{"id":1772,"date":"2010-01-22T16:58:11","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T16:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/2010\/01\/22\/building_a_reputation\/"},"modified":"2010-01-22T16:58:11","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T16:58:11","slug":"building_a_reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/2010\/01\/22\/building_a_reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> 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.
\nThings changed in 2003, when I started getting emails asking if my lab had been involved in the SARS genome sequencing<\/a> 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.
\nIn 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:
\nShah et al<\/em>: Mutation of FOXL2 in Granulosa-Cell Tumors of the Ovary. New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> 2009: 360:2719-2729<\/a>
\nShah et al<\/em>: Mutational evolution in a lobular breast tumour profiled at single nucleotide resolution. Nature<\/em> 2009: 461:809-813<\/a>
\nMorin et al<\/em>: Somatic mutations altering EZH2 (Tyr641) in follicular and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas of germinal-center origin. Nature Genetics<\/em>
\nPublished online: 17 January 2010 doi:10.1038\/ng.518<\/a>
\nand 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<\/a> and on Twitter<\/a>. 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<\/a> news programme, and on the front cover of the Globe and Mail<\/a>.
\nOver 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?”
\nSo, when I was asked the following question in an email from a friend and former labmate:
\n“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?”<\/em>
\nI replied with
\n“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…”<\/em>
\nSo, Heather, nice try…<\/a> 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.
\nOh, 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.
\nScience: never a dull moment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}