Get to Know a (Former) Grad Student: Dr. Ana Jimenez

With this post, I'm continuing the "Get to Know a Grad Student" series, an effort to showcase the lives of real scientists. After interviewing a few graduate students, I thought it would be nice to hear from someone who has crossed the PhD boundary into the wild blue yonder. 

Dr. Ana Jimenez is a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Joe Williams' lab here in the Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology Department at Ohio State. Ana has been my teacher and biggest supporter in the impossible task of getting salamander cells to grow in the lab. She is also my designated dog babysitter, and my dog told me she would rather live with Ana.

She was nice enough to answer the questions below. Enjoy!

"Take me to Ana's"

What kind of research do you do? Please give the scientific version and the non-scientist version.

Scientific-version: My research involves finding linkages between whole animal metabolic rate and cellular metabolic rate. 

For my Ph. D, I looked at the whole animal metabolic cost of hypetrophically growing muscle fibers, and found that larger muscle fibers are metabolically cheaper to maintain for animals, thus, there is a positive selection for animals to grow their muscle fibers as large as they can, until diffusion of important molecules such as oxygen or ATP becomes limiting. 

Figure taken from:
Wiersma et al 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

For my post-doc work, I have been researching how life-history trade-offs in tropical and temperate birds translate down to the cellular level. Tropical birds are said to occupy the “slow pace” of the life-history spectrum, with fewer young and reproduction occurring later in their lives, while temperate birds occupy the “fast pace” of the life-history spectrum, having more offspring and devoting more resources to reproduction early on in their lives. Additionally, we know that, on average, tropical birds have significantly lower whole-animal basal and peak metabolic rate compared with temperate birds. 

So, I have been isolating dermal fibroblasts from phylogenetically-paired tropical and temperate bird species and measuring the cellular metabolic rate of these cells using an XF24 Seahorse analyzer (machine that measures oxygen consumption in a monolayer of cells). I have found that, (lo and behold!), the cellular metabolic rate of the cells isolated from tropical birds have significantly lower basal and peak metabolic rate as well, with differences closely matching those of the whole-animal metabolic measurements. So, cellular metabolic rate does, indeed, retain the whole-animal metabolic signature of the animals the cells were isolated from.


Non-Scientific version: For my doctoral work, I researched why bigger muscle fibers are cheaper to maintain in fish and crustaceans, and for my post-doctoral work, I am researching whether whole animal metabolic rate is retained down to the cellular level in tropical and temperate bird sister species. 

Why is what you study important?

Besides the fact that it is what I love and what I have fun with? Nothing, not important at all…

Just kidding, results from our work with isolated dermal fibroblasts from tropical and temperate birds has let us (with the help of a diabetes researcher at the University of Cincinnati) to propose that cells may have a fixed “metabolic clock” that carefully regulates the whole-animal metabolic rate set-point, a finding that may have important implications in the body weight field. 

Lean and obese people metabolically defend their body weight incredibly precisely, down to the cellular and molecular level. An advantage of our proposed work is that our bird model does not include body weight, and insulin resistance parameters, which, in lean vs. obese studies, is a limitation that confounds the metabolic set-points of obesity. The answer to the question of how an animal decides its metabolic set-point is certain to be the same for bird cells and obesity models. Additionally, this work also has implications for theories of allometric scaling…touchy ground on this one though, so that’s all I’ll say about it.

What was your path to graduate school like?

I was accepted into the master’s program at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) to work under Dr. Steve Kinsey on muscle physiology and biochemistry of fish and crustaceans. After two years in his lab, I had the choice of defending my master’s thesis and moving on to another lab to do a Ph. D or continuing in his lab for a Ph. D. I really loved my master’s project and I was really, really excited about continuing to answer the questions that it had lead me to, so I chose to stay in the Kinsey lab for my doctorate, a decision I have never regretted.


What do you enjoy doing in your free time? How do you feel about your work-life balance?

I’m told that it is very important to have a work-life balance, but I’m really crappy at keeping said balance. In all of science, there are ebbs and flows of work, so there are times that I barely ever leave the lab, just like there are times I have to find stuff to keep me busy. 

I take advantage of the times that science is slow to spend time volunteering at the humane society or spend time hiking or swimming with my dog. Really, most of my life revolves around animals of one kind or another, and I have fun with all aspects of my life, so it’s sometimes hard to find the fine line between “work” and “life”. My post-doc advisor, Dr. Joe Williams, says “the day I stop having fun will be the day I leave science for good.” I couldn't agree more!

Describe a normal day in your life.

One of the Williams' lab field sites happens to be my house.

I wake up, walk/feed/play with my dog, go for a run (if it’s warm), get ready for work.

Two things can happen for “work:” either we are going out to collect birds, in which case we spend the whole day outdoors, or I’m doing lab work, in which case I spend an incredible amount of time counting cells, plating cells, growing cells, measuring cells’ metabolic rate or cursing at cells for not doing what I wanted them to do…

I also spend an incredible amount of time looking for funding, writing grants, and gathering preliminary data. This part of my life I don’t really like at all, but it is a necessary evil. 

What are your career plans for the future?

I’m highly undecided on my future. I think I will go back to what Joe tells us: The day I stop having fun will be the day I leave science. Right now, I really love what I do and the questions I’m answering, but academia is changing very rapidly, and I’m not sure that I support the changes that are happening.

What has surprised you about graduate school?

I think most of my graduate school experience was as expected. I have to say that the transition between student to post-doctoral researcher was a real eye-opening experience for me. For most of the Ph. D students in my department, no one really spent time discussing with us what happens after you defend you dissertation and you move on. No one told us that there are several different types of post-doctoral positions that you can apply for and that you can shape your future depending on which type of path you pick. No one told us that looking and applying for a post-doc is a full time job and that it should be happening 1.5 years BEFORE you defend. So, I had a hard time with all of that, mainly because I lacked information. Once I successfully landed a post-doc, life went back to meeting my expectations, however.

Student-life and post-doc life hasn't really changed much for me (minus the fact that I went for working with marine critters to working with birds): I work hard a lot of the time, and I have fun with it.

Ana pictured here pipetting without gloves like some sort of rebel.

What do you struggle with the most in graduate school?

I think in graduate school, I struggled the most with independent thinking. It was really tough to think about my own project outside of my advisor’s expectations and frame of mind. 

Now as a post-doc, I have been “left” to independently think since the moment I stepped foot in this lab, and my advisor helps guide my thinking, which has been tremendously helpful. My new struggle is balancing grant-writing time with actually gathering data and writing papers-time. I’m told this struggle does not cease, even after becoming faculty (great news! NOT!)


What has been the best moment of your career so far?

The day I defended my doctorate. By far, most exciting, emotional, and triumphant day of my life.


How do you feel about the dynamic of research, teaching, and outreach in your career and in the future?

In nature, we talk about a balance of resource allocation: if you are investing 60% of your time feeding, you can’t spend 70% of your time mating. 

I feel like the dynamic of research, teaching and outreach follows this model very closely. And I would say that you have to go with your strength: If you are a good, effective communicator and like teaching, spend your resources on that. If teaching the same concepts over and over again bores you and you like the dynamic of research and can be productive at it, then do that. Play to your strengths at all times. If you are good at both, then do 50-50 and find a place that allows you to do that.


Who are your academic role models?

To any animal physiologist, Dr. Knut Schidmt-Nielsen is a God! But more close to home, if I hadn't had the undergraduate research experience I had, I would have never made it to where I am today. So, I’m eternally grateful to Dr. Wayne Bennett from The University of West Florida.


What advice do you have for other aspiring grad students in your field?

Unfortunately, what I would have to say is think twice before coming into academia. But if you love it and your heart is 100% into it, then close your eyes and jump with both feet. Things always work themselves out in the end. Make sure you are having fun, and learning lots.


Thanks Ana!

If you are enjoying this "Get to Know a (Scientist/Grad Student)" series, let me know! 

Feel free to send me some suggestions for what types of scientists you want to learn more about and I promise to track them down and ask nicely. 

Live slow and die old: why are we studying salamander cells?

The following post was written as part of a practice exercise for the Scifund Outreach Class. But it isn't doing any good hidden away, so here you go:
A few years ago, Ligers were all the rage. You remember Ligers don't you?

Here is a Liger looking right at you

Ligers, of course, are the result of a mating between a lion and a tiger. I predict that the reason a hybrid animal like a Liger is so captivating to you and me is that it causes the imagination to run wild. You can't help but think of wild combination of your favorite animals!

However, hybrids are rare. So why won't I ever see a "Growler Bear" (grizzly bear + polar bear)?

The process of evolution has produced many barriers to the creation of hybrids, but one of these barriers could hold the secret to an important question for humans: why do we age?

DNA: the answers are somewhere in there.You have to look close!

The key resides in the dual-nature of our DNA. Whether you like it or not, every cell in your body has two distinct sources of genetic blueprints: your mitochondria and your nuclei. These two components of your cells serve very different purposes. Your nucleus acts as each cell's command center by ordering the construction of the proteins that maintain your body and dictate its function. Your mitochondria are the power plants of the cell, constantly creating the fuel that keeps the body running. Each of these components has its own genetic blueprints, but in order for cells to work they must both play nice with each other.

It turns out that playing nice with each other is difficult. Because your mitochondrial DNA is always passed down from your mother and your nuclear DNA is always a combination of both parent's nuclear DNA, the two genetic libraries evolve at two different rates. And the more distantly related nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are from each other, the more difficult it becomes to communicate.

This mismatch is not only a giant barrier to hybrids, but also one of the major contributors to how fast organisms age. This idea is called the "pace of life": organisms with high metabolisms often have shorter lives.

Consider a hummingbird flapping its wings hundreds of times a minute. All that energy requires mitochondria to be pushed to their limits, increasing the pressure for perfect communication between nucleus and mitochondria.

The bottom line: humans would be very interested in how to maintain a healthy dance between their nuclei and mitochondria. We've recently identified an animal that can somehow maintain this dance against almost impossible odds:

An all-female Ambystoma salamander: avoiding cellular destruction while looking adorable.

This salamander is part of an all-female group in the genus Ambystoma. What makes these salamanders special is their ability to clone themselves while occasionally stealing sperm from other salamanders species. The result are cells with multiple copies of nuclear DNA from up to five other related species (imagine yourself with copies of chimpanzee, gorilla, and orangutan DNA). However, their mitochondrial DNA always remains the same. This mismatch of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA spells a recipe for cellular disaster, but these all-female salamanders are widespread and successful. How do they do it?

The first step in answering this question is to determine if these all-female salamanders do in fact overcome this mismatch. To do this, I am growing tissue from different salamanders and comparing the efficiency of their mitochondria. 

At least, I hope I am. I've convinced my committee that it is a pretty good idea.

Get to Know a Grad Student: Kyle Weichert

Kyle contemplating science with field assistant

The second installation of the Get to Know a Grad Student series is Kyle Weichert. Kyle is a Master of Science student at California Polytechnic State University in Dr. Emily Taylor's lab. I've never met Kyle in person, but have talked to several reliable sources that say he's a swell guy. Good enough for me, and lucky you for getting to hear his point of view.


Here is what Kyle thinks about being a grad student:


What research do you do? Scientific and non-scientist versions, please. 
I am studying the physiological factors that affect the Western fence lizards’ (Sceloporus occidentalis) ability to kill the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. This bacterium is responsible for causing Lyme disease in humans. By combining the blood plasma of fence lizards with a culture of B. burgdorferi and counting the bacterial cells that die in response, I can quantify the lizards’ innate immune abilities. I am comparing this response across males and females, coastal and inland lizards, and fall vs spring samples.

Obtaining blood from a fence lizard

For non-scientists, I am researching what makes some individual lizards better at killing bacterial infections than others. The bacterial infection I am studying causes Lyme disease in humans. Learning more about this can give us a better understanding of the vectors and potential risks of contracting the disease.

Why is what you study important? 
My research incorporates techniques across multiple disciplines of biology, containing elements of herpetology, physiology, immunology, and bacteriology. The results of this experiment will be of interest herpetologists, immunologists, and disease ecologists alike.

My specific line of inquiry will elucidate the physiological factors that affect the western fence lizard’s ability to effectively kill the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease. This research will contribute to the overall body of knowledge regarding the spread of this vector-born disease. My research will also identify specific factors that lead to a reduced immune function in lizards.

What was your path to graduate school like? 
I worked with Dr. Emily Taylor for the last year of my Bachelors degree, studying the natural history of rattlesnakes by radio-tracking them. I enjoyed that experience very much and when graduation time came, Emily suggested I stay at Cal Poly and work with in her lab on a Master’s degree. At the time, I was ready to spend some time away from school and get some work experience, but I always intended to come back. I worked at a few different biology jobs over several years. I decided to go back to school when it became apparent that the job I had worked for the last 3 years had no room for upward growth. At that point I contacted Emily again, and emailed a handful of other Master’s advisors. Emily had some great ideas for new projects. So, I bought her a few drinks and asked if she had room in her lab for me. (Rob: for most potential advisors, buying drinks may not be the best strategy, but your mileage may vary)

Photo by Walter Siegmund

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?How do you feel about your work-life balance? 
I’m lucky that I have found a field that I do both for work and fun. I enjoy nature and the outdoors very much. In my free time, I enjoy bird watching, herping, hiking, insect collecting, and gardening. Also, I’ve played the guitar for many years, and still enjoy doing that when I have the time.
As far as the work-life balance goes, it’s tough. I have much less free time than I did when I was out of school. But, the time I spend on school feels worth the effort. I’m lucky because my wife is very understanding of the time and effort I am investing in my education! 

Describe a normal day in your life. 
I usually wake up around 7am, get up take the dog out to use the yard. While he does that, I make coffee and my lunch for the day. My wife and I live about 30 minutes from campus, so I usually don’t get there until about 9 am, but that depends on when I have class, or teaching, or research. On a typical day I have anywhere from zero to 4 hours of class. After that, I work in my office and hold office hours for about four or five hours per day. I teach about 9 hours per week, and that takes 2-3 hours of grading and prep time per week. Some days I work in the lab to try to get some thesis work done. About 6pm to 8pm I return home and work from there for another 3-4 hours after dinner. Most days I spend about 12-15 hours working on teaching, classes, and research. 

What are your career plans for the future? 
After completing my Master’s Degree, I plan to go on and pursue a PhD. The overarching goal is to become a professor of biology. My favorite part of academia is teaching, so I would definitely like to end up at a school that is teaching oriented. 

What has surprised you about graduate school? 
I have been most surprised by the amount I learned in such a short time. When I first started graduate school I was amazed by the amount the professors knew about their subject. The information stored in their brains seemed inexhaustible. But now I understand how it is possible. I have learned more in just one year of graduate school than I learned in the whole of my undergraduate career. I was also not prepared for the crazy hours I have to keep.

Kyle and his wife, Audrey, often work as a research team.

What do you struggle with the most in graduate school? 
The thing I struggle with most in graduate school is keeping everything balanced. The life of a graduate student can be quite a juggling act. I have to balance teaching, research, classes (and grades!), as well as my personal life. Of those, the one I struggle most with is the research. I find that I often don’t know what I’m doing in the lab. But, from that, I end up learning more.



What has been the best moment of your career so far? 
Well, I have not necessarily had a prestigious or particularly impressive career so far, but I would have to say that earning some research money from a grant proposal to the Chicago Herpetological Society was a high point so far. Another moment that sticks out is presenting my undergrad research in a poster at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists conference in St. Louis. 

How do you feel about the dynamic of research, teaching, and outreach in your career and in the future? 
So far, I absolutely love teaching and outreach opportunities. They are my favorite part of the whole graduate school experience. The research, for me, has been laborious, especially to fit into the schedule. I am starting to understand, however, that the research is a fundamental part of the science. It is through the research that I learn the most, and can do my best teaching. For example, I have four undergrads working with me on my research, and it’s been fantastic being able to teach them skills, etiquette, and scientific responsibility.

Kyle and others out in the field. Looks pretty rough.

Who are your academic role models? 
Without a doubt, one of my biggest role models is my advisor, Dr. Emily Taylor. She seems to be able to balance all of the facets of higher education extremely well. Not only is she a fantastic teacher, she is also involved in other programs and aspects of the department. Another role model of mine is my former lab mate, Tony Frazier. He has an amazing knack for asking the best scientific questions about anything. And lastly, a coworker of mine: Jason Dart. Jason is one of the best naturalists I have ever met. He has incredible knowledge of virtually every group of organisms one could observe in California. 

What advice do you have for other aspiring grad students in your field? 
My advice for aspiring grad students is to keep saying “yes” to all opportunities and inquiries that come their way, even when they are busy. It is through all those extra tasks that one learns the most and builds important relationships with their colleagues. Find ways to get more involved with others’ research and help them with tough questions. This helps make one well-rounded.


I'd like to thank Kyle for taking the time to answer my questions. Next week: Juli Goldenberg from San Diego State University. Til' then.