Continuing on the “Pathway to Success”: Seminar Series Marks 5th Anniversary
Our Einstein Senate’s Faculty Interactions Committee (FIComm) is welcoming a new season of its Pathways to Success seminar series, which highlights Einstein cores and shared facilities for the Einstein Montefiore research community. The series is set to kick off on Thursday, November 30, when the Animal Physiology Core will be featured.
FIComm’s Pathways to Success seminar series offers insights into Einstein’s various cores and shared facilities.
Now in its fifth year, the seminar series was initiated by FIComm in January 2019. “Our objective has been to provide opportunities for faculty from diverse disciplines and specialties to interact, engage, and collaborate,” said Dr. Maureen Charron, professor of biochemistry, of obstetrics and gynecology & women’s health, and of medicine, who teams with Dr. Kelvin Davies, professor of urology and of molecular pharmacology, to coordinate the various seminar offerings with core and facility directors. “Through the seminars, we’ve been able to more broadly introduce researchers at all levels of investigation to our cores in the basic, social, and clinical sciences.”
Another plus stemming from the series is the benefits it offers the cores and facilities that provide investigators special resources and services. “From feedback we’ve received, multiple core directors have shared how valuable their seminar session was for raising awareness of the services they provide to investigators across the campus,” noted Kelvin.
Marking a Milestone
Dr. Gary Schwartz will discuss how resources of the Animal Physiology Core can be useful to one’s research.
To date, the Pathways to Success seminars have offered Einstein Montefiore investigators insights into 15 cores and shared facilities. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been held virtually, via Zoom.
Each seminar is hosted by a specific core, with a director or other staff member highlighting its services and equipment while sharing how these resources have contributed to research success. This overview is followed by brief presentations called “User Success Stories,” provided by two investigators who share how the core enhanced their research. The seminars conclude with a Q&A session.
Narratives from presenters often include examples of high-profile publications, successful grant funding, selection for fellowships, and more.
Up Next
On November 30, Dr. Gary Schwartz, director of the Animal Physiology Core, will discuss “What's (Metabolically) Wrong with My Mouse?: A How-to Introduction to the Animal Physiology Core.” He noted, “Over the past 20 years, our core has been instrumental to Einstein investigators in developing and deploying state-of-the art systemic physiological and behavioral assessments critical to understanding roles for the central and peripheral nervous systems in the regulation of energy balance and glucose homeostasis in diabetic and obese mouse models, and in identifying novel molecular targets and neural pathways implicated in the controls of metabolism.”
Dr. Streamson Chua and Dr. Young-Hwan Jo will relate their success stories using the core’s resources. Dr. Chua, professor of medicine, will discuss how his lab discovered new sites of expression for a neuropeptide gene (Agrp) through use of the core’s brain-sectioning services and fluorescence microscopy, and how they realized continuous glucose monitoring, with the help of another core service that offered a non-invasive means for measuring glucose in awake mice for up to 14 days.
“The professional services and equipment of the Animal Physiology Core helped our projects significantly,” he said. “It aided in the publication of our work in the Journal of Clinical Investigation this past April.
Drs. Streamson Chua and Young-Hwan Jo will share their success stories using the core’s resources.
Dr. Jo, who is professor medicine and of molecular pharmacology, credits the core with contributing to his team’s success in publishing articles as well, including in Nature Communications, Molecular Metabolism, and Plos Biology. And with obtaining two NIH grants.
“The Animal Physiology Core helped our lab to measure energy expenditure in transgenic animal models using an open-circuit calorimetry system and to quantify body composition of transgenic animal models using an EchoMRI system,” he said. “These services allow us to quickly test scientific ideas and put them into practice,”
To tune into the upcoming Pathways to Success seminar, request the Zoom link by emailing kelvin.davies@einsteinmed.edu. Also email Kelvin or Maureen at maureen.charron@einsteinmed.edu, if you head a core or shared facility and would like to showcase your services and other offerings in a future Pathways to Success seminar. To view the full schedule of upcoming seminars for the academic year, visit the FIComm events page.
Posted on: Wednesday, November 22, 2023