MIRC’s Trainee of the Month

Can you describe your research?

I am currently working on developing an innovative therapeutic platform that could be potentially used for next-generation cancer immunotherapies, infectious diseases, or lysosomal storage disorders. I am utilizing our own cells’ “mail delivery system”, called extracellular vesicles, and modifying them to have a “postal code” displayed on their surface that is specific to a cell of interest to deliver various therapeutic cargos to those targets.

What advice would you give to future scientists?

From my experiences, I think there are 3 important things that will help an aspiring scientist be successful. The 1st is the lab environment; being in an environment that is fun, relaxed, and supportive is very important. This type of environment is conducive to creative thinking, new ideas, collaboration, and productivity. The 2nd is funding; ample lab funding translates to having the proper resources available to conduct state-of-the-art experiments. Also, a well-funded lab could provide a trainee with unique training experiences, such as traveling abroad and presenting at international conferences. Finally, and arguably the most important is accepting failure as part of the learning process and bouncing back from it. I can guarantee you will have experiments that don’t work, scholarships/fellowships/grants rejected, and manuscripts that can’t seem to get through the peer-review process but learning from those failures and rebounding will only make you a better scientist.

What do you like to do when you’re not in the lab?

Outside of research I really enjoy spending quality time with my family, fiancé/soon-to-be wife, and our dog Rex. I also enjoy cooking, reading, golfing, and watching sports—soccer, hockey, and Formula 1. I absolutely love traveling and am looking forward to an upcoming trip to France!