Nicholas Blazanin graduated in May with a Ph.D in Molecular Toxicology. This program was recently merged into the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences (MCIBS) program offered by the HUCK Institutes of the Life Sciences. As a member of Dr. Adam B. Glick’s laboratory, Nick’s dissertation research focused on the cellular compartment known as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a major site of protein synthesis within the cell. Specifically, he examined the role of ER-associated stress in cell replication and cell aging, in response to the cancer-promoting gene Ras. Although Ras can promote cancer, it triggers cellular aging as a fail-safe mechanism to prevent tumor development in normal human cells. What scientists don’t understand is how Ras is able to bypass this fail-safe to cause cancer. In his dissertation, Nick was able to elucidate a specific protein pathway that allows for this bypassing, thus helping to solve the puzzle. Through understanding such protein pathways, scientists might be able to develop drugs that can influence these pathways to counteract cancer development.
So, what’s it like having a PhD now?
Surreal. It honestly felt like the day would never come when I would finally be anointed with my PhD! I have friends and family members calling me “Dr. Nick”, admittedly words that will take time for me to get used too. However, I am excited that my hard work paid off. As the first person in my family to obtain a PhD, I feel incredibly proud and I hope to serve as an inspiration to friends and family seeking to pursue not necessarily a PhD, but simply higher education in general.
What’s next for you, academia or industry?
I am currently doing research at Penn State, but my desire is to get back into cancer research. I am currently applying to post-doctoral positions in both industry and academia. At this point in time I prefer industry, but I may be swayed back into academia if the right project comes along.
How is your job hunting coming along? Do you have any advice?
Looking for jobs has been a learning process. While I feel that there are plenty of job opportunities available, the actual number is pretty small because you’ll have certain job locations in mind, certain types of jobs you want, and a minimum salary you’re willing to take. My advice is to make sure you apply to a couple of jobs per week; keep at it and don’t procrastinate. While the resume is important, don’t forget that writing a good cover letter is equally important when searching for jobs. Also, start looking for jobs at least 6-12 months before graduating to increase your chances of having a job once you graduate. While you will get some responses fairly quickly, most won’t arrive for several months. In addition, something I have been recently doing instead of just applying to jobs that have been posted, is that I have been emailing investigators I am interesting in working with directly to see if they have any openings. You may not always a get a response, but you will also never know unless you try!
Is your career headed in the direction you originally thought it would go?
I find that my career goals are constantly evolving. I originally wanted to teach science in high school, but that quickly turned to doing research after working in the laboratory as an undergraduate. My specific interest in cancer stemmed from taking a special topics course on cancer biology as an undergraduate, as well as from working as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. My training in cancer research continued as a graduate student, and early on (like most graduate students), I wanted to be a research professor in academia. However, my experiences as a graduate student altered that somewhat. I still would like to be an investigator pursuing topics I find interesting, but it does not necessarily have to be in academia.
What will you miss most about Penn State?
I will miss all the friendships that I made over the years and the vibrant atmosphere. However, most of my family lives close by so State College and the Penn State community will never be too far away!
Shakira M. Nelson, PhD, MPH, Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute
It is chiefly important to show the variety of career options for PhDs at the end of their graduate school journey. As part of this spotlight, I asked one of our Penn State alumni to answer some questions about her career journey up until this point.
Meet Dr. Shakira M. Nelson, cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. Nelson obtained a PhD in Pathobiology from Penn State, class of 2013. Her former advisor was Dr. K. Sandeep Prabhu. She also recently received a MPH (Masters in Public Health) in Epidemiology from John Hopkins University.
How did you chose your degree program and what you like about your current career?
As an undergrad I majored in Microbiology (also at Penn State). When I graduated I had no clue what I wanted to do next and decided to enter the workforce. I was fortunate enough to land a contracting job at the Department of Health and Humans Services (DHHS) where I worked within the Pandemic Influenza Division. For two years, I was able to watch MDs and PhDs work together, and with other Divisions and Agencies and Congress, to protect the country against a future influenza pandemic. The more I worked, the greater my desire to move into a field of public health, working to protect those around me. At the end of two years, I felt ready to return to school and get my PhD.
My plan was to work in biological sciences, acquiring the background necessary to understand biological assays, cellular work, and mechanisms. I still wanted to focus on public health and humans, working on prevention of diseases, but I felt having this as a foundation would benefit me in the long run. Little did I know that a person in my future, while at Penn State, would open a door for me that would lead me directly to the work I wanted to do. Towards the end of my PhD, my attention turned back to wanting to work on humans. The animal studies I did as a PhD student showed me mechanisms and helped me establish myself as a scientist, but I still desired to try something new. More specifically, I wanted to work on analyzing human clinical trial data, working in the prevention of diseases, such as cancer. One of my thesis committee members was an alumnus of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, a prestigious fellowship offered through the National Cancer Institute. I was encouraged to apply. After reading their mission statement, I felt this would be a great fit for me. It would help me transition from biological sciences towards epidemiology, while allowing me to have experiences that would enhance my portfolio of knowledge and help with career development. I am currently in the third year of my four year fellowship, and it has been incredibly beneficial and fulfilling. I have met many people within the field of epidemiology who have been pioneers in the development of treatments and prevention methods of cancer development, including Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Douglas Lowy. I have traveled to conferences and networked with scientists and epidemiologist who work around the world and throughout the government, including CDC, NIH, and USDA. I look forward to the next steps in my career development, where I hope to continue working in the area of cancer prevention.
What have been some obstacles you’ve had to overcome in pursuit of your educational and career goals? Many times I have had to get out of my own way. I used to worry a lot about not being smart enough, or not knowing enough about a subject, holding myself back from applying to a program or pursing an interest. I have had to learn to trust myself and understand the desire to learn is a trait that has taken me far. I continue to learn daily, and cast aside self-doubt, pursing opportunities as they become available.
What have been some sources of inspiration both in your career and in your life? My sisters and parents have been my best source of inspiration. Watching my sisters vigorously pursue their educations and opportunities for development, as I have done to this point and time, has pushed me to continue to work hard, to be the best example for them I can be. I also appreciate the support of my parents, and how my accomplishments are a reflection of the upbringing I had and the dedication they had to raising my sisters and me.
What would you describe as your strong suit? I think my best strong suit is my dedication to any project or task I begin working on. I push myself very hard, but not because I want to outpace anyone, but because I want to make sure this opportunity is going to make me more knowledgeable and be a useful skill in my future. When I start a project I like to give all my efforts and focus until it is completed. By giving my efforts in the manner I do, I know that my work ethic and talents will be seen in the final product of any project I work on.
How has Penn State impacted your life? I spent a total of 10 years as a student at Penn State (as an undergraduate and graduate student). Over those 10 years I was able to see the necessity of my becoming an African American female PhD. There are so few women in the STEM fields, and even fewer minority women. To be at Penn State and be visible to both the undergraduate and graduate communities helped me to see how important my accomplishments can be and how it can help open doors to future minority females interested in pursuing a graduate degree.
What advice would you give someone who would like to pursue a career in your field? Be patient. Projects move slow, advisors and students can give you a hard time; there are hundreds of reasons you’ll want to quit. But you are here for a purpose and part of your journey is overcoming these obstacles. Having patience is your best ally, and will help you go stronger in the long run.
What are your words of wisdom for current graduate students? Enjoy your time as a graduate student and accept opportunities as they are presented to you. Your potential can only go as far as the opportunities you take advantage of. And although everyday can be a struggle (as usually is), this journey towards your PhD can be the example for someone else, helping them in an unexpected way.
What are your plans for the future? I would like to stay within the government, working in the area of cancer prevention. During my time as a Cancer Prevention Fellow, I have focused on nutrients, diet, and prostate cancer. I am interested in staying in this area, as there is a lot of research that still needs to be done. I have also begun working in the area of health disparities, examining how this plays a role along the cancer continuum. Although I have veered away from academia (for now), I would like to continue to be involved with student mentoring, helping to bring minority and female students to STEM, providing a substantial impact in the field.
I asked Dr. Nelson to include a brief overview of her thesis work to hear about some of the interesting science that has happened at Penn State:
My work focused on selenium, an essential micronutrient with anti-inflammatory properties, that plays a vital role in many metabolic pathways. The true physiological significance of this micronutrient is heavily studied, where over 25 selenoproteins have been identified. The goal of my thesis was to understand the role selenium plays in anti-inflammation first using an ex-vivo model, with bone marrow-derived macrophage cells from mice fed varying selenium diets. Collected cells were treated with the bacterial endotoxin, LPS, to induce inflammation, or as the Th2-cytokine IL-4. My studies found that macrophages supplemented with adequate levels of selenium (100 uM) and treated with IL-4 increased the expression of alternatively activated macrophage markers, Arg-1, Ym1 and Fizz1. These alternatively activated macrophages are found in anti-inflammatory settings, and also play a role in wound healing.
Interestingly, in macrophages treated with LPS and supplemented with adequate levels of selenium, we saw a marked decreased in pro-inflammatory macrophage markers iNOS, TNFa, and IFNg. Together these studies suggested that selenium at an adequate level can shift macrophages from a pro-inflammatory towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype. To effectively translate these findings into an animal model, we collaborated with Dr. Joseph Urban from USDA using the helminthic gastrointestinal parasite Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb). These parasites have a short life cycle, residing in the lungs for 1-2 days before arriving in the small intestine where they reside until 14 days after initial infection. Mice infected with Nb and supplemented with Se significantly increased the expression of the alternatively activated macrophage markers Arg-I, Ym1, and Fizz1 in the small intestines, while decreasing the presence of intestinal worms and fecal eggs. We found that the experiments conducted in my dissertation suggest that optimal Se status, in the form of selenoproteins, is critical to shunt macrophage activation towards an alternatively activated phenotype that promotes enhanced clearance of gastrointestinal parasites.
Over the last year, I have helped to organize numerous seminars and Q&A sessions with people from all different areas of science, from those working in the pharmaceutical industry to science editing to patent law. I truly love hearing each individual’s story about his/her career path, and almost all of them have said that they never expected to take the path that they did. Following that, they then offer this advice: keep an open mind about what you want to do with your PhD in the life sciences and seize every opportunity you get, even if it wasn’t what you planned on doing in the first place.
Dr. Rong Wang, Genetics 2014 Graduate
I had the distinct pleasure of learning from and working alongside Dr. Rong Wang for the first three years of my PhD program, and to say that I felt a bit lost when she graduated and moved on to her first “big kid” job is an understatement. Rong landed her first job after grad school working for a small biotech company in Santa Barbara, CA. Like many of the other stories I have heard before, if you had asked Rong even just a year prior what her career plans were, she never would have expected that to be the case.
Right before she left Penn State, Rong sat down with Dr. Melissa Rolls, Chair of the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences program, to discuss the process of how she went about applying for jobs in industry and to offer her personal advice for how to be successful in getting a job – you can find that article here.
I recently had a catch-up session with Rong to see how life after graduate school was going and got to learn a bit more about the industry life now that she has had close to a year of experience under her belt. Rong has since moved to another biotech company in San Francisco.
The “dream” wasn’t necessarily to get into biotech
When Rong first began applying for jobs, she didn’t necessarily focus her search to only biotech companies. She felt that after spending 20+ years in school, she wanted to experience a different life and working style outside of academia but was open to really anything new. However, she did know that she wanted to take her problem solving skills to a level where she could help with the development of specific products.
At both biotech companies she has worked for, Rong’s job title has been an R&D Scientist. As an R&D Scientist, she mainly develops diagnostic products. However, working for smaller companies means that she has had other random responsibilities, including market researching, patent writing, and literature writing.
Rong also has the experience of transitioning to a different company. She found that getting her foot in the door and having the previous experience helped her have a better sense of what kind of job fit her the best. It helped that she now had more connections and a stronger network when going through the process of applying for a job after already working in the industry. She also realized the importance of understanding the style and culture of the company you’re working for and how some companies may fit one’s personality better than others.
Industry vs. academia: personal perspective
Having only the experience of doing science in an academic setting, Rong’s mind was trained to assess her research projects by their potential to make good stories and publications. In industry, it’s much more than that. Even after almost a year in the industry world, Rong said she still finds it difficult to decide which direction to push her projects in order to balance product development vs. pure research.
Rong, like many graduate students, put in countless hours each week at the lab working evenings and most weekends. Knowing Rong so personally, I was interested to hear how her work-life balance had changed out in the “real world”. While she still puts in about fifty hours a week, those hours are spent during the week days. “Of course, I would like to spend some time during the weekend for my work so that I can do a little better,” said Rong, which was no surprise to me.
Final pieces of advice
What was pretty comforting to hear from Rong was that after spending a year in the biotech industry, she still finds that there is a lot to learn, and that’s okay, because no one expects you to know everything. The process of getting a PhD is what’s important. “It’s way more critical to obtain a growing mindset and a good habit of learning and applying new knowledge,” said Rong. “I personally think that all you need to learn while you’re in graduate school is what you’re already learning about and doing – understanding background knowledge, developing solid techniques, critically thinking, being eager to learn, and being a hard worker.”
When applying for and interviewing for jobs, Rong stressed the importance of being able to communicate your science to your potential future employers. As a fresh PhD, your studies as a PhD student are all that they have to evaluate you on, so it’s important that you can accurately and succinctly describe the work that you’ve done. The more closely your past experience is related to the job you are applying for, the more likely you are to stand out. Also, if you can show that you have some sort of industry experience, it’s a huge plus (though not a necessity!) – this can be something as simple as your lab having a collaboration with a scientific company or you having an internship experience. (Interested in doing an internship? Check out these resources!)
Finally, start applying for jobs as early as possible, and make sure each resume and cover letter you send out is customized for that specific job (resources for writing these can be found here!). Also, after you apply for a job, write a follow-up letter to catch up – this extra effort can really help you to stand out and increase your chances of getting an interview.
The Cavener Lab (and Mark!) at Rong’s graduation
Huck Graduate Student Advisory Committee at Penn State
