2007 APSA Annual Meeting
2007 APSA Annual Meeting attendees
The Clinical and Translational Science Network (CTSciNet) is a joint project of Science Careers, AAAS, and several partner organizations including the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA).
Making Team Science Work: Advice From a Team
Posted on August 27, 2010
A long-term commitment and a supportive environment allow the Yale Melanoma Research Group to excel.
"It seems to me that the only way to do this, if we are going to be able to advance therapies, is to collaborate with our scientific colleagues and find targets and better treatments." --Mario Sznol, oncologist and co-director of the Yale School of Medicine melanoma program
In 2007, Marcus Bosenberg was ensconced at the leafy, bucolic University of Vermont campus with what some academic physician-scientists might consider a dream career. He was a Harvard University???educated, National Institutes of Health???funded scientist with his own lab and an active clinical practice in dermatology. A sought-after speaker who had developed a mouse model of melanoma, Bosenberg was just weeks from obtaining tenure. He had it all. And then he gave it all up.
"I was never really thinking I would ever move," he says. "I really enjoyed the life I had there."
From the Nobel Prize to Third World Medicine: An Interview With Peter Agre
Posted on August 25, 2010
Physician-scientist Peter Agre discusses science diplomacy in an editorial in this week's Science Translational Medicine. He recently spoke to Science Careers about his career, research, and path to science advocacy and Third World medicine."I love the job, I love the excitement. It's a new adventure for an old scientist." - Peter Agre
Physician-scientist Peter Agre's biggest research contribution to date is his discovery of aquaporins, the proteins that regulate and facilitate the transport of water molecules across cell membranes. Aquaporins are important in physiological processes such as kidney concentration and spinal fluid secretion, and play a role in several diseases as well. Their discovery in the early 1990s earned Agre the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Scientist's Work Bridges Math and Cancer
Posted on August 13, 2010
Franziska Michor's research skills involve equations and computers, but her goal is clinical: to eliminate cancer.
"With math, if you do it once -- unless you made a mistake -- it's going to be the same every time you do it. However, if I put on my biology hat, it's very hard to come up with a mathematical model that abstracts at the right level because [the biology is] very complex. It's almost an art, really." -- Franziska Michor
Though she calls herself a mathematician, Franziska Michor's work on mathematical models of cancer doesn't fit neatly in that field or in the field of cancer biology. Instead, Michor is working in uncharted scientific territory, building bridges among math, computer science, biology, and medicine to answer questions about the origins of cancer, relationships among cancer types, and the emergence of drug-resistant tumors.
Answering Biomedical Questions with Information Technology
Posted on July 30, 2010
Harvard physician-scientist Lynn Bry has developed an informatics system for matching biological samples to research needs.
Lynn Bry "worked through a ton of regulatory issues that needed to be thought through. A lot of people have great ideas, but they don't stick with them. She stuck with it, and there's a lot to be said about that. To me, she symbolizes persistence." --Shawn Murphy
Like many people in the early 1990s, Lynn Bry -- then a student in the M.D.-Ph.D. program at Washington University in St. Louis -- didn't know much about computers. A computer scientist friend in Pennsylvania had asked Bry to write some content for a Web site he'd built. "I thought I could just put what he wanted on a disk and send it to him, but he said no, use FTP," she says. "And I was like, FTD? What do flowers have to do with computers?"
Veterinarian Scientists Bring Unique Perspectives to Translational Research
Posted on July 16, 2010
D.V.M.-Ph.D.s are uniquely qualified to do research in animal models and translate findings across species -- including humans.
"I think I have a big advantage being a veterinarian in understanding the whole process of wound healing and understanding the unique aspects of healing in different species. I know those differences, and as a result I know what models to use and the limitations of those models." -- Susan Volk, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
Like many academic clinician-scientists, Susan Volk juggles patient cases with research. Some days, she spends mornings in surgery or the clinic and afternoons in the lab trying to use progenitor cells to improve wound healing. Other days require her full attention on patient care or a research problem.
Psychologist Bridges Clinic and Lab to Untangle Schizophrenia's Roots
Posted on June 18, 2010
Deanna Barch is developing neuroimaging and other tools to speed the development of sorely needed treatments for schizophrenia.
"I'd be lying if I said my research has already improved the lives of patients with schizophrenia. That's the goal. But there's so much we need to know to be able to do that." -- Deanna Barch
Deanna Barch pinpoints the year after college as her pivotal one. With a bachelor's degree in psychology from Northwestern University in hand, Barch decided to get a feel for patient care by taking a job as a case manager working with the chronically mentally ill in central Chicago.
"It was really emotionally demanding," says Barch, now a professor of psychology, psychiatry, and radiology at Washington University in St. Louis. "It was hard for me to go home and not worry about my clients all night long."
Designing a Career in Biomedical Engineering
Posted on June 11, 2010
Engineers, biologists, mathematicians, physicists, and chemists can all contribute to the development of medical devices and assistance technologies.
"You have to fight and work well to get funds and to get jobs, but it's a promising ... and expanding area." -- Alicia Casals
Perspective: The Successful Physician-Scientist of the 21st Century
Posted on May 28, 2010
Young physician-scientists must learn to thrive despite a divided culture and rigid, anachronistic institutional structures and expectations.
Without a doubt, this is a difficult period to become a physician-scientist. Rather than railing against the system, you should be a constructive, even outspoken, catalyst for change in your home institution.
Physician-scientists have always brought a unique perspective to biomedical research that is inspired by their personal experience in caring for patients. Indeed, throughout history, physicians have played a central role in advancing the science of medicine as the "translators" of medical research. Yet there has been growing concern over the past 3 decades that the workforce of physician-scientists, at least in the form we have come to know them in previous generations, may be vanishing.
We have a problem
Andrew I. Schafer, M.D.
In Person: Studying the Implications of New Medical Technologies
Posted on May 14, 2010
People with scientific training are needed to explore ethical, legal, and social issues involved in bringing science into the clinic.
To move research from the bench to the clinic requires an understanding of science-related law, ethics, and policy.
I???ve been here before, observing the gentle head tilt and the well-meaning, perplexed gaze. Next, I know, comes the question: ???What is a biomedical scientist doing in law school???? This time the question comes from my new postdoc adviser. Nonplussed, I prepare to launch into my standard explanation: short, vague, and well rehearsed. But before I launch, she continues: ???... because I considered doing the same.??? I sit back, relieved and encouraged. She seems an excellent match, but I had not ventured to hope that she would appreciate the career path I had chosen.
Translating the Puzzle of Autism into Treatment
Posted on April 23, 2010
A complex fabric of researchers -- geneticists, psychologists, neuroscientists, physicians -- are working to understand autism.
"It's really one thing to read about a set of symptoms and symptom clusters, but it's a whole other issue when you see it actually play out in somebody's life." --David Shirinyan
After graduating from Yale University and earning her medical degree at Harvard Medical School, Shafali Jeste did a child neurology residency at Children's Hospital Boston. Toward the end of that residency, she realized she wanted to do research focused on autism. "I just saw these kids, and I was fascinated by them," she says of her young autistic patients. "I couldn't believe that we didn't understand what was going on in their brains to make them work like that."
Shafali Jeste
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Physician Scientist Career Planning Workshop in Chicago on 09/25/2010! http://fb.me/Ho2UjnvX
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Come to "APSA South East Regional Meeting" Saturday, October 9 from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm http://fb.me/D5dzNUkE
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Registration to the South East Regional Meeting is now open! Date: October 9th. Location: University of Alabama -... http://fb.me/tydvf7HG