Animal studies

This post has some details on using animals for research with some details that I'm certain animal lovers might not like.  Please don't read further if you fall into this category.  I don't like doing animal studies, but I've come to understand that some animal testing is necessary, though every possible precaution should be made to ensure animals are well taken care of.  Plus, I won't experiment on monkeys or do anything psychological...or anything that causes pain.  When a university or company gets in trouble for animal stuff, I immediately boycott their products.  This includes not collaborating with some of the best physicians in the world...which I've had to do because of their treatment of animals.  I've disabled comments just-in-case.  That being said here's the post:

A friend came into town and we were having some pretty heavy discussions on the use of animals in research.  We both came to agreement that animals could be used more efficiently, and fewer killed by researchers, but it got me thinking about doing a post on animal research.  I got an email months ago about the expectations of doing animal research coming out of grad school when you don't really want to (where the highest species a grad student works on is usually live mice...though there are the rare wealthy labs...).  This could be a valid concern because there is a lot of money in industry for animal research and we do a ton of it.  And a lot of people hate seeing dogs, cats, pigs, etc. on the experimentation table.  I didn't want to do a post before, but thought it may be useful for students to read about jumping into animal studies from the perspective of someone that did not want to do them originally.

I want to preface this with the fact that I love animals.  I have two dogs now, and throughout my life I've had rabbits, fish, and even a pig as pets.  I hadn't seen an animal die until graduate school (I swear all my old pets are at farms...) when I found a local butcher to get cheap, high quality meat from and he offered to show me the process from farm to table.  I was heartbroken but grateful because it has made me far more grateful for the meat that I eat.  And I never ever waste it now.  In my home country meat is a side dish of small quantity so it was easy to eat all of it.  But after coming here I started to eat more meat and noticed a little waste if I wasn't hungry and things spoiled in the fridge.  I hate seeing animals die, but I always thank them (or their "spirit" if I just have the meat) for their life.  Of all the animals I've seen pass I have never gotten over it, even if it's just on an operating table and all I see is an open wound because of the dressing on it.

In graduate school I worked with mice and pigs (I didn't do bio before grad school....I was a physicist).  The mice were transgenic used for all kinds of things.  When I had to kill and harvest my first mouse I was terrified and felt like I wasn't built for this kind of research.  I brought this up to my advisor and she understood but explained to me the usefulness of animal research and how using surrogates would be impossible to replace all animals with because of inaccuracies.  And how people would die without it.  But she didn't pressure me.  She referred me to organizations like kids4research.org and explained the necessity of animal research.  I told myself I would continue to try it and by the fifth animal I wasn't as upset by it, though I have never gotten over the fact that I'm ending its life.  One thing I made sure of was that every experiment went well and gave me good data.  I didn't want the mouse's life to end for no reason.  I've seen so many people waste animals or the data, and it really pisses me off.

I moved on to porcine subjects and had the same reservations, though didn't have to do as much of the killing/husbandry.  This was handled by techs and vets.  But I still maintained the same level of respect for the animal: ensuring that pain and anesthesia was completely under control, death occurred painlessly, and data was very complete.  And I thanked the animal ever time...even though I know they can't hear me...or understand me.

When I moved to industry I started to have to do research on dogs.  Dogs hold a very special place in my heart so this took a while to get used to.  But I realize that there's no other way other than testing on humans since other animal models have proven inaccurate.  Technically I do test on humans, though the priority is the treatment...the data is just icing for me.  Talking to other people at my company there are plenty that don't go into the OR.  They get to do awesome R&D without ever seeing an animal.  They just see the data.  I forced myself to come to terms with the canine studies because I knew that if I was there I could guide the study from the control room to get the most out of the animal.  So if you're worried about the animal study just mention this to the recruiter and they'll try to find the suitable environment for you.  Or just try to desensitize yourself, as I have.  When I see my dogs at home (one's sitting on my feet right now!) I never think of what happens in the OR.  I separate myself.  It makes it easier to separate given that all I see of the animals are a couple squares of skin as revealed by windows in the dressing over the animal.  I occasionally I'll see a paw, and this gets to me.  At first I would hang out in the corner of the OR, letting the doctors and techs handle the testing with interjections from myself when I want a change to the testing or more testing done.  I now stand right by the table because I realized it makes the testing more effective with the 'expert' right there by the table.  And I want to make sure testing is as efficient as possible.  Never wasting an animal.  For the most part though I don't really have to touch live animals anymore.  I'll get excised tissue but this doesn't affect my psyche at all.  Just seeing the animal on the table.

It's impossible to get away from animal products.  If someone says they don't use anything that has an animal byproduct they're wrong.  When I was at the butcher they explained everything that animal products are used in or that have been tested on animals and I realized that getting away from animal use would be impossible.  And for me, I really care about patients and their families.  So if I have to bite-the-bullet and do something a little uncomfortable for me then I'll do it.  Seeing the patients I've touched makes it all worth it.  Though it did take some time....

My average days-when I first started

Xykademiqz made a good point in my last post that I posted my current hours when I was asked by a student about industry hours.  I've moved up at a rate much higher than the average, and have been taking the learning lumps that goes with being underqualified for a position.  I started in a role similar to a lot of people straight out of grad school, if not just a little higher since I had a good amount of industry and national lab experience before I tried to earn my letters.  I got my first big promotion about 8 months in, and at my meeting with the head of my company for the promotion I pitched a new type of idea for medical device design.  One that has paid off big for my company.  He made me in charge of this new group (which I still lead).  He set aside a small amount of money and within a year our budget increased by 10x because of the results my group had.  It was three of us, and we're easily responsible for all the upcoming products in our company's pipeline.  Everyone in my group gets promoted at 2x what everyone else does because of our success.  Any success I have is 99% luck from this meeting with the head of my company.  My hours changed dramatically at this stage.  I wanted...needed...to make this concept work.  I have a surprising amount of free time, especially outside of work, rarely working  outside of the office.  I had a ton more free time (and fewer gray hairs) when I first started here.  Though I would never trade my current position for my old one.  Without further ado, here's my hours when I first showed up:

Very laid back day:
9am Arrive
9-11am Experiments/design
11am-1pm Lunch
1pm-3pm Reading...occasional short meeting...emails
3pm-5pm Emails, calls, some design work or experiments
5pm Gone!

Laid back day
8:30am Arrive
8:30-9am Emails and day planning
9am-10am Meting
10am-11am Experiments
11am-noon Small group stuff, experiments, design stuff
Noon-1pm Lunch
1pm-4pm Work (experiments, design, etc)
4pm-5pm Email, reading
5pm Gone!!!

Busy day
8am Arrive
8am-9am Meeting
9am-10am Computer stuff
10am-noon Experiments
Noon-1pm Look at data while eating
1pm-3pm Experiments...maybe some small group meeting stuff
3pm-4pm Meeting
4pm-6pm Experiments and prototyping
6pm-7pm Emails, reading, transcribing notes
7pm Gone

Average day while traveling
5am-6am Check email during breakfast
6am Report to hospital
6am-8am Prepare equipment
8am-1pm Run animal study
1pm-2pm Lunch
2pm-7pm Run animal study
7pm-8pm Put equipment away
Do this 5 days in a row.

My percentages were probably like so, on average:

20% VLBD
60% LBD
5% BD
15% Travel

Those students out there: if you're worried about the hours, mine were definitely better than grad school.  And my starting salary was definitely higher than my old advisor's...but there are trade offs :)

My average days

Someone looking at whether to go industry or academia asked me what my schedule is like. The question came from a grad student figuring out which direction to go after graduation. I obviously (or maybe, not so obvious...I'm an enigma...) said to look at academia for the reasons I've discussed in this blog, but I thought I'd explain my average busy day, my average laid-back day, and my average travel schedule day. I'll throw in my most laid back and most busy days along with the relative percentages of the frequency of each type of day, too.

Very laid back day:  

9am Arrive

9-10am Emails

10am-11am Meeting

11am-1pm Lunch

1pm-3pm Work (experiments, design, etc)

3pm-5pm Email and read articles/patents/etc

5pm Leave and forget I even have a job

Laid back day

8am Arrive

8-9am Emails

9am-10am Experiments

10am-11am Meeting

11am-noon Brainstorming

Noon-1pm Lunch

1pm-4pm Work (experiments, design, etc)

4pm-5pm Email and read articles/patents/etc

5pm Leave while rarely thinking about work outside of work.

Busy day

7am Arrive

7am-8am Email

8am-9am Meeting

9am-10am Work on designs

10am-noon Experiments

Noon-1pm Look at data while eating

1pm-3pm Prototype changes and more experimentation

3pm-4pm Meeting

4pm-6pm Experiments and prototyping

6pm-7pm Emails

7pm Leave tired

Very busy day

6am Arrive

6am-7am Email

7am-8am Prepare materials for big meeting

8am-10am Big meeting

10am-11am Work on designs

11am-1pm Experiment while eating lunch

1pm-3pm Big meeting

3pm-5pm Experiments and prototyping

5pm-7pm International meeting

7pm-9pm Experiments to prepare for big show-and-tell

9pm-10pm Data processing

10pm-11pm Work on presentation

11pm-midnight Emails
midnight Sometimes leave while thinking about work...sometimes sleep in my office

Average day while traveling

5am-6am Check email during breakfast

6am Report to hospital

6am-8am Prepare equipment

8am-1pm Run animal study

1pm-2pm Lunch

2pm-7pm Run animal study

7pm-8pm Put equipment away

Do this 5 days in a row. 

My percentages are probably like so, on average:

2% VLBD

8% LBD

50% BD

10% VBD

30% Travel

Overall, I am very satisfied with my work, and it doesn't always seem like work since I'm having fun. The clinical-impact makes me feel great about the long days at the office, but I prefer VLBD :)

Sponsoring research

I sponsor more academic research on my company than any other group here. It's a great way to stay in touch with the academic community, give to people who really need it, and give kids an 'in' at a great (the best) medical device company ever.  Also, I've been using my past success to convince people at my company that I can guide great academic research and those in charge have been very open and enthusiastic about sponsoring some of the research I intend on pursuing next year.  Even going to the point of starting to talk numbers and aims with me.

My most recent exploit has been very successful, however, the PI I'm dealing with wants to push results to publication.  I love publishing, but this work has been going so well that I may be able to turn this into a great medical device.  It's the first project where the profit will be realized immediately rather than 20 years down the road.  Sooooo, I'm pub-blocking them.

I feel bad, especially since I really like the student on this, and this will delay their publishing.  The agreement with the school is that I control when things are released.  My concern with this now is that the PI will get antsy and leak information.  Not through a conference or manuscript, but just in talking with people while at a conference or faculty meeting.  Especially since they're starting to get frustrated, and in venting anger they may vent the idea.  I've already filed for patents on this, but the patent probably won't be public for at least six months.  When it's public, even though we don't have it issued yet, I've agreed to let it get submitted for conferences and manuscripts.

I'm trying to see this from the PIs point-of-view since I'll probably be in that situation before I know it.  But I'm hoping that I will empathize more with my [past] company, and relay this to the student.  Anyone out there that gets industry sponsorship and you're frustrated: please don't get too mad.  We're not just doing this for greed or ego.  This is something we have to...please understand.  And please relay this to your students.

Life is less busy

I had a post a little while back about how busy life has been. I've noticed that it seems awfully quiet right now and I'm embracing it.  Though I'm noticing things are just about to pick up.  It's a little too quiet right now...like a zombie movie before the heroes get ripped apart.  I love spending more time with friends and going on long walks, or watching some television.

There's two approaches I'm debating in my head:
1.  Embrace this totally and wait until crap hits the fan to get busy again,
2.  Take this time to get everything of mine in order and prepare for the next crap-storm.

I'm rolling with the first one.  It totally sucks to be on-edge, and I just want to clear things out.  I've got a nice vacation coming up.  I'd like to think that the average stress level ends up less if I handle a lot at once instead of a steady state of stress.  I was never a boy or girl scout so being prepared just isn't part of me.  For now, I'll start writing up a few blog posts and recover some of my natural-colored hair...leaving the grays as a distant memory.  Sit by the beach more frequently than not, watch some movies, hike a little, play some games, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......relaxation......for now.......

Passion=bad

I give great presentations. People are engaged. They understand the topics. The crowd loves me.  Either there's great conversations and laughter because they feel sorry for me, or it's good enough to get the point across and get people thinking.  I choose to believe the latter.  But I've been told it's unprofessional. A friend actually said it can seemed almost like scientific stand-up. I give engaging presentations because I love my work. And because I love my work, I love talking about it. It flows off the tongue with lots of relatable analogies and detailed theory...but also some jokes.

I've been told today my style is 'unprofessional for academia' by a soon-to-be-faculty-mentor at my new school. My thought is the point of presenting the work is to get the point across to as many people as possible. Or sometimes just the important ones. The presentation I gave when I was interviewing was a healthy mix of slides and talking-style geared towards undergrad, grads, and faculty depending on the section and depth. Everyone said they understood it well.

My advisor loved recording my talks because of how easy things were to understand.  And a committee member told me that my defense was the most lively one he's ever been apart of in the 30 years he's been advising.  I started presenting this way early in grad school when I realized that unenthusiastic talks put everyone asleep, and the point of a talk is to get your point across....can't do that if everyone is asleep.  There's a second point to this too: it's unresponsible science to not disseminate your results (usually paid by the public) to the public.  I want to see at least a little effort to keep the audience engaged.  I go the extra mile making my slides and speech great.  A friend thinks people think it's unprofessional because it looks like I'm trying really hard and appear too approachable.  That I need to appear at least a little unapproachable and put in the bare minimum of work.

I may be misinterpreting this, but when I see a drab talk, I immediately think either a) they don't give good talks, b) they don't care that other people are bored, or c) they're unpassionate about their work. I love seeing a speaker that loves their work, and loves to show it.  I'm going to try a find a safe point between talking passionately about my work and trying to get people engaged through humor and the lifeless talks that I've come to expect at most conferences and seminars.  Actually...screw that.  I'm going to present the way I want.  If people are 'too engaged' or 'too entertained' then that's their problem!

Expanding diversity

I am a big proponent of diversity in STEMs.  First off, we need more bodies in STEM.  The less diverse the field is, the fewer minorities will join.  Given the problems of this world, we need as many people as possible to solve them.  Growth of new ideas, directions for marketing, and progress on projects is stymied when everyone has the same background.

My problem with the current approach is approaching target demographics by using representatives from the target demographic (men recruit men, women recruit women, Latin Americans recruit Latin Americans, etc.).  During grad school and after grad school I have been doing my best to try and infiltrate the specialized organizations to spread awareness and learn all I can about demographics other than my own. My reason for this is 1. It will allow me to better understand what they're going through, 2. Develop strategies best for the specific groups, and 3. It exposes the students to me. Me, being someone different than their groups. My (perhaps misguided) reasoning is if they learn that people of all races and sexes are approachable and want them to succeed they will pick STEMs.  Being from industry also offers them someone outside of academia they can approach. Why any we all just get along?  I know there are hidden discriminations that often people don't know they have, but I wonder what it will take to put everyone on the same level. Is that even achieveable?

I'm doing an outreach thing for a club in my demo and I tried convincing others to team up with a different demo and they aren't hearing it. They think it will dilute our impact. What the heck?  There's got to be a reason, I just can't pinpoint it.

I'm in the airport with a colleague and he thinks that I'm just naive: thinking that people can get over their subconsciouses.  I'll try and get over my naivety while I'm embracing other cultures in my upcoming travels.

PS: Happy Birthday, America!!!

Moving in before commitment

So like many married couples, my spouse and I co-habitated together prior to marriage. Marriage seemed like a formality. And when we started to live together we already started our lifestyles into more of a married one. Why delay moving in if we know we're going to be together? I know there are personal as religious implications, but from a personal standpoint, if I know something is inevitable I have trouble focusing on the present because I know what's on the horizon. So we moved in immediately when we thought we were ready.

In 13 months I'll be quitting my job and moving to New College University (NCU). I know it's inevitable, but in this case I can't leave early because of obligations. So I'm stuck with this anxiety about my next stage in life.

I keep looking online at houses at NCU even though these probably won't be on the market when I move out there.  I kind of want to pull the trigger on a house just to have there; ready for me.  I can start making upgrades while I'm away.  But I think this is just my anxiety: wanting to 'move' in before I'm married....