About BenchFly
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Our Mission
To educate and empower scientists in and out of the lab, enabling their next big breakthroughs – faster.
Our Values
- We believe access to expert scientific instruction should be free and open. Whether in a small lab in a small university, or in a big lab at a large institution, researchers worldwide should have access to the same expert instruction at the click of a mouse. It’s time to democratize scientific resources, including the quick yet essential tips and tricks that can turn a good scientist into a great one.
- We believe video is the best way to share tips, tricks and techniques with colleagues. Demonstrations are how we learn from others in lab, but even our hardest working colleagues need to eat and sleep at some point. Luckily, the Internet doesn’t. With BenchFly Video Protocols users can provide the same expert instruction to anyone, anytime.
- We believe science demands a cultural facelift. The pocket protector is dead! Science is an exciting, cutting-edge profession made up of intelligent, humorous, creative and passionate individuals. It’s time we share that passion with society to energize future generations of scientists and ensure the future of science remains bright.
- We believe having 'a life in science' and having 'a life' are not mutually exclusive. Science never stops, but it’s a good idea if we do from time to time. Developing your life away from the bench can actually help your focus and productivity at the bench. Through the BenchFly Blog, we're addressing the personal and professional issues facing today's researchers in an effort to finally reveal the mythical beast known as 'work-life balance'.
- We believe the only thing more powerful than Chemistry is Chuck Norris. Period.
BenchFly was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2009.
Who's Involved
Alan Marnett, Ph.D.
Founder
A third-generation chemist, Alan received his B.A. in Chemistry from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his postdoctoral work in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his research focused on characterization of a novel neuronal growth and survival factor. Unfortunately, that research did not yield any compounds that could improve his limited brain capacity.
Katie Adastra
US Community Catalyst
Katie is in the process of completing her Ph.D. in Developmental Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, studying the effect of diabetes on pre-implantation biology in mice. Outside of lab you can find Katie playing softball, kickball, or enjoying an ice-cold drink with friends. Recently married, Katie tries to balance lab and home life by spending her free time with her husband and their animals: two English Mastiffs and two spunky alley cats.
Daniel Lyons
Producer
Daniel J. Lyons is an Emmy Award-winning television producer and cinematographer with more than ten years experience. He has worked with a range of clients including National Geographic, PBS, Discovery Channel, TLC, the History Channel, Showtime, and the Sundance Channel. Dan has worked on a number of scientifically-related projects, including the highly acclaimed PBS series Scientific American Frontiers.
Scientific Advisory Board
Matthew Bogyo, Ph.D.
Matt is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT and was appointed as a Faculty Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to his current position, Matt served as the Head of Chemical Proteomics at Celera Genomics from 2001 to 2003. His research interests are focused on the use of chemistry to study the role of proteases in human disease.
Michael Marletta, Ph.D.
Michael is the President and CEO of The Scripps Research Institute. He serves on the Board of Editors of ACS Chemical Biology and on the editorial board of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Michael is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and is also a co-founder of Omniox, Inc.
Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D.
Larry is Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is Director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Chemical Biology and founding and current editor of the American Chemical Society journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Larry is the author of 14 patents and over 400 scientific publications.
Alan Saghatelian, Ph.D.
Alan is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He received an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and was named a Searle Scholar in 2008. Alan’s research focuses on the development and application of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based global metabolite profiling as a general discovery tool in chemical biology.
Leona Samson, Ph.D.
Leona is an American Cancer Society Research Professor of Toxicology and Biological Engineering at MIT. She is also the Director of MIT’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Her research focuses on how cells, tissues, and animals respond to environmental toxicants.
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Latest Blog Post
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Dear Dora, What’s the best way to get the conversation going about graduation dates with your PI? - Henry, grad student . . Dear Henry, Thank you for asking this very relevant question. Many students are under the impression that they need to have reached certain milestones before they can have the “talk” (i.e. when [...]
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