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Minds of ISB

It is very important to me to be a responsible steward of the Earth. I feel like this begins with understanding the natural world at a deeper level and for me, scientific research provides that knowledge. I love picking apart ecosystems starting at the molecular level of the individual and scaling all the way out to the bigger picture interactions which make up the biosphere. Through this holistic level of understanding my admiration of the world is enhanced and I am driven to further investigate these processes in hopes of gaining a better understanding of our place in protecting the biodiversity of life on this planet. - ALLISON LEE, Research Associate III, Baliga Lab

I was fascinated with those little frogs and fishes in a small pond near my school. I went there every day to see how this wildlife survived and grew up. - XIAOGANG WU, Bioinformatics Scientist, Hood Lab

The opportunity for collaboration at ISB is what brought me here. Being able to work with people who have diverse specialties, ranging from scientists to educators to designers, brings new perspectives and opportunities for growth every day. Breaking down silos and being open to different ideas is a core value of ISB that I greatly connect with and try to incorporate in my life daily. - JOEY PETOSA, Events Manager

My first inspiration was unsurprisingly my mother, who is a pharmacist. In school, it turned out I was good at math, chemistry and physics, so I decided to pursue a scientific field at university. I became an engineer, studying math and optimization. When I discovered systems biology, I saw the opportunity to perform research with the potential to inspire me. I like challenges, I like variety of tasks, and I like to wrack my brain to build things, like new methods and models. All with the goal to learn more about the world and the potential to help others. Science offers me all of the above. - VANGELIS SIMEONIDIS, Research Scientist, Price Lab

I like studying DNA because it is so ancient. It contains the record of millions of years of evolution and contributes to explaining both how we are like and unlike the other species that inhabit the planet. Also, it's a huge puzzle! How does the code work? What are the remnants of genes that are no longer needed or useful? How does one sort out the genetic causes of disease? DNA challenges us to remember that what on the surface seems simple might not be, and there's much of the complexity that we have yet to decipher. – LEE ROWEN, Senior Research Scientist, Hood Lab

In retrospect, I think that I have always loved solving puzzles. Doing research is like trying to solve a giant puzzle, and naturally I gravitated towards this path. But, it wasn't until college that I realized that I would like to pursue a career in research. My teachers had a major influence on my decisions: they encouraged me to do all of the science-related extracurricular activities. I still remember a summer training experience in a lab that was researching Chironomus larvae. I asked my teacher, 'How does the DNA arrange itself to form polytene chromosomes, and what regulates this process?' And he replied, 'That's a million dollar question!' Interactions, such as these, inspired me to pursue research, as they reinforced my belief that I could ask the right questions. - RHISHI BARGAJE, Postdoctoral Fellow, Hood Lab

To me, research is the ultimate challenge. You spend so many years in school learning about things that other people discovered. But in scientific research, you get to work on questions that are so hard or obscure that nobody knows the answers to them. It's tough and you spend a lot of your time feeling like you're getting nowhere, but when you succeed you literally expand the scope of human knowledge. How absurdly cool is that?! - MATT RICHARDS, Graduate Student, Price Lab

I have always relished the challenge of solving complex problems, which is what sparked my initial interest in math and science. I enjoy the act of breaking down something that initially seems unsolvable into a series of steps based on previous knowledge and experience. Scientific research, in particular systems biology, is important to me because it allows me to apply this approach to human health and wellness. My scientific inquiry is driven because I believe that we are developing the tools we need so that we can begin to solve some of the most complex health problems that humans can face, and overall improve our quality of life. - ALISON PAQUETTE, Postdoctoral Fellow, Price Lab

For me, some of the most inspiring moments are when science teachers are working with scientists and I know that both sides are going to walk away with something important. The teachers are going to have a deeper understanding of science concepts, the practices of doing science, and ideas about how they can share what they've learned to inspire their students. The scientists will have reflected on their field and deepened their understanding of teaching in ways that benefit their future communications with their colleagues and the general public. Symbiosis in action. - JEN EKLUND, Program Manager, Logan Center for Education

I enjoy the opportunity to work with teachers, to think with them about the best ways to help young learners process new ideas is challenging and exciting. This is a wonderful second career for a classroom teacher. - B LIPPITT, Program Coordinator, Logan Center for Education

Ernest Schrödinger was driven to understand 'What is Life?' like so many before and so many after him. He only studied physics because life was too hard for him. The technologies and networks of team-based knowledge necessary for that understanding were a hundred years in his future. We are now in that time – a hundred years after Schrödinger. Who cannot now resist that passion that drives all of us to understand life? Particularly because as an added bonus we get to improve the human condition. - JARED ROACH, Senior Research Scientist, Hood Lab

In my final two years of high school, my (AP) biology teacher decided to change an optional module from Linnaean taxonomy to introduce genetic engineering into the curriculum. What we were studying was so new and innovative, it hadn’t even made it into the textbook yet! I was fascinated by the idea that you could clone an animal from a fully differentiated adult cell. I was hooked. Ever since then, I’ve been driven to understand the role that genetics plays in determining phenotypes (observable traits) and particularly which genetic anomalies lead to disease. - NYASHA CHAMBWE, Postdoctoral Fellow, Shmulevich Lab

I think what initially drove me to science is rather common and unremarkable; I just wanted to know why, how, what. I wanted to understand the world that I lived in and was a part of. And once I realized that the people who do that were called 'scientists,' I decided that that is what I'd like to be, too. What drives my scientific inquiry today is still rooted in that innate curiosity about our world, but it is joined by a fourth query: how can we improve it? It's why I'm drawn to translational research, and why I value the ISB's continued emphasis on tool development (both hardware and software). I want the work that I do today to benefit someone else tomorrow, so that in the end, I leave the world better, and better understood, than I found it. - MARTIN SHELTON, Postdoctoral Fellow, Hood Lab

To support the work that the scientists do is very important to me. It is my privilege to help create a safe and well maintained work environment for them and all those around us. In doing so, things can run more smoothly, and efficiently. When I first came to ISB, I was excited to be able to support a global cause for the betterment of science and health. I love to collaborate with and add value to those around me however I can. In this collaboration, I am able to learn more about the different aspects of the organization's work environment in order to assist those around me in many different ways. As my knowledge and skills grow, my ability to collaborate grows along with it. This is very exciting to me, and this helps me to realize the unlimited potential there is working here at ISB. - KAY CHINN, Facilities Technician, Facilities and Operations

What drives my research is curiosity and the search for truth. - DAVID SHTEYNBERG, Software Engineer, Moritz Lab

Be versatile. Learn everything that someone is willing to teach you. Even if you think you know what kind of research you want to do, don't limit yourself to studying only one thing. You never know what unconventional skill might come in handy in your future work, and you never know what kind of work might catch your interest and become your new passion. - KRISTIAN SWEARINGEN, Research Scientist, Moritz Lab

My a-ha moment was attending a talk by Lee Hood on the Human Genome Project. His enthusiasm and sense of wonder was contagious and eventually drew me away from what I was doing. Visionaries and good communicators such as Lee can really influence and inspire interest in a field and draw people in. - ROBERT HUBLEY, Software Engineer, Hood Lab

I can tell you about one of the coolest experiments I've ever done in science: There was one week in high school where our biology lab was optional. If we chose to participate, we were handed a mason jar and told to fill it with urine. The lab was to see what we would find - sugar content, salt content, etc. What made this lab unique was that I had never done any sort of self or human testing before. Once the class realized that our urine results were different, we started comparing what we ate for breakfast and lunch and tried to make correlations to our results. It was far more entertaining to do research when we knew there was no single answer that the whole class would converge on. My advice to future scientists would be to pay attention to the little details in any experiment. Experiments are highly complicated: some protocols have dozens of steps and an experiment can last for days or weeks. Too often scientists are content to follow a recipe or published method without understanding the purpose of each step. Although we should not be compelled to be overly skeptical of all published research, I have discovered numerous times that protocols can contain steps that are superfluous, insufficient, or outright harmful to the experiment - often without the authors' knowledge. If you take the time to reason out every step, you can design better and more efficient experiments and you are more likely to obtain meaningful results. -- MICHAEL HOOPMANN, Software Engineer, Moritz Lab

Be humble and embrace ignorance. We are all wrong at some point (at many points actually) and the best way to move forward is to recognize the error and learn from it, not to 'fight back.' - GUSTAVO GLUSMAN, Senior Research Scientist, Hood Lab

Science is a slow, iterative learning process that involves successes and failures, critically listening and sharing with others in order to see through the chaos to some small piece of order/understanding. - KIM KLINKE, Education Program Manager, ISB's Logan Center for Education

Always question and get comfortable with uncertainty, failure and being wrong. Science is about challenging what we think we know about the world around us. In the words of Gustave Flaubert, 'The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity…I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded.' What attracts me to systems biology is that enables you to see both the forest and the tree - and how individual trees stack up to make the forest. It is simultaneously large in scale, yet capable of focusing on the small, but important, details. - FRED MAST, Visiting Scientist, Aitchison Lab

My advice for future scientists: Communicating science effectively is an integral part of the process. What is appealing about systems biology is that it allows us to take the higher-level perspective on biological processes so that we can start to see the patterns in how the multitude of working parts come together as a whole. - SHUYI MA, PhD, Price Lab

As corny as it sounds, it was reading 'On the Origin of Species' that got me interested in science. I was going to school for animation at the time and after reading Darwin's ideas on speciation, I was hooked (I loved his idea of how whales evolved from grazing bears eating top-of-the-water dwelling insects, however wrong it may have been). I left art school the next quarter and enrolled at Seattle Central for my AS before transferring to UW. I find systems biology so interesting because of the interaction between so many disciplines. Where one field might hit a barrier and stop, systems biology embraces those barriers as opportunities. I like the 'we can do anything' attitude it instills. - ZAC SIMON, Lab Tech 1, Facilities and Baliga Lab

My a-ha moment was when I realized that all genes code for proteins, which carry out most of the function in cells. It was an epiphany moment to connect the 'Central Dogma of Biochemistry' (DNA→RNA→Protein). Once that clicked, I understood biochemistry, physiology and evolution so much more clearly! Ten years later I have a PhD in biochemistry and I’m working at ISB. Systems biology allows you to back out of the trees to see the forest – but within a cell. Once you understand how complicated the inside of a cell is and all the interactions that go on just to function, you realize that you must study all or most the parts of the system to truly understand it. A cell is like the ultimate butterfly effect: a minor reaction in the mitochondria can cause a chain reaction of events that lead to a completely different cell type. - JAKE VALENZUELA, Postdoctoral Fellow, Baliga Lab

My advice to young scientists is to be confident in your abilities, creative in your thinking, and never stop learning. That should be your number one priority. MELENA SMITH, 2014 Undergraduate Intern, Hood Lab

Don't be intimidated by famous scientists; they are just people who are fascinated by interesting questions, just like you. ...This is most definitely that moment in history for systems biology. The advent of information technology and systems theory in the middle of the 20th century, which coincided with the discovery that cells are information-processing machines and a first understanding of how that occurs biochemically, catalyzed the development of technologies for expanding our understanding of biology at a mechanistic system level. Lee Hood was one of the first to realize how important it was to human health and society to push forward into systems biology as soon as possible. I wouldn't miss the opportunity to be part of making such rapid, important advances in understanding how living beings work! - MAX ROBINSON, Research Scientist, Hood & Shmulevich Labs

At ISB, I've been particularly impressed with the institution's commitment to learning. On any given day, I might get assistance or advice from three different people, some of whom I've never met, who are nonetheless thrilled to drop what they're doing and help a student. I have noticed that people who work here never stop learning, and that with that comes a great culture of collaboration. Weekly discussion groups are typically packed; every person is encouraged to voice his or her thoughts, and to continually learn from his or her peers. - Helen Tang, 2014 ISB Undergraduate Intern — At ISB, I've been particularly impressed with the institution's commitment to learning. On any given day, I might get assistance or advice from three different people, some of whom I've never met, who are nonetheless thrilled to drop what they're doing and help a student. I have noticed that people who work here never stop learning, and that with that comes a great culture of collaboration. Weekly discussion groups are typically packed; every person is encouraged to voice his or her thoughts, and to continually learn from his or her peers. - HELEN TANG, 2014 ISB Undergraduate Intern, Baliga Lab

The most inspiring aspect about my internship here has been seeing with my own eyes, not only the culture of collaboration that is ingrained in the environment at ISB, but the unguarded willingness of people to help each other in accomplishing incredible science. - PAIGE HENRY, 2014 ISB Undergrad Intern, Baliga Lab

The most inspiring aspect that I've found while interning at ISB has been the level of innovation that permeates throughout the institute. I've heard that the mantra at ISB is the interconnection of biology, computation, and technology, each driving and enhancing the other to push at the current boundaries in the field, but to see the researchers here collaborating on unique ways to approach problems is fascinating. I am always impressed when the scientists at ISB talk about technical and conceptual issues that they've come up against during their research, and how they've found novel ways to work with these challenges-- a new technology, a new algorithm, a new interpretation. - THO TRAN, 2014 ISB Undergrad Intern, Huang Lab

I wanted to be a scientist since I was 6 years old. This simplistic childhood dream materialized 25 years later. Growing up in India, I had tremendous reverence for physicians. Learning that they typically followed treatment and diagnostic protocols as outlined by scientists made it my ultimate career choice. My motivation to be a scientist stemmed merely from wanting to enable physicians to help cure people. – KRUPA NAVALKAR, Post Doctoral Fellow, Hood Lab

I have been inspired by all the possibilities in science and medicine that I have been exposed to here at ISB, and really appreciate the fact that people here are not afraid to push the current boundaries of thought and practice. Seeing the potential for advancements in scientific knowledge and medical practice - from things like the systems biology approach of ISB to the huge possibilities of P4 medicine and the 100K Wellness Project - has been hugely inspiring and exciting for me during my internship, and I am very glad to have the chance to experience this culture and be exposed to these ideas. - STEPHANIE VOGELI, 2014 Undergrad Intern, Hood Lab

The most inspiring aspect about my internship at ISB has been seeing firsthand the extent of collaboration present here. Everybody I've met has been more than willing to help others and to learn about the research being conducted not only by members of their own lab group, but by others at the institution as well--even with topics completely different from their own. MEGAN GROUT, 2014 Undergrad Intern, Hood Lab — The most inspiring aspect about my internship at ISB has been seeing firsthand the extent of collaboration present here. Everybody I've met has been more than willing to help others and to learn about the research being conducted not only by members of their own lab group, but by others at the institution as well--even with topics completely different from their own. - MEGAN GROUT, 2014 Undergrad Intern, Hood Lab

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