I have to admit that when I first moved to the BC Cancer Agency in 2002, I knew very little about it. I found my new lab through a strategic PubMed search rather than by browsing the BCCA website, and no-one else in my PhD lab showed any sign of recognition when I told them of my destination.
Things changed in 2003, when I started getting emails asking if my lab had been involved in the SARS genome sequencing project (no, but I had friends at the Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre who were on that paper). By the time I returned to the BCCA in 2007 after a two year stint in industry, my scientist friends in other countries had heard of my new boss, although a couple of them seemed surprised that he’d left Cambridge for the scientific backwaters of Vancouver.
In the last few months, though, my colleagues have published a series of papers that are bringing them much more recognition. The papers themselves are very high profile:
Shah et al: Mutation of FOXL2 in Granulosa-Cell Tumors of the Ovary. New England Journal of Medicine 2009: 360:2719-2729
Shah et al: Mutational evolution in a lobular breast tumour profiled at single nucleotide resolution. Nature 2009: 461:809-813
Morin et al: Somatic mutations altering EZH2 (Tyr641) in follicular and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas of germinal-center origin. Nature Genetics
Published online: 17 January 2010 doi:10.1038/ng.518
and the Agency has also really stepped up its PR efforts. I work with some of the main players behind the three papers linked above (some much more closely than others) and have been involved in drafting press releases and backgrounders. I sat in on some of the press conferences, listened in on my boss being interviewed live on the radio, and have seen the Agency and associated Foundation broadcast the latest news through their own blog and on Twitter. The announcement of the second paper even briefly hit the top ten trending topics on Twitter, which was almost as cool as seeing my boss being interviewed on the local morning news, as the first item on the CBC’s The National news programme, and on the front cover of the Globe and Mail.
Over the last year, I’ve had many more emails from friends in other countries asking “hey, is that your lab?” I’ve seen hits to our website and student / postdoctoral applications go through the roof. I’ve heard anecdotally that researchers in Toronto and the UK are sitting up and taking notice – one researcher in our field is even alleged to have said (and I paraphrase this third-hand information) “how am I supposed to recruit molecular pathologists to my lab when everyone knows all the best ones are in Vancouver now?”
So, when I was asked the following question in an email from a friend and former labmate:
“And how is your work going? Still enjoying it? No secret longings after pipettes, transformations and DNA extractions? Or the privilege of staring down a microscope?”
I replied with
“No longings for pipettes or related paraphernalia yet! Almost five years now! I love being this close to some really cutting edge research, without actually having to do any of it myself…”
So, Heather, nice try… I will never again be as close as you are to that thrill of the big discovery, but I’m close enough to satisfy my scientific itch, and I still get to drink the champagne.
Oh, and the reflected glory is nice, too. I was just the proofreader for one of the three papers I linked to, but I’ve helped write grants for, and am the project manager on, some ongoing work that I am confident will merit more top tier papers, press releases, and all that hoopla.
Science: never a dull moment!
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Cath@VWXYNot? on Book reviews – Knowledge Translation edition
- Grant Jacobs on Book reviews – Knowledge Translation edition
- Cath@VWXYNot? on Last Saturday:
- Alyssa on Last Saturday:
- Cath@VWXYNot? on I WROTE A BOOK!
Blogroll
- A Lady Scientist
- Academic International
- Alexander Honkala
- Ambivalent Academic
- Amelie's Welt
- Apple Pie and the Universe
- Arduous Blog
- Balanced Instability
- Blue Lab Coats
- Cancer Evo: Evolution and Cancer
- Candidate Models
- Chemical BiLOLogy
- Curiosity Killed the Cat
- Delicious Juice
- Dinner Party Science
- Dreams and Hopes of a (Former Postdoc) Scientist
- DrugMonkey (ScienceBlogs)
- DrugMonkey (Scientopia)
- Endless Possibilities
- ERV
- Everything and More
- Exponential Book
- Expression Patterns
- Fejes.ca
- Fumbling Towards Geekdom
- Grumpy rumblings of the untenured
- In Scientio Veritas
- It's a Micro World After All
- Kiwihorizons
- Life and Joys of Lisbeth and Tue
- Looking for Detachment
- Masks of Eris
- MicrobiologistXX
- My Fair Scientist
- Neurotic Physiology
- Not To Be Trusted With Knives
- Post Doc Ergo Propter Doc
- Prof-like Substance
- Professor in Training
- Punctuated Equilibrium
- ScientistMother – Raising Replicates
- Some Lies
- Stripped Science
- The Assertive Cancer Patient
- The Digital Cuttlefish
- The Excitable Scientist
- The Gene Gym
- The Happy Scientist
- The Hermitage
- There and (Hopefully) Back Again
- This Scientific Life
- Unbalanced Reaction
- Uphilldowndale
- Xykademiqz
- You Do Too Much
Categories
- bad people
- blog buddies
- blog roll
- book review
- Canada
- career
- communication
- competition
- current affairs
- cycling
- drunkenness
- education
- embarrassing fan girl
- English language
- environment
- evolution
- exercise
- family
- food glorious food
- freakishness
- furry friends
- grant wrangling
- hockey pool
- medicine
- meme
- meta
- music
- nature
- original research
- personal
- photos
- politics
- Primate Party
- publishing
- rants
- science
- silliness
- snow
- sport
- technology
- travel
- UK
- Uncategorized
- Vancouver
- videos
Archives
Meta
and I still get to drink the champagne
And that is what really matters 🙂
Congrats on the nice results!
I am totally in agreement with you. When asked “do you miss the lab”, my response invariably is “NO!”. I did my time pipetting, thankyewverymuch, and still am lucky enough to be associated with a large and productive research group, and play with some data (shameless plug) every now and then.
Anna, it’s good to have your priorities straight!
Richard, yes, it’s a pretty sweet gig.
Science: never a dull moment!
Funny, that’s what I say about my corporate
enslavementhighly respected job. Of course, it helps that you have to check your sanity at the door.OK, time to delurk.
Hi Cath! Not sure if you remember me; I was a co-op student in Dixie’s lab last year. Needless to say I miss all the amazing people and research that goes on at the BCCRC, so I really enjoy reading this blog.
Thank you for this post. I remember feeling pretty confused when a full-page ad for TFL came out in Nature a few months ago… I mean, why advertise a workplace that already has an amazing reputation, in one of the most popular cities to live in the world? However I suppose that it’s partly due to PR efforts that this reputation was established in the first place. It’s also awesome that CBC and other popular media report on our discoveries, though it does lead to the occasional chuckle when friends ask me “if I know the scientists at BCCA that sequenced cancer”…
Ken, been there, done that, got the t-shirt (it’s too big for me so my husband wears it at work). Escaped…
BTW, I see from your profile that your blog title is very apt for this post!
Sonja, helloooo! Of course I remember you! It’s been years since anyone else has come up to me in a pub (or anywhere, really) and said “I was just reading your paper!” Any plans to come back and join us at the BCCRC after you’ve finished your degree?
It is indeed nice to have non-scientist friends see our work on TV! Mine all thought it was really cool (or they said they did, anyway).
…but I’m close enough to satisfy my scientific itch, and I still get to drink the champagne.
That sounds like heaven! Congrats on it all!
I like to think of it as basking in their reflected glory 😉
Alyssa, I can’t complain!
Darren, indeed (see penultimate paragraph of the post!) Maybe we need to bump that beer up by a couple of hours…
“I like to think of it as basking in their reflected glory ;)”
I think of it almost as “tanning off the reflective sheet that people hold up to their faces” – I certainly am nowhere near the lab nowadays (though get rather giddy when I’m allowed to train people on what mesenchymal stem cells look like and I actually get to touch a microscope once every few months). I console myself I help more people and advance science further in my position than I would working in a very specific area of research.
I’m glad you’re still loving it!
Great stuff, Cath. I get very much the same sensation – of helping great papers into the light, and enjoying some of the reflected glory when they get there.
why advertise a workplace that already has an amazing reputation, in one of the most popular cities to live in the world?
An interesting question – and the answer, I guess, is that the world of science moves rapidly. Once you have a great reputation, you need to cement it. One can never afford to become complacent.
Cath, I almost envy you. It does sound wonderful. I get a little of that reflected glory by working in a larger unit – almost an institute, as we are over 100 people – where others frequently get their papers in prestigious journals and we get self-congratulatory TOC’s sent on by the big boss, but mostly I am preoccupied with the handful of projects that I myself can keep in the front of my mind. In a position like yours or Henry’s, you can oversee more projects, be involved with them – but you are not ultimately responsible for making the scientific decisions on what sort of approach will lead you to answer a particular type of question. You make it possible for these decisions to be made (if I’ve understood right). Henry validates (or not) the ones that have already been made.
My participation in the scientific process, at the level of those decisions, is more the work of a skilled artisan, but I do get a kick out of it. More almost than staying up on the latest developments in particular fields.
This is definitely a case of “it takes all kinds”.
@ Cath (a bit late, but anyway…): The blog is, sadly, being neglected for the moment.
It’s great when you spend your days doing something you enjoy, and get paid for it, too. That’s something not everyone can say on a consistent basis.
I think Heather hit the nail on the head – it’s about close exposure to a broader range of cool science than you’d ever manage as a bench researcher, as also mentioned by Kyrsten and Henry.
“You make it possible for these decisions to be made (if I’ve understood right).”
Yep – the largest part of my role is to help write and submit the grant applications that fund all the cool science! Mixed in with some project management, PR, and manuscript editing / proofing / occasionally writing. Basically making the PIs’ lives easier so they can spend more time making the right scientific decisions.
And Jenny, I do still love it – on the macro level! Thank you! (On the micro level, some days are more interesting than others… I spent three hours on Friday reformatting CVs, because apparently it’s against the law for two different grant competitions (even within the same funding body) to use the same combination of information about everyone’s current funding).
“This is definitely a case of “it takes all kinds”.”
I like to think of science as an ecosystem with tons of biodiversity. You just have to evolve into the right niche through
winging it and serendipityastute career choices.Ha, I crossed with your comment again, Ken! Twice in ten minutes on different threads…
Yes, I know how lucky I am to have a job I enjoy, not having enjoyed the last one much at all, and finding it perfectly miserable by the end. Never again!
Cath, thanks for the link to the blog…I hadn’t seen it before. Now I don’t feel so bad about abandoning mine 🙂
Cath: hi! Haha, I am so glad that you didn’t think it was excessively creepy to be approached by someone you had never met before, who appeared to know what you did last summer… or a couple of summers ago :).
I’m thinking of graduate school (at the BCCRC) more seriously now. I hit a low point during the summer when I spent two months trying to get a single PCR to work, and almost gave up on research completely. Now I’m back to thinking a PhD would be fun and interesting, although Dave makes me wonder if it’s really necessary…
I prefer to think of you as my first ever science groupie 🙂