The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

This month we talk with Ana Boskovic about her experience of setting up her own lab and hiring a new teamAna began studying languages and literature… but found it too easy, so she switchedShe questions whether you are ever ‘ready’ to set up your own labIt’s important that you find the right ‘fit’ for the place you want to work and this should be a supportive environmentShe learnt early that it is important to hire people with diverse personalities who each fill a gap in the skills the lab needsAna also says it’s important to always be yourself and not pretend to be something you are notShe remembers that hiring was the biggest challenge in setting up her own teamThey need to be dedicated but also well-integrated into the team and the lab cultureShe balances ambitions with pragmatic considerations to avoid biased approachesAna loves ‘to do’ lists as a source of satisfaction and to help planningShe says you need to be able to trust and respect your mentor because you know they want you to succeedMentors need to learn to have a conversation and be sensitive to mentees’ needsAna insists that mentors need to be able to apologize if they get it wrongAna uses her train ride to plan her day and write her To-Do listShe tells us about her favourite Roman emperor, DiocletianShe reminds us that “The plural of anecdote is not data”She mentioned these labs, scientists and institutionsUniversity of Zagreb https://www.unizg.hr/homepage/EMBL Rome https://www.embl.org/research/faculty/rome/Maria Elena Torres-Padilla (podcast episode from Season 1)https://www.buzzsprout.com/1356877/episodes/6624301-tlp-6-just-go-for-it-following-your-curiosity-and-excitement-maria-elena-torres-padillaMaria Elena Torres-Padilla (lab)https://www.helmholtz-munich.de/en/ies/pi/maria-elena-torres-padillaOliver Randohttps://www.umassmed.edu/randolab/Edith Heard (podcast episode from Season 2)https://thelonelypipette.buzzsprout.com/1356877/episodes/11387623-tlp-12-science-without-frontiers-edith-heardF Scott Fitzgeraldhttps://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_FitzgeraldDiocletianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiocletianSplit, Croatiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split,_CroatiaTo find out more about Ana visit these links  You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipetteTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month Ivan Oransky joins us to talk about his work as a journalist and advocate for monitoring scientific misconduct.Ivan confesses about his beginnings as a young playwright of the immune systemHe discusses how and why he left medicine to become a journalistIvan’s mentors encouraged him to develop by getting experience as a journalist and editorIvan reflects on how his training as a physician was helpful and allowed people to trust himHe stresses how important it is to read in order to develop story-writing skillsIvan explains that curiosity and attention can help to hunt for good storiesHe thinks the trend to ‘weaponization’ is central to what’s wrong in science and science communication todayHe suggests that going ‘upstream’ might help to explain the methodology and not just the results of scienceIvan describes the origins of Retraction Watch and looking for the stories behind the retractionsHe also insists that we need to look upstream to understand what leads to the fraud (or sloppiness) behind the retractionsFinally, learning to say NO is an important skill to keeping focusedIvan mentioned these scientists, writers and institutionsHarvard University : https://www.harvard.edu/The Harvard Crimson https://www.thecrimson.com/Yale University https://www.yale.edu/The Scientist https://www.the-scientist.com/Journal of American Medical Association https://jamanetwork.com/New York University’s Carter Journalism Institute https://journalism.nyu.edu/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.comLawrence Altman MD https://www.nytimes.com/by/lawrence-k-altmanGeorge Lundberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_D._Lundberg https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1114712/To find out more about Ivan and his work visit these links  at NYU https://journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/profile/ivan-oransky-md/on Twitter/X https://x.com/ivanoranskyRetraction Watch https://retractionwatch.com/The Transmitter /Spectrum magazine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_TransmitterIvan’s first play about the Immune System (aged 11) https://theoranskyjournal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/immune-system-play.pdfYou want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipetteTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month we enjoyed talking to Arjun Raj about his interdisciplinary approaches to studying biological systems Arjun shares how he almost became a truck driver and experimented with a career in an (unnamed) rock bandHe tells us about his journey from mathematics to quantitative biology and he shares thoughts about comparing biology with physics and what they can learn from each otherHe says we all struggle with how to teach creativity and how to evaluate the most promising ideas.Arjun discusses how to improve mentoring and practical auto-mentoring. He gives specific examples about learning how to peer-review papers.He recommends a narrative-based approach to science communication so that you can leave the audience with a feeling of wonderHe is inspired by Star Wars storytelling as a science communicatorHe says it's important to go through a period of really paying attention to the small detailsArjun argues that scientists have become overburdened and that increasing scope creep creates a lot of pressureHe mentioned these labs, scientists and institutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania https://www.upenn.edu/UC Berkeley https://www.berkeley.edu/Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University https://cims.nyu.edu/dynamic/Massachusetts Institute of Technology https://www.mit.edu/Fred Kramer https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/fred-russell-kramer/Sunjay Tyagi https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/sanjay-tyagi/To find out more about Arjun visit these links  Raj Lab https://rajlab.seas.upenn.edu/on Twitter/X https://x.com/arjunrajlaRandom musings Blog https://rajlaboratory.blogspot.com/Tools for Science resource https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jBGk-u5auVCvI5EMaQnptMWbxHHl3ncIhKgIgEzjylw/editYou want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipetteTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month Alicia Rojas tells us about her journey from Costa Rica to Israel and back, in search of pathogens and parasitesAlicia shares the personal difficulties of being far from home and how she missed family and foodShe reflects on coming back to Costa Rica to explore its rich biodiversityShe recalls the challenges of returning from a luxurious postdoc at the Weizmann Institute to setting up her own lab in Costa Rica during a pandemicShe discusses the need to be resilient and creative and build collaborationsShe is proud to be “doing the best we can with the limited resources we have”As a mentor, she stresses that every student is different and she tries to keep a helicopter-view of everything that is going on Alicia gets up really early to complete work and make time for her family in the afternoonShe recommends to finish one task before you start the next oneShe mentioned these labs, scientists and institutionsUniversity of Costa Rica : https://www.ucr.ac.cr/Hebrew University of Jerusalem : https://en.huji.ac.il/Neta Regev-Rudzki laboratory : https://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biomolecular_Sciences/regev/Weizmann Institute of Science: https://www.weizmann.ac.il/pages/Research Center for Tropical Diseases.  : http://www.ciet.ucr.ac.cr/en/about-cietTo find out more about Alicia visit these links Alicia’s lab : https://www.thetropicalwormlab.com/Alicia’s LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-rojas-30215b1aa/On Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetropicalwormlab_ucr/On Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thetropicalwormlabUCR/You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipetteTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month Hans Clevers talks to us about his productive career and his pioneering work on organoid technologies.Hans admits that he initially found biology frustrating and disappointingBut then he learnt to enjoy the rare spark of excitement from discoveriesHe managed to get his PhD in just one year!You need to trust yourself and learn to share with othersHans warns new group leaders not to expect too much from younger colleaguesIt’s important to give your students their own spaceHe paints a metaphoric image of research - Push against the dark wall until the window opens on a new valleyHis search for stem cells in the gut led his lab to develop organoid approaches and 3D culture technologiesHans describes his unexpected move to Roche and “large pharma”He describes his role bridging the gap between scientists and industry leadershipHans talks about the benefits of interacting with artistsHe warns about being too attached to your hypothesis and the importance of being wrongHe mentioned these labs, institutions and companiesRoche Pharma R&D (pRED):  https://www.roche.com/innovation/structure/predUtrecht University : https://www.uu.nl/enDana Farber Cancer Institute :  https://www.dana-farber.org/Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences : https://www.knaw.nl/enCox Terhorst :  https://immunologyphd.hms.harvard.edu/people/cox-terhorstTo find out more about Hans visit these links   X-Twitter https://x.com/hansclevers?lang=enHubrecht Institute https://www.hubrecht.euhttps://www.hubrecht.eu/research-groups/clevers-group/Wikipedia pagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_CleversUtrecht Universityhttps://www.uu.nl/staff/JCCleversGoogle Scholarhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jTAHhTQAAAAJ&hl=enYou want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipetteTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

Today we chat with postdoc Nour El Houda Mimouni about her passionate commitment to improving womens’ health.Nour urges young scientists to get themselves a support group from the beginningShe also insists on the importance of developing interests outside of the labAddressing womens’ health issues is ‘not just a job’ for NourShe recommends students to not alway blindly follow other people's adviceShe discusses her advocacy work at the European Health ParliamentShe thinks that every scientist should play a role in public outreach, from a young ageShe mentioned these labs, scientists, institutions and companiesCité des sciences et de l'industrie https://www.cite-sciences.fr/fr/accueilZuckerman Institute https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/Columbia University https://www.columbia.edu/Bianca Marlin Jones https://www.biancajonesmarlin.com/L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Programs for Women in Science https://www.forwomeninscience.com/European Health Parliament https://www.healthparliament.eu/Collectif de Femmes de Santé https://www.femmesdesante.fr/Joëlle Cohen-Tannoudji https://bfa.u-paris.fr/equipe-3/team-members/?lang=enSimone Veil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_VeilJacinda Ardern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_ArdernTo find out more about Nour visit these links  X-Twitter https://twitter.com/NourMimouni5Nour’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nour-el-houda-mimouni-2b9933a4/Nour in the lab https://www.biancajonesmarlin.com/nour-mimouniYou want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipetteTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

In this episode, we kick off our Season 3 guests with David Fajgenbaum who shares his extraordinary journey to cure himself from Castleman disease.David shares his very personal story of searching for a cure to his own diseaseHe describes how having a vision for the future helped him to surviveHe insists that patients can be part of the process and can be active collaborators in the search for curesHe pleads for a shift from an Investigator initiated model to a Community initiated model involving collaboration between researchers, clinicians and patientsDavid also insists that approved drugs could be used to treat additional diseasesHe tells us about why and how he wrote a book, “Chasing My Cure” about his journeyHe describes the value that good mentors bringHe advises to keep focused, surround yourself with good people, learn to delegate and to take important recruitment decisionsDavid recommends getting as much feedback as you can from many peopleHe mentioned these labs, scientists, institutions and companiesUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine : https://www.med.upenn.edu/Georgetown University : https://www.georgetown.edu/Castleman Disease Collaborative Network : https://cdcn.org/Castleman Disease : https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/castlemans-disease/University of Oxford : https://www.ox.ac.uk/National Institutes of Health (NIH) : https://www.nih.gov/Janet Woodcock from the FDA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_WoodcockBrian Wallach : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_WallachI am ALS : https://www.iamals.org/Frits van Rhee : https://cdcn.org/leadership-team/frits-van-rhee/ | https://uams-triprofiles.uams.edu/profiles/display/127377Sharon Terry : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_F._TerryArthur Rubenstein : https://www.med.upenn.edu/endowedprofessorships/arthur-h-rubenstein-university-professorship.htmlBenjamin Castleman : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_CastlemanTo find out more about David and Every Cure visit these links  X-Twitter  : @DavidFajgenbaum Every Cure https://twitter.com/EveryCureDavid’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfajgenbaum/Every Cure’s LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/every-cure/David’s Book “Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action” : https://chasingmycure.com/To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

In this episode Renaud and Jonathan share their excitement about the launch of Season 3 of The Lonely Pipette podcast. BUT this time, they are not the ones asking the questions.💌 Subscribe and receive the next season in you mailboxTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

Dear Lonely Pipetters,Season 2 has been an amazing journey, BUT Season 3 will be awesome. We are so proud to be still here, with you supporting us. Thank you! In this final episode, we take the chance to give you untold stories about Season 2 making-of, personal stories and what you can do to help us build Season 3. Don’t miss it out !Subscribe to be updated when Season 3 starts : https://bit.ly/NLTLPTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This week, we talk to Maria Leptin about her path to the head of the European Research Council Maria claims she didn’t receive any formal mentoring advice, but rather absorbed and learnt along the wayAgainst the perceived wisdom, Maria warns against the advice to be continually networking. She advises to listen to what others say and then add your own thoughts.Maria is sure that if you really enjoy the stuff you're doing, then you will do it well and you'll get something out of it.She says that sabbatical breaks can be good to ‘put your brain to air a little bit’She says the ERC aims to  select the very best researchers across Europe, across all disciplines, and allow them to make wonderful discoveries. To attract ERC funding, organizations or countries or regions need to create an environment where researchers are happy to work and have good conditions.Maria makes a passionate plea for fundamental research and better access for science journalistsAfter a lie-in, Maria starts the day with a coffee and a cookie in the officeMaria likes our question “if you had $100 million or euros to spend in science, how would you spend it?” She uses it herself in interviews.She mentioned these institutions and researchersUniversity of Bonn : https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/university/universityUniversity of Heidelberg : https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/enBasel Institute of Immunology : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Institute_for_ImmunologyMRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology : https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology : https://www.mpg.de/151769/biology-tuebingenEuropean Molecular Biology Organization : https://www.embo.org/ European Research Council (ERC) : https://erc.europa.eu/homepageFritz Melchers : https://www.tbvi.eu/team/prof-georg-friedrich-fritz-melchers/To find out more about Maria visit her websites or follow her on TwitterWebsite : https://erc.europa.eu/erc_member/maria-leptinWikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_LeptinORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7097-348XMaria on Twitter :https://twitter.com/mleptinTo find out more about Renaud and Jonathan : Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20 More about the soundtrack :Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/