In Case You Missed It—The NIAID 15th Annual Fellows Virtual Workshop

The NIAID 15th Annual Fellows Workshop took place on December 9 and 10 as the final training event of year, featuring the promising research conducted by NIAID fellows over the course of 2021, a hopeful sendoff for a challenging year. The first day featured plenary talks from Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D., a leading COVID-19 researcher and former NIAID fellow. Dr. Iwasaki’s talk was nicely juxtaposed with a science policy discussion with Kei Koizumi, which gave fellows the chance to ask questions about his journey to the White House and how to make science policy a regular part of life. Dr. Jessica Manning, the 2021 Outstanding Mentor, was the highlight of the event with her delivery of an inspiring account of her personal journey as a scientist and as a mentor—and the not-so-linear path of both. NIAID fellows presented their research at various intervals throughout the event, and Alexandria Well’s talk on the “Role of an Antiviral Program in the Control of Host Microbiota Interaction Within the Skin” scored highest among her peers, scooping the prize for the winning postdoctoral talk. The second day hosted 70 poster presentations from NIAID graduate students and postdocs—featuring scientific talks and discussion spanning the spectrum of NIAID’s intramural labs.

Shining Light in the Black Box of Mentorship

Jennifer Bohl, Ph.D., Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research and Mentor Nominator

NIAID’s 2021 Outstanding Mentor, Jessica Manning M.D., M.Sc., gave the talk titled “The Black Box of Mentorship: My Journey of Fear and Failure.” Dr. Manning highlighted the “giants” whose sage career advice led her path of success. She also introduced the concept of evolving mentorship-based generational difference in priorities and beliefs in work-life balance. Next, she described her career path that led to her position as an academic scientist, a path that was anything but linear but afforded her enriching and life-affirming pitstops along the way. She highlighted some tips she found helpful in becoming a successful scientist and mentor. 

The shoulders of giants

The first giant: During his NIAID mentor award talk in 2017, Dr. Barney Graham stressed the need to write two hours every day. Dr. Manning calls this concept “deep work” (a phrase coined by Cal Newport), which means to make time in our schedules to concentrate (especially free of digital distractions) on our intellectual activities, e.g., writing and reading, to become a successful academic researcher. 

The second giant: Manning met Dr. Mark Denison at a conference in Shenzhen, China, in 2018, where they agreed to challenge the “compost model” of medical/scientific career development (nurture the seed and hope it grows) and suggested a more proactive approach that first identifies the long-term career goal and work backwards to identify the requirements necessary to attain that goal.  

Pit stops on the road of character

“Character is far more important than intellect in making a (wo)man a good citizen or successful at his (her) calling-meaning by character not only such qualities as honesty and truthfulness, but courage, perseverance and self-reliance,” Theodore Roosevelt. Parentheticals added by Dr. Manning.

To this concept Dr. Manning added authenticity: finding one’s spark for the work that energizes and excites, and allowing or accepting fears and failure, knowing they are just lessons that keep us authentic and make us resilient as we work toward our goal. 

Tips, tricks, and hacks

  • Find your spark then write your narrative
  • Sit at the table in meetings, speak up and ask questions
  • Be a learner—don’t be a knower
  • Avoid goals, build systems
  • Embrace digital minimalism
  • Just make it to the next mailbox—sometimes we need small goals to accomplish larger ones
  • Invest in your tribe—supporting others builds your own support network

Suggested references

Deep Work: rules for focused success in a distracted world, Cal Newport
The 5am club: own your morning, elevate your life, Robin Sharma
The infinite game, Simon Sinek

Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2

Julia Lederhofer, Ph.D., postdoc, Immunoengineering Section, Vaccine Pathogenesis Laboratory, Vaccine Research Center

The much-anticipated plenary talk from Dr. Akiko Iwasaki detailed her research on COVID-19. She shared four different stories: the longitudinal immune response to COVID-19; the different virus variants of concern; a new mouse model to study COVID-19 disease as well as protection after immunization; and finally, her recent and ongoing work on COVID-19. Dr. Iwasaki’s group discovered four signatures of plasma proteins that can distinguish patients who recover successfully versus those who will develop worse disease (Lucas C et al. Nature. 2020). In patients who develop worse disease, type 1/2/3 cytokines become elevated, which causes a maladaptive response. They followed individuals over 98 days who were vaccinated and not previously infected, as well as vaccinated individuals who had COVID-19 prior to vaccination, and found that previously infected individuals mount higher neutralizing antibody responses to both ancestral virus and variants of concern. Interestingly, they saw in mice that both T and B cells clear primary infection, and in the absence of one, the other can compensate. However, in the absence of both T and B cells, the mice are unable to control primary infection and remain chronically infected. 

What about long-COVID? There is currently limited understanding of what causes long-COVID, but current literature suggests that viral reservoirs, autoreactive lymphocytes, or tissue damage/dysbiosis/latent virus reactivation are likely causes. Dr. Iwasaki offered a glimmer of hope: In a clinical study, around fifty percent of patients improved long-COVID symptoms after vaccination. In the same study, however, nineteen percent of the patients felt worse, and twenty-five percent had no change in their symptoms after vaccination. Dr. Iwasaki shed light on the many remaining questions about COVID-19.

Research Moving Forward

Alexandria Wells, Ph.D.

Alexandria Wells, Ph.D., postdoc in the Metaorganism Immunity Section of the Laboratory of Host Immunity and Microbiome, was awarded the best oral presentation for 2021.

Credit: NIAID

Eimear Holton, NIAID Training Social Media/Web/Outreach Program Specialist

Despite the enormous disruption the pandemic has created, NIAID’s predocs and postdocs have continued conducting high-caliber work across the Institute, as they showcased with research presentations from prion diseases to COVID-19 and immune system homeostasis. Eight fellows with the highest scored abstracts presented their work as 15-minutes oral presentations followed by a brief Q&A.

Alexandria Wells, Ph.D., from the Laboratory of Host Immunity and Microbiome was awarded the winning oral talk for her presentation titled, “Role of an Antiviral Program in the Control of Host Microbiota Interaction Within the Skin.” She explained that the balance between our skin’s immunity and its microbiota is still yet to be uncovered and pointed to the relationship between endogenous retroviruses and the microbiota as a regulation system for the skin’s immune homeostasis. When congratulated, Alexandria detailed her plan to use her award winnings to attend a conference and share her work with peers outside of NIAID. She added, “It means a tremendous deal to me to know that my peers and colleagues here view my research positively. I am truly grateful for this recognition and support!”

Big Science, Mini-Talks

Evelien van Gelderen, postbac, Translational Autoinflammatory Diseases Section, Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology

Three NIAID postbacs presented their research as mini-talks, the first time that postbac research was featured at the annual workshop. This opportunity gave postbacs a chance to showcase their work and gain important experience in communicating their science.

Natalia Bettis, an INRO postbac fellow in the DIR Laboratory of Immune System Biology, described her work on investigating the role that the mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) plays in coordinating tissue response to the Ebola virus (EBOV) in mice. She found spatial interactions between EBOV antigen and macrophages, suggesting MAVS signaling is necessary for macrophages to respond to EBOV antigens. 

Chloe Adrienna Talana, a postbac fellow in the Virology Laboratory at VRC, presented her work evaluating the binding of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to variants of concern. Chloe detailed how her lab’s findings can be used as a screening tool for emerging variants. They found that mRNA vaccine-induced antibodies retained most of their binding to four spike glycoprotein variants. 

Last but certainly not least, Seth Warner, a postbac in the DIR Laboratory of Immunoregulation, presented on how neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation promotes inflammation in bacterial sepsis. He investigates the regulation of NETs by spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk). Syk associates with Toll-like receptor (TLR)4, which activates in response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). They found that fostamatinib, a Syk inhibitor, inhibits LPS-induced NET formation in vitro.

Making Science Policy a Part of Your Life

Cara DeAngelis, Ph.D., postdoc, Gene Regulation Section, Laboratory of Bacteriology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories 

“Policy is any action or measure we can take to make a change in the world,” stated Kei Koizumi, the Principal Deputy Director for Policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).   

In the world of policy, there are two main strategies for making changes: “policy for science” and “science for policy.”  Policy for science means to improve policies that regulate how we do research, such as NIAID budgets and the Common Rule for human subjects. The other strategy, science for policy, involves advising policymakers on the latest advances in science and technology so they can make informed decisions on wide-ranging topics such as climate change, pandemics, and vaccine policies.

Kei’s role within the OSTP is to connect the dozen or so government agencies responsible for research initiatives. He emphasized that working in the field of science policy is like a “contact sport”—you need to bring your whole self to the table when engaging with policymakers. If you’re interested in policy, he suggested looking into the AAAS science and technology fellowship, keeping up-to-date on news, and following your interests even if they are diverse. In addition, NIH has a science policy discussion group (SPDG) you can join if you would like to build your resume up for applying to the AAAS fellowship or other career opportunities. The resounding message of Kei’s talk was to take advantage of the resources and opportunities you’re already surrounded by, either in your local community or through NIH.

Learn more about postdoctoral research training opportunities at NIAID.

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