Christine Buske – BenchFly

My (non)Postdoc Story: Marketing at Scientific Publisher

Christine Buske — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:20:28 +0000

While nearly all of us face challenges during our postdoctoral years, we often feel alone in our struggles. In this series, we hope to share encouraging and uplifting stories of how other scientists were able to turn their situation around and move forward, despite a non-ideal situation. Like snowflakes, fingerprints, and nightmares, every postdoctoral experience is unique, so today we share the (non)Postdoc Story of another successful scientist.

I. The Story

In grad school I was a behavioral neuroscientist. Now, I’m working for Papers at Springer Science+Business Media as their “Papers Genius”. I started working for Papers during my graduate degree, but only part time, and wanted to join full time after completing my PhD in December 2012. After eight years in research (combined undergraduate and graduate experience) I wanted to expand on my experiences in business and by joining Springer I felt we, as a team, could accomplish a lot of what we had envisioned for Papers. When I started my graduate training I already had quite a bit of experience from the private sector, but only as a freelancer. At that point I was certainly not someone who only had one interest, and would ever only pursue an academic path. However, the final decision which path to choose was made a lot easier by already knowing the team I would be working with, and being really passionate about Papers myself. On top of this, I see this as a great learning opportunity where I get to further expand on my skillset while still being in touch with academia and research.

On the road to pursuing these goals, I didn’t expect to meet one of my old professors from my time as an undergraduate student, and have him still recognize me. It was fun to interact with my former professors in a professional capacity and turn the tables where now I was the expert helping them with citation management.

II. The Situation

During my time in graduate school, my interests shifted back and forth quite a bit between industry and academia. I loved research, and I was a good scientist, but I also had other interests. I also loved teaching and public speaking opportunities that often come with an academic track. Previously, I thought most of my interests could be met within an academic setting, but ultimately I started to enjoy the process of doing research less. The time it took to see results, the delays, and particularly some of the politics within my institution. All things considered, I was incredibly fortunate with my advisor and lab colleagues, and even with my institute. However, I felt more and more that I needed a change of pace, and that in the long run I just wasn’t sure pure research would make me happy. I fell into the all-too-familiar slump towards the middle and again towards the final part of my studies. Experiments were stalled, results were pending, and my motivation was lowering. There was no way I was going to leave without finishing my degree, but it prompted me to start thinking about my next steps even more seriously. I recognized that I would always love research and teaching, and perhaps one day return to it in some way, but that for the time being I needed to try something a little different.

III. The Emotions

Towards the last year of my PhD I was feeling like I might never finish. Although my PI was an excellent advisor, he left it up to me to indicate when I would have sufficient material to write my thesis and defend, and I understood rather late how self directed he really wanted me to be. This made me feel stalled and frustrated with myself, not having a clear path or a clear timeline for finishing up. I still really liked my project and I was proud of my accomplishments, but I had heard myself tell the same story so many times, that every time I gave a presentation I felt I needed to accomplish something new. It was time to leave and move on to the next stage of my life.

IV. The Solution

When it became clear I was not going to be starting any new research projects, I spoke with people from my department to get a better feel for how much work is needed to justify a PhD thesis. I felt like I was clueless to what the requirements really were, and if what I had produced was sufficient. After having published three first author articles, I wrote another three chapters and spoke with my advisor about the timeline for finishing. Those final 5-6 months were the most nerve wracking of my entire time in graduate school. Due to various factors, I really did have to defend by the end of 2012, and I opened up to my advisor about this, which gave him a better understanding of my situation. He was on board with my plan to finish up, and helped me to meet the tight timeline. In the end, I defended on 12-12-12, and was so excited to have completed everything by my self-imposed deadline. Because I had been so high strung and stressed for five straight months leading up to this day, and for a long time thought I would not be able to make all the deadlines, the post defense feeling was rather anticlimactic. I really had to get used to the idea of having finished. Imagine running a marathon, and the finish line is just a split second experience of all your efforts. It felt much like that; as if I wanted to stretch the experience of the defense further to have something that felt more like closure.

V. The Lesson

When going to career development seminars during my undergraduate and graduate years, I always received the advice not to worry too much, that things would fall into place. While I was never a believer in passive acceptance, I find myself now giving others similar advice. It is true that nothing just happens while you sit on your couch waiting for it, but you also cannot over micro-manage your entire career. In my experience there are two main things you can and should do:

1) Plant as many ‘seeds’ as you can, as early as you can. These could consist of networking and making connections in your field and outside of your direct field. They could consist of having extracurricular interests that could later on lead to job opportunities or transferable skills.

2) Find out what you really like to do. This is easier said than done. I still love research, but I discovered that there were many things surrounding the research process that contributed to not feeling an academic career was the right choice for me, at least not right now. Sometime we think we like one thing, and by keeping an open mind and exploring different things we carve out a path for ourselves we never even knew was possible.

Want to hear another story?

Do you have a Postdoc Story you’d like to share? Email us to let us know.

How to Get the Most out of a Conference

Christine Buske — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:20:38 +0000

Regardless of what your favorite model organism, pet-molecule, or area of study is, there are unspoken and universal ways to get the most out of a conference. Although I have always thought of myself as an intelligent person, it took me no less than five conferences to finally figure out a strategy or two that could help me get what I want.

Here are a few ways I am now using to get the most out of each and every conference:

1. Identify your goals

It seems like a rather simple concept to just identify your goals and the rest will follow. Somehow, most people don’t really bother with this simple step, maybe because they feel their goals are already implied. For example, isn’t it every graduate student’s goal to learn what is being researched in their field and identify possible post doc supervisors? These are pretty vague goals. You need something more measurable and more concrete to really be, and feel, productive at your next conference. First identify your main goal. If you are trying to finish a degree within a year, learning about new research tangents is not as useful as getting more insight into possible careers or career strategies. You may want to talk to others in your field, but perhaps you really want to brush shoulders with journal editors to get a few publishing tips or to figure out if an editorial job is something you would be interested in after you graduate.

2. Talk to people and follow up

Try to identify people who could become mentors to you. Talk to PIs, post docs, and senior PhD students. If you exchange business cards, follow up with them and see if any would be open to having coffee or dinner with you. People tend to like talking about themselves, so showing an interest in their work and career path is always a great strategy.

3. Don’t be shy

Although this might look like it fits into the previous point, it deserves its own mention. Don’t just assume an idea you have is silly, or someone wouldn’t be able to help you along with it. Anyone who has a few more years of experience than you do generally also knows a few more other people. At my last conference I blurted out a ‘crazy thought’ to fill time while I was thinking about what else to ask my new connection. Turns out my connection didn’t think my thought was crazy, and was able to connect me to one of her friends who had followed that exact same career path I was considering. Had I not blurted out what previously was a vague idea, I never would have met a key person who was in a unique position to give me advice, right there at the same conference. Go figure! To some saying whatever is on their mind might be easier than for others. To illustrate how unusual it is for me to speak up about vague plans stems from a cultural nuance in my upbringing. In my culture, telling others what you might want to do before it materializes brings bad luck. I found out that when it comes to career advancement, spilling the beans can be a very productive and ‘lucky’ thing to do.

4. Never underestimate the power of a connection

In my most recent efforts to network, I booked almost overlapping meetings and I decided to cancel one of them. I thought the person wouldn’t really be that useful, and I gambled on the second person I had made an appointment with being far better to meet. My first connection insisted on finding a time that would work for both of us, and it turned out he too had another commitment shortly after the time we agreed to meet, so our meeting would be moved up a little bit and kept short. Because I didn’t want to be rude and burn a bridge, I agreed to meet at a slightly revised time. To make a long story short, this connection proved to be incredibly valuable. He also introduced me to another key person who might in the future be in a position to offer me a job. Had he not insisted on meeting with me, I would have passed up this opportunity just so my schedule would be slightly less hectic. It’s shameful and I am not proud of this. What saved me from eventually missing out was simply being honest about having another commitment. Instead of saying I didn’t have time, I said I appreciated him taking the time to meet with me and I wouldn’t want to cut it short, this led to the offer of meeting slightly earlier and having a short but very productive meeting nonetheless.

My key take-to-a-conference strategies are:

Know what you want. If hearing about someone’s obscure pet-molecule will not immediately benefit you, perhaps choose to go to that career talk scheduled in the same timeslot instead,
Talk to people, and then invite them to talk some more so you can stay in touch and expand your network.
Don’t be shy about what you are thinking of doing, your thoughts may not be as crazy as you think they are.
Never cancel, or say no to, meeting with someone. You never know who that person can introduce you to, or what insights they might have!

And…. If you have the time… get out and have some fun too!

Christine is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. She studies drug-induced behavior, development of social behavior and neurochemistry. When she isn’t with her fish, she enjoys running, art, travel, and often finds herself behind her computer writing (sometimes, about zebrafish).

Model Organism Week: Research’s Next Top Model

Christine Buske — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:00:37 +0000

Only in the past three decades has Danio Rerio (Zebrafish) started to call the lab their home. Since then, they have helped in finding cures for cancer, understanding more about embryological (vertebrate) development, and vertebrate behavior. One lucky zebrafish has also gone where few humans have been: space. On June 22nd 1976 the space station Salyut 5 was launched, with one of the crew members being a zebra danio.

Here on earth, zebrafish were pioneered as a model organism by Dr. George Streisinger, a molecular biologist at the University of Oregon who produced the first zebrafish clone.

The early career of the zebrafish

At first, zebrafish were increasingly used by developmental biologists. Thanks to their transparent embryo, scientists can visualize developmental processes under the microscope. Similarly, experiments that aim to disrupt some aspect of embryological development to investigate molecular processes are easily conducted with zebrafish.

The zebrafish embryo develops from fertilized egg to larva in about three days, combined with the few hundred eggs that can be obtained from a single spawning, the zebrafish is not only a prolific subject but also one that provides the possibility of studying developmental processes in a short period of time. As a graduate student, less time is required per experiment, which means a higher turnover rate and productivity. Of course, this is mostly applicable to developmental biologists. Behavioral neuroscientists study the organisms after it hatches and single studies can take a few months to complete.

Fishy Behavior: studying brain function through behavior

The zebrafish may have started out as a favorite among developmental biologists, but it is becoming ever more popular in the behavior genetics, and behavioral neuroscience labs. Zebrafish are a highly social species and form shoals (group aggregation), they also exhibit a rich repertoire of characteristic behaviors that can be exploited in experiments. There are many ways to study the brain, and brain function, but for behavioral scientists the study of the brain doesn’t always have to be invasive and can be modeled in relatively simple organisms. The zebrafish, being a vertebrate, gives us the added advantage that a large number of genes are conserved among other vertebrate species, including humans. Thus, studying zebrafish behavior in response to a drug or compound can give us a better understanding of what the drug effects might be on humans as well.

Pretty much any compound or drug with hydrophilic characteristics, and which consequently can be dissolved in water, can easily be administered to zebrafish. Simply dissolving the drug or compound in the tank water in which the zebrafish is present, will lead to absorption through the gills of the fish. Studies have shown that, for example, alcohol concentrations in the brain reach an equilibrium with the environmental concentration in about an hour of exposure [reviewed in 1].

Behavior is still an area that is not well understood, even though a large number of human conditions have behavioral symptoms (think autism, alcoholism, depression, anxiety disorders). Zebrafish are an excellent model to study some behaviors characteristic of certain conditions, such as anxiety, fear, aggression, and social behavior [2].

Plunging into zebrafish research

Taking the plunge on zebrafish research doesn’t have to take a large investment. This makes starting out with zebrafish in the lab accessible and feasible on modest budgets. Of course maintaining a large facility with thousands of zebrafish does come with a certain cost, and an initial investment in professional aquatic systems, but a small lab can start with a short trip to the pet store. A series of commercially available tanks and filters suffices to house a few hundred zebrafish, at least. Given that a study might require anywhere from 100-1000 zebrafish, it is doable to design projects with very little cost. The start-up expenses for a small facility using supplies from a pet store can run around a few hundred dollars. More elaborate and professional aquatic systems with automatic filtration and the possibility of housing a larger number of fish in a smaller space start in the tens of thousands of dollars in start up expenses. However, the maintenance costs after the initial expense is still very low, compared to mice and rats.

Why Zebrafish research is cool

First of all, zebrafish are a new kid on the bench, and therefore most projects you are interested in doing haven’t been done yet on zebrafish. The body of literature is growing faster and faster, but it does not come close, yet, to the knowledge we have of other model organisms. So here are some advantages to working with zebrafish

As a relatively new model, a lot of studies can be designed that have not been performed yet on this species. There is lots to do, and you never run out of ideas.
It is a vertebrate, and thus has a strong advantage in studies that benefit from a vertebrate system.
Small, easy to keep in large numbers.
Cheaper to keep in large numbers than mice and rats, enabling even medium sized labs to perform high throughput screening.
A number of genetic tools are available, and the zebrafish genome has been sequenced.
High fecundity allows for a lot of subjects to be generated, within a short generation time. Thus, as a graduate student there is hope of finishing a PhD within a reasonable amount of time.
Drug administration can be as simple as “add water” (and fish).

There are seemingly endless advantages to using zebrafish in biology, far more than I have summarized above. Having said that, zebrafish enthusiasts do also recognize the limitations of their favorite model organism. Generally speaking, no single model organism will ever be appropriate for all research studies, and the zebrafish can be seen as a very useful and promising tool that complements mice, rats, and fruit fly research.

One unavoidable disadvantage of a relatively new model organism is just that; it is new. A much smaller body of literature is available on the zebrafish compared to other model organisms.
Although a lot is known about the development of zebrafish, their behavior remains insufficiently studied. A number of labs are working hard to change this at this time.
Although zebrafish are a vertebrate, eggs develop outside of the body and although there are advantages to this for the purpose of observing embryonic development, there are limitations when studying vertebrate maternal behavior or aspects of in-utero development.

Zebrafish swimming into the future

With the expanding body of knowledge and the large number of tools available to study zebrafish, there is no doubt that this little organism will continue to make great strides in future research. As zebrafish are now being used in virtually all disciplines, from neurogenesis to oncogenesis, from behavior to genetics, its popularity is steadily increasing. The emergence of zebrafish conferences, and the increasing presence of zebrafish studies at large annual meetings such as the Society for Neuroscience, shows how zebrafish are increasingly becoming a model of choice.

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Christine is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. She studies drug-induced behavior, development of social behavior and neurochemistry. When she isn’t with her fish, she enjoys running, art, travel, and often finds herself behind her computer writing (sometimes, about zebrafish).

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[1] Gerlai, R., Lahav, M., Guo, S. & Rosenthal, A. Drinks like a fish: Zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a behavior genetic model to study alcohol effects. Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav. (2000) 67(4), 773–782.

[2] Sison, M., Cawker, J., Buske, C., & Gerlai, R. Fishing for genes influencing vertebrate behavior: zebrafish making headway. Lab Animal (2006) 35(5), 33-39.

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