Embracing The Journey, Not Just The Destination

Steven Whitesall, Research Lab Specialist, Molecular & Integrative Physiology and Edith Jones Kiyabu, Graduate Student, Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Steven Whitesall’s career trajectory has been anything but ordinary. “Trajectory doesn’t always go the way you wanted…but keep trying,” shared Steven. Steven originally planned to attend vet school after graduation so he decided to pursue zoology as a major at Michigan State University (MSU). When asked why he studied zoology, Steven replied soundly: “To study a crazy animal like Louis G. D'Alecy!”. But in earnest, Steven really liked all aspects of zoology so much he would spend all Saturday working in the lab to study developmental differences among mammals, instead of attending Michigan State football games! Thankfully the lab had a window that when opened allowed Steven to hear what was going on in the field.

Steven lives in Chelsea, Michigan and babysat for James Alford who was the associate director of ULAM from 1978-90 and who was very instrumental in building the Life Sciences Institute (LSI). When Steven failed organic chemistry 3-4 times, James assured Steven that he still trusted him with his kids and encouraged him to keep working hard and go back to school. After Steven completed his degree at MSU, James told Steven’s mom there might be something for Steven working with Louis D'Alecy in the Department of Physiology. According to Steven, his experience in babysitting prepared him well for lab management. “Taking care of kids is like taking care of a lab in a way: there’s mice, undergrads that drop samples, lots to take care of.” Steven met Dr. D'Alecy and joined the laboratory in 1992. It was to be a trial of a month or so to see how they worked together…30 years later, they are still working together.

Steven is now the Physiology Phenotyping Core Manager and many of his experiences prepared him to rise to this challenge. Steven spent over 20 years in the D’Alecy laboratory, much of which was studying large animal models of ischemia caused by stroke or other diseases. Working side by side with Dr. Alecy, postdocs and lab assistants, Steven would help with animal surgeries, placement of catheters and electrodes and collecting samples. Several undergrads would come to the lab to help measure and study blood gas exchange and other such parameters. They had great times. They would order food from Angelo’s and eat lunch in the office next to the lab, talk about science and go back to the bench. Dr. D’Alecy didn’t care much about bureaucracy. He cared about the students, teaching science, and learning together. This proved to be the perfect environment for Steven to flourish. Dr. D’Alecy eventually gave Steven more and more experiments and responsibility in the lab.

During his time in the lab, Steven also helped Dr. D’Alecy set up and develop high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), for measuring metabolites released by ischemic tissues. Steven and Dr. Alecy struggled because they really weren’t experienced at such a complicated assay and it took a lot of time and energy out of an already busy lab, but they kept at it and the new assay created a lot of support for other labs. “Science is hard work, long hours, but it’s good to work with a lot of people with a lot of academic/ professional training. Lou, and now Dan Michele, have been instrumental in training me.” Shared Steven.

The start of the phenotyping core was very collaborative and a great team effort. The Physiology Phenotyping Core (PPC) was officially founded in 2011, merging two existing cores that were focused on cardiovascular disease and in the 2000s Professors John Williams and Joe Metzger led the faculty in creating the Center for Integrative Genomics. This core had animal treadmills, running wheels, ultrasound imaging and non-invasive blood pressure measurement. With support of a program project grant, Dr. D’Alecy and Steven established a mouse telemetry facility for measuring blood pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG) in awake rodents. The merger of the two cores and new leadership from Dan Michele brought a significant investment from the Frankel Cardiovascular Center (FCVC) to help grow the core’s support of surgical models and establish two facilities. One facility remained in the Physiology department, near the D’Alecy lab, and the other was established at the North Campus Research Complex. The core needed an expert surgeon and Steven took on the challenge to become the PPC lab manager and lead surgeon.

Currently within the PPC, Steven manages regulatory compliance, handling of the animals, performs microsurgeries and manages the telemetry service. Thanks to everything Louis had taught him and put him in charge of, Steven has been able to rise to the challenge. Dan Michele has been great too and has been extremely patient. “Dan is also very patient and thorough when it comes to designing animal models. Dan is wearing 3 or 4 hats: lab PI, department interim chair, director of the core, yet he is never upset. He comes back with great ideas and motivation; he is really smart. Dan always has great scientific answers, and works as a team.” remarked Steven.

With the collective support of the department and the FCVC to help administer the core, it has established many regular customers, including investigators within the department and across the medical school. Although some of the work is more routine now, it stays exciting when new customers want to try something different. To develop these new approaches and measurements we are grateful to continue to have the support of Dr. D’Alecy as an advisor, as well as other investigators who lend their expertise and advice.

One of Steven’s favorite images, that represents his time in the physiology department, is a photo of a coffee stain on a lab notebook that was chosen as the cover art for an article the department published. To Steven, this showed the grass roots of where science comes from, “keeping it real: All your senses need to be opened to answer what is not always obvious”.

Steven really enjoyed collaborations and the dynamic energy in Dr. D’Alecy’s lab, eating lunches together, reading manuscripts, and writing. Steven was so busy with new surgical techniques in animal models for the first few years in the core, that he couldn’t help out much in experiment design. As for now, Steven is really enjoying a collaboration project with members of the Beard Lab: Dan, Fran and Feng, designing experiments and measurements to study baroreceptor function. “Designing the experimental plan, seeing the outcome, and refining the plans to make it better is the best part of the project, it keeps you excited and interested”, shared Steven enthusiastically.

Kimber Converso-Baran has also been instrumental for the core in bringing ultrasound imaging expertise from the Mott’s children hospital to animals! Her expertise in small vessel imaging in humans allowed her to readily adapt to imaging animals as small as mouse embryos. Working together in the core, Steven performs surgeries and Kimber often images the animals before and after surgery. They keep a positive environment in the lab through laughter, which helps them diffuse the situation when a problem arises or when something doesn’t work. “Incredibly talented” remarked Steven. “I wouldn’t know what the core would do without her expertise”.

In his free time, Steven enjoys playing vintage base ball (two words in the old days), with the rules as it was played in 1865: no baseball gloves! Steven also likes hunting and fishing, loves his family and really enjoys spending time with them. His wife Amy has been extremely supportive of Steven, while she also pursued a career in journalism. Steven and Amy are very proud of their two sons: Ben just became an officer in the Marines Combat and Engineering Division. His younger son Nicholas just finished his fouryear appointment in the Marines and is looking forward to life together with his fiancé, Chandler.