Dr. Bob Taylor is a Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, the Marcus Chair in Vascular Medicine, and the Director of the Division of Cardiology at Emory University. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins and his MD from Harvard where he also did his internal medicine residency before coming to Emory as a Cardiology Fellow. He shares with us his circuitous journey to becoming a physician scientist, the structures in place to help people like him achieve their goals in academics, and what it’s like directing a large clinical division.

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Taylor for taking the time to talk with us and share his story.

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Engineer – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Brian Robinson, MD-PhD

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Website: behindthemicroscope.com

Dr. Jen Heemstra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Emory University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine and her PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. After her post-doctoral training, she took a position at the University of Utah before ultimately moving to Emory University in 2017. In this episode, Dr. Heemstra shares with us her journey and defining her “win:” helping those around her achieve their full potential.

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Heemstra for taking the time to talk with us and share her story.

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Engineer – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Associate Producer – Josh Owens

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Website: behindthemicroscope.com

Mary Horton is a former Co-Director of the Emory MSTP and current Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Professional Development at Laney Graduate School at Emory. Over the years, Mary played a huge role in the Emory MD/PhD program, from setting the culture, to recruiting applicants, to managing the MSTP grant, in addition to guiding each and every student along this long and often fraught training path. Today she shares with us her story and her perspective after 20 years in the MD/PhD world.

Credits:

Our thanks to Mary Horton for taking the time, as she always has, to sit down and chat with a few MD/PhD students.

Host – Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Engineer – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Brian Robinson, MD-PhD

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Website: www.behindthemicroscope.com

In this episode, we take a look back at some of our favorite moments from the 2019 season. Our thanks to all of our listeners for supporting this podcast in its early days, and of course thanks to Anita Corbett, Brian Robinson, Sean Stowell, Stefi Barbian, and Steven Sloan for being on the show. Stick around until the end of the episode for a preview of some of our upcoming guests. Happy New Year and see you in 2020!

Dr. Steven Sloan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at Emory University. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami before attending Stanford to pursue his MD/PhD. In our conversation, Dr. Sloan shares with us his story of discovering research and medicine and the highs and lows he experienced along the way. We also talk extensively about the importance of mentorship and some of the lessons he learned from his PhD mentor Dr. Ben Barres and how he is carrying that legacy into his own lab.

Dr. Barres Autobiography:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/autobiography-transgender-scientist

Dr. Barres article on selecting a mentor:

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(13)00907-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0896627313009070%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Sloan for taking the time to share his story with us.

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Engineer – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Dr. Stefi Barbian is a third year neonatology fellow at Emory University. She received her MD from Michigan State and went on to do a pediatric residency at Carolinas medical center in Charlotte, North Carolina before joining the fellowship program at Emory. Before fellowship, Dr. Barbian had not had significant experience at the bench since undergrad, and really pursued opportunities in wet lab research during her fellowship training. She shares with us her journey from medical school, to finding a passion for neonatology, to discovering basic science research, and her goals as a scientist and a clinician.

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Barbian for taking the time to share her perspective.

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Engineer – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Dr. Sean Stowell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at Emory University. He attended Emory for his MD-PhD degree, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Rick Cummings. He stayed at Emory for his residency in pathology, and is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology. He discusses his career path and the things he has learned about starting a lab, managing funding, and balancing clinic, research, and family.

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Stowell for taking the time to share his experiences with us.

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Engineer – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Dr. Brian Robinson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Emory University. He graduated from the Emory MSTP program in 2013 and has gone on to complete a residency in anatomic pathology and a fellowship in GI pathology. He was just recently promoted from Instructor to Assistant Professor and is actively setting up his research program. We talk about career trajectory, finding what’s important to you, work/life/family balance, and some of the unique challenges of the MD-PhD training pathway.

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Robinson for taking the time to share his perspective with us.

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Production – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Dr. Anita Corbett is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Emory University. In 2018 she won the Nature Award for Mentoring in Science. She talks to us about her experiences mentoring students, building a team dynamic in the lab, and resolving conflict between lab members. We also talk at length about grant writing and how to teach it in a formalized way. Some of the papers we discussed are linked below:

Mentorship Award and Profile: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00039-7

Article on mentoring by Dr. Corbett: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41568-019-0173-1

Ghost mentoring: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Ghost-Advising/242729

Teaching grant writing: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tra.12398

Credits:

Dr. Anita Corbett for taking time out of her busy day to sit down with us.

Host – Bejan Saeedi

Co-Host and Audio Mastering – Joe Behnke

Executive Producer and Social Media Coordinator – Carey Jansen

Executive Producer – Michael Sayegh

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

A round table discussion with some of the behind the scenes folks here at Behind the Microscope: Joe Behnke, Carey Jansen, and Michael Sayegh. We discuss the primary motivations for starting this podcast and our goals for it as we move forward.