Career Paths

Jason
Tilan

Executive / Professional Summary

I recently attended the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting held in Washington, DC (April 17-21, 2010).  This is my first experience as an attendee and as a member of AACR.  From my perspective, as an organization, they seem to provide incredible support to young...


Jason
Tilan

Caught between a rock and an academic place

In order to gauge whether or not my job search experience may be relevant to that of yours, I think it would be pertinent to characterize my basal parameters at the time of post.  I graduated in December of 2009 with a (doctoral) degree in Physiology & Biophysics. 


Virginie
Adam

Recognition

Over the summer, I have been finishing some work in the lab for one of my main projects. While I spent about a year making and optimizing vector constructs for my experiments, the second phase of my project, assessing them in vivo, went a lot faster. Within a few weeks, there was strong evidence the...


Marielena
Mata

Teamwork Part 2: Seven Blind Mice and Matrix Organizations

One of my favorite children’s books is “Seven Blind Mice.”  This book retells the ancient Indian tale of seven blind men who try to decide what an elephant is like based on examining one part of it. In this book, it is seven blind mice that examine the elephant; six of them draw incorrect...


Wenny
Lin

Provocative Questions

Last month, I co-chaired the steering committee to plan the 3rd Annual Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics Fellows’ Training Symposium. Our symposium’s theme this year was, “Shaping Future Research: Provocative Questions in Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics.” 


Marielena
Mata

The Summit or How to Develop the Courage to Think BIG

This blog is about thinking BIG.   I hosted “The Summit” and you might ask, what is the Summit? The Summit was my BIG thought.  Let me explain…Last year I got involved in one of those “Corporate feel good” teams, tasked with the job of bringing innovation into our corporate ...


Xiaoli
Du

Escape From Lab and Think About Your Future

The 11th annual fellows and young investigators colloquium of National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been held in Williamsburg, VA from February 23-25th. The purpose of this retreat is to foster networking among young investigators, to facilitate career-development opportunities and to moderate the com...


Eric
Wong

Career Commentary #1: The Person Behind the Desk - An Often Overlooked Key to Success

April 21st, 2010. Did this day have any significance for you? My guess is that unless you were brought into this world or blissfully wed on that day (in which case belated "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Anniversary" wishes go to you), it probably didn't have any real importance, but April 21st, 2010 was...


Kate
Sleeth

The Ethics of proceeding with caution; don’t run before you can walk

I was saddened when I read articles in Nature reporting investigative results that patients in Texas have received unproven stem-cell treatments.  As stated in a previous blog article, I believe that stem cells could eventually be a cure for a wide range of diseases and am therefore supportive ...


Maida
Taylor

Drug Discovery, Research and Development

I was at dinner with a former colleague, discussing new business opportunities.  During the course of the conversation, it became apparent that the complexities of drug research and development are not understood in many quarters.  We were discussing a new potential drug.  Without rev...