Getting Started in Research Kate Markey MBBS, PhD Advanced Trainee Haematology – PAH Senior Research Officer – BMT Laboratory, QIMR.

Getting Started in Research

Kate Markey MBBS, PhDAdvanced Trainee Haematology – PAH

Senior Research Officer – BMT Laboratory, QIMR

“Recently our department of medicine grand rounds was on the subject of asthma. It began with a clinical vignette about a child with asthma, lasting three minutes, and, was followed by 47 more of intracellular cascades. The talk was like many others this year, and the speaker, who was introduced as a physician scientist, lived up to the part.”

Vinay Prasad, Internal Medicine Physician, Northwestern University, ChicagoVia http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2012/06/clinician-researchers-meet-physician-scientists.html

3 broad categories of clinician-researcher

1. Full-time clinical with (mainly clinical) research as a sideline/part of clinical practice

2. Dual trained (MBBS + PhD or equivalent)– Part-time in both clinical practice and research

3. Full-time research, with clinical training– Clinical training in the background, may or may

not be related to eventual research work

My pathway

Pre-med Med school Resident Med reg Haem Adv training reg Consultant

PhD ….

I am here

B. Eng

• Tech development• Stem cell culture• PCR techniques• Microfluidics

• Basic medical science• Pre-clinical (animal models)• Immunology• Transplant biology• Ag presentation and inflammatory cytokines• Flow cytometry!

• Clinical/translational projects• Back to tech development• ?Big data• ?More maths• ?Clinical trials• ?Public health

Post-doc years

McGill University, Montreal

• R.J “Gus” Wiles

• Dr Richard Leask

UQ – Chemical Engineering

• Dr Frances Harding

• Professor Lars Nielsen

• “Blood factory”– Embryonic stem cells RBC and neutrophils

QIMR

Dr Kelli MacDonald Professor Geoff Hill

Early PhD years (in parallel with 1st and 2nd year MBBS)

• BMT is used as curative therapy for haematological malignancy

• Curative due to GVL effects

• Post-transplant mortality– Leukaemic relapse– Infection– Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)

Skin GITLiver

Morris and Hill; Br J Haematol, 2007

1.

2.

3.

GVL

Lots of questions, needed new skills to answer them!

Early PhD years (in parallel with 1st and 2nd year MBBS)

• RelB in donor DC in GVHD

• SOCS3 in myeloid cells after transplant

• Recipient iNKT cells

• Donor and recipient plasmacytoid DC in GVHD

• Role of lymphotoxin in GVHD/GVL

• Does membrane transfer of recipient MHC to donor DC have a functional role in antigen presentation?

RelB in GVHD

• Was the basis of my PhD project proposal• Useful for getting scholarship…• Didn’t quite work out according to plan…

The practicalities….

• To be honest – I skipped some lectures.

• All the time I wasn’t required to be anywhere else lab.

• Holidays lab.

• End of first year elective BMT ward/lab.

Full-time PhD years (between 2nd and 3rd year MBBS)

• Still going with Lymphotoxin

• Donor DC (and other APC) in antigen presentation after allo BMT– This was the “who”

• Reconstituting donor DC function and post-transplant immunity– This was the “why/how”

Published March 2009

Part-time research again (3rd and 4th year MBBS)

• Reconstituting donor DC function and post-transplant immunity– This was the “why/how”

• Membrane transfer… still ticking along.

• Lymphotoxin work nearly done…

Submitted to Blood January 2009, Eventually (finally) published January 2010

More part-time research

• In parallel with intern year etc. • On NHMRC Clinical Training Fellowship

– Technically 0.5 FTE research + 1.0 FTE clinical.

• A few blocks of LWOP, including 6 months in PGY3.

Blood, June 2012

The logistics..?

• Much like during med school

• In the lab whenever I could be. – Nights were good, meant lab time! – Junior jobs with ½ days and mid week days off

Did I mention that project that had been ticking along since the beginning….?

2214

Ch01 CFSE TEa LFA-1 Phalloidin CD11c

7 µm

2214

Ch01 CFSE TEa LFA-1 Phalloidin CD11c

7 µm

Opportunities

In Press, Accepted March 2015

Advice

• Choose to work on a problem that you think is interesting and important– You might end up working on it for a very long time!

• Do your research– Talk to people in the lab/s (or clinical units) you think you’d like to

work in.– Who will teach you stuff? Won’t be the big professor (usually).

• Understand that you’re getting research training– Takes time commitment – Can be pretty inefficient at times (but that’s okay). – Changes the way you think

• The rewards of research don’t come without time commitment

• It’s very different to the clinical environment. – More flexible, less hierarchical – No pager….

• If I were to start now… – Commit some time (holidays, LWOP, be creative)

– Consider formalising early (RHD)

– Funding opportunities are around (be creative)

Acknowledgements

Rachel Kuns

BMT Lab, QIMR Berghofer