What led you to research in anatomy and cell biology? “My research is not necessarily directly anatomy and cell biology (ACB) related. The research that I do could be done in various departments such as ACB, physiology and pharmacology, neuroscience, psychology, etc. The journey that got me here specifically started in my undergraduate degree at Western in physiology. I was volunteering for a lab in ACB that also investigates neurological disorders and their behavioral and molecular underpinnings. During this experience, I knew that I really enjoyed the research and wanted to continue it. After getting accepted into the MD/PhD program at Western, I knew I wanted to remain in a similar lab. This led me Shawn and Brian’s research program. On top of that, with having to do an accelerated three-year PhD, I didn’t want to leave the close-knit group of ACB. It's not just specifically the anatomy and cell biology department, it's more of a combination of my experiences combined with a lot of advice from mentors.”
What have been of the major influences on your career so far? “Mentorship is the biggest one. The second major influence in starting this program would have been experiences in coursework. During an undergraduate degree, it is easy to get lost in the stress of deadlines, exams, and GPA, but it’s equally important to discover what you’re passionate about. Everything that you’re learning right now, is it just to get a good grade or is it because you like learning about it? What fuels you? At the end of the day, you're not going to like where you're going if you don't actually know if you like doing it. Personally, I was able to take a variety of systems-level courses in my physiology degree and was able to narrow my excitement down to the field of neuroscience. Overall, I would really encourage introspection self-awareness in this sense. I know there's often not a lot of time to sit down and think, but it does help in making long-term decisions.”
What is your favourite thing about research? “It's really the fact that I get to work with my friends. I go in every day, and we can get to work on a lot of different aspects of research projects together. Even during our lunch breaks, you can often find us spit-balling new project ideas or discussing new research articles. Perhaps the broad umbrella term for my favourite thing would be collaboration. You get to work with so many like-minded individuals that are passionate about the exact same thing you are. On a bigger scale, PIs do the same thing. In a very basic sense, they go, ‘Hey, your research program does this technique which that could really help us in discovering the answer to this scientific question. Do you want to collaborate?’ This happens across research programs within and between institutions. My second favourite thing about research would be the day to day,44continuous learning. What I find these days is that we just don't know what the truth is. Every time a paper comes out, the ‘truth’
