music and it would have been complicated if I had left (I play the harp, a particularly non-portable instrument).
Then, I was admitted to the École des Mines de Paris. Unlike the preparatory class which I had really enjoyed, I had a much harder time with this part of my curriculum, and when I left school, I felt like I wasn’t capable of doing anything. At the same time, my sister was doing a master’s in cognitive sciences and was telling me about what she was learning in class, and it sounded fascinating! That’s why after my engineering school, I continued with a Master’s 2 in biomedical engineering, specializing in neuroscience. The aim of the master’s was also to target, during the final 6-month internship, a laboratory that could then host me for a PhD, which is indeed what happened.
To do research, you need to be comfortable with subjects related to your field! For me, these are mathematics, computer science, and to a lesser extent, the fields to which I apply them (life sciences, physics). But it’s possible to conduct research studies in any field, such as literature, economics, philosophy, history… In fact, you just need to have an interest in the subject related to the field.
The most difficult part of my journey was the period when I was in engineering school. Besides the fact that many courses didn’t interest me, it’s a very closed environment and I felt like my space only extended from my room to the classrooms. I also felt more like I was learning to pretend rather than consolidating real knowledge. This aspect is sometimes criticized as a flaw in schools that aim to be generalist. Fortunately, it was very different in Master’s 2!
When we talk about a researcher (and much more rarely, a female researcher), we see someone in a white coat in a closed laboratory, and we identify that with certain subjects only (notably physics or chemistry). But in fact, there is research in all fields! So some people spend their day in the mountains taking measurements, others interviewing people, or others like me on a computer without touching a test tube.
Regarding the field of artificial intelligence, I think it can inspire several vocations because it’s actually an interdisciplinary field. You can practice it from a theoretical point of view, and in that case, it will consist of doing mathematics. But also from a practical point of view, you can combine it with any field.
An important advantage of research is, I think, the freedom, both in terms of my own schedule – I’m quite free in my hours – and in the subjects I address: I largely do what I like.
Not just research, but also hobbies
I’ve been playing the harp for several years now, and I’ve always managed so far to enroll in a conservatory to take chamber music lessons with other musicians.
I also play board games, role-playing games, murder mystery parties, and occasionally video games.
During the lockdown, I discovered crochet and since then I’ve made lots of stuffed animals (like the one in the picture on the right) for my family, and also for my lab.
I’m also getting back into yoga and I’m very happy to be in the Netherlands because it allows me to cycle to work!
The final word
People often think that to do research you need to be good at all subjects, but you simply need to be comfortable with the subjects related to your field.
I have sometimes been considered fragile or sensitive, particularly due to health problems I had in high school. When I’m on the verge of giving up, I stand my ground because there’s no way I’m going to hear again that it’s too difficult for me!
Elina THIBEAU-SUTRE: Alzheimer’s Disease Researcher and Virtuoso
