Research bench to clinical bench: Two sides of the same coin

Career Story Blog Post By Lauren Brooks, PhD, Medical Technologist (ASCP) Trainee Rochester General Hospital/University of Rochester Medical Center

So you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up? You love bench science but the life of a PI doesn’t appeal? Look to the other side of the bench science world: Clinical Laboratory Science. 

Developing the Skills to Pay the Bills

Career Story Blog Post By Benson Cheng, PhD, Investment Analyst at Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)

Whether you are a PhD student or post doc, you know that the journey to a faculty position can be long and arduous. This can be due to a 24/7 schedule, constant nagging from PI’s to publish, or that overwhelming feeling where you don’t know how to interpret data because you are “literally the first person in human history to make this observation.” However, many factors in the past decade have made the elusive tenured-track position evermore difficult to attain, if not impossible. Now, you likely suffer from a major case of imposter syndrome and you don’t know what to do with a PhD. REAL TALK. 

Diving into Data Science

News Article By Emily Weber

            Data Science is quickly emerging as a new field that many scientists at the University of Rochester are working in and exploring. Dr. Aslihan Petenkaya, a postdoctoral fellow in the Biostatistics and Computational Biology Department, is a current fellow for the seven-week intensive post-doctoral Insight Data Science Fellows Program. She found herself interested in data science towards the end of her PhD in Hucky Land’s laboratory, where she started studying if different metabolic characteristics of cancer cells could predict how they responded to certain enzymatic inhibitors. “Predicting if a cancer cells falls into a certain class requires application of supervised learning algorithms,” said Dr. Petenkaya. “I started studying different algorithms and learned more about how data science shapes and directs our lives in very visible ways and how widely applicable the tools used in data science are.”

            Dr. Petenkaya learned about the Insight Data Science Fellow Program from a friend and filled out the online application. The Insight Data Program strives to train PhDs from academia in data science technology and partners with such companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, NBC and Spotify

At the FDA Lab Bench with Postdoctoral Fellow Supriya Ravichandran

News Story By Samreen Jatana

Q&A session with Samreen Jatana and Supriya Ravichandran, current and past UR student in Dr. DeLouise's laboratory. They discuss life at the FDA and how the experience may help to pave the way to a career in industry. 

Fact or Fiction – The “Medical” Student Lounge

News Article by Claire E. McCarthy

During my five years as a PhD student, I have often passed by the “medical” student lounge on my way to classes and seminars. Despite gazing at the large television, comfy-looking couches, and a fun foosball table in the room from the hallway, I never tried to swipe into the lounge. I thought the space was only for medical students. When I asked other Toxicology graduate students for their thoughts on the availability of the lounge, I got varied responses. Shannon Lacy, a second year student, said, “There’s a big sign on the door that says Med students only, so I don’t think graduate students have access.” Yet, Amanda Croasdell, a sixth year student, stated that the lounge is not exclusively for medical students. A first year student, Katrina Jew said that other people told her that the lounge is open to graduate students, “but I don’t know if it really is because the rules of who can or can’t use the room aren’t easily found.” 

Based on all of the rumors and confusion about the “medical” student lounge, I decided to disentangle the truth from the rumors by talking to Linda Lipani, the Registrar in the Office for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.