Behind the Microscope

Today we check in with some of our colleagues and friends at Emory University to see how they are coping with the research slow down, stay at home order, and postponement of clinical clerkships. We also want to hear from you! Please reach out by emailing us at behindthemicroscope@gmail.com, on our webpage www.behindthemicroscope.com, or via social media. Stay safe!  This episode sponsored by...

Dr. Chris Williams: Episode 1 of our 5 Part feature on Vanderbilt University. Dr. Williams is a Professor of Medicine and Cancer biology in the division of gastroenterology, an associate dean of physician scientist education and training, an associate director of the physician scientist training program, and the current director of the MD-PhD program. He received his MD-PhD from Vanderbilt and sta...

A quick update on the plans for Behind the Microscope going forward. Please let us know how you are doing at behindthemicroscope.com , reach out via social media, or send us an email at behindthemicroscope@gmail.com. Stay safe!

Dr. Machelle Pardue is a Research Career Scientist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and a Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Wyoming, her PhD  in Vision Science and Biology from the University of Waterloo, and her post-doctoral training at Loyola School of Medicine and Hines...

Dr. Karl Saxe is the Director of the Cancer Cell Biology and Metastasis program at the American Cancer Society. He got his PhD in genetics from the University of Arizona, then received postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California at San Diego, before joining the staff at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Saxe then joined the faculty at Emory Universit...

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 physicia...

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 an...

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 trainin...

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...

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...

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 r...

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,...

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...

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...

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.