By Gustavo Nativio, INRO Postbaccalaureate Fellow, Pathogenesis and Immunity Section, Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology
The “Alumni Connections” series highlights NIAID fellows who have taken the next step on their academic path. This interview features a former NIAID postbac who transitioned to a Ph.D. program in 2021. Read this interview with Emma Rowley to learn about her experience as a postbac in the Malaria Cell Biology Section of the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research and how she made her decision to pursue a Ph.D. in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Epidemiology and Human Genetics program.
What research did you work on as a postbac, and how did it prepare you for graduate school?
During my postbac, I was in the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research (LMVR), and I worked with Louis H. Miller, M.D., in the Malaria Cell Biology Section. My project focused on the role of oxidative stress on the malaria parasite, Plasmodium vivax, with the overarching aim of the final project being the creation of an in vitro culture system. With Plasmodium falciparum (the other predominant malaria parasite), there’s been a culture system since 1976 or so, and since then, researchers have been trying to accomplish the same with vivax. I experimented using a hypoxia chamber, trying different oxygen concentrations, and adding supplements to see if I could get vivax to grow. Towards the end of the project, I began developing a flow cytometry protocol to measure the viability and oxidative stress of vivax-infected cells in a culture.
My postbac prepared me for graduate school with both soft skills and hard skills. First, I learned how to efficiently read scientific literature and how to keep up with my field’s science. Also, I only did a little dry lab work with my project at the NIH, but through the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, I took introductory bioinformatics courses, which helped me build some dry lab skills that I otherwise wouldn’t have had going into grad school.
Soft skills-wise, resilience is everything. Things will go wrong, and you will have to just power through some of those days. During my postbac, I came in a lot of days to dead parasites or a method that didn't pan out how I expected. I learned to take little victories and confidently go back to the drawing board to come up with new ideas. It’s been one of the most important lessons coming into my Ph.D.
What is the topic of your graduate research thesis?
My thesis involves a comparative analysis of the genetic relatedness within Plasmodium vivax populations compared to Plasmodium falciparum populations in Southeast Asia. I still do some wet lab work in the form of sample processing, but nowadays, my role is more dry lab compared to my postbac.
What did you look for in the graduate programs you applied to?
By the time I was leaving the NIH, I had specific research interests involving bridging molecular biology perspectives with the methodology coming from a broader population-level public health perspective. With this unique interest, I applied to both M.P.H. and biomedical Ph.D. programs. The program I ultimately selected was the University of Maryland School of Medicine Epidemiology and Human Genetics program. The specific track that I'm in is molecular epidemiology, which focuses on using molecular techniques to figure out the distribution and determinants of health in a population, which ended up being perfect for my interests.
What did you consider when selecting your graduate advisor?
I would make sure you have at least two, but ideally, three or more faculty at a particular school that you would want to work with. During my application cycle, I went through school by school, and if I only had one person I was interested in there, I knew it probably wasn't the right school for me.
When it came to picking an advisor for my thesis, there were two main pieces to it. Obviously, you want to be interested in the science they do, and that's personal; everyone decides that for themselves. And the second part, which is equally vital, is interpersonal dynamics. I focused on that a lot when it came to picking my advisor. I wanted someone whose projects I was interested in and someone who was going to give me intellectual freedom to pursue my own ideas, but beyond that, I knew I was going to do best in a supportive environment where I felt compatible with my advisor.
What do you wish you had done to prepare for graduate school?
One thing that I wish I had gotten better at is knowing when to say no to things. You'll always get asked to try new side projects or add something to your plate. I never bothered to learn that skill initially, and I've now had to learn it late in the game because I've realized you physically can't say yes to everything.
In terms of more hard skills, I’d recommend getting as much writing experience as you can. I’ve heard from faculty that it's a deficit that a lot of people in the biomedical sciences have. A lot of students tend to not be the best writers and sometimes do more experiments and data analysis just to avoid writing. The more experience you have writing, the less intimidating it eventually becomes and the easier it is to get started. Take any opportunity you have. Ask your advisor to help write a review or parts of a publication. Not everyone loves writing, so oftentimes people are happy to take the help.
What is your long-term career goal?
I enjoy the academic sphere, and I could see myself there. Also, though, as I've moved through the Ph.D., I’ve become increasingly interested in the implementation science aspect of my projects—that is, how can we take discoveries and transition them out into the real world to use them more efficiently in a public health context? I’ve still got some time to decide. Right now, I’m focusing on building a diverse skill set so that eventually, when I graduate, I'll have some options!
Learn more about postbaccalaureate training opportunities at NIAID.