Visitor of the Week: Mohamed "Mo" Gatie

Meet Mohamed “Mo” Gatie of the Sloan Kettering Institute. Mo is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis’ lab. He took part in our 2021 Mouse Engineering Virtual Minicourse and returned last month to train, in-person, at the Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer course last month.

Tell us about your research.
How cells differentiate and acquire specific identities, organize in an orchestrated manner to generate an anatomical, fully functional organ remains an elusive mystery in developmental biology. To understand the mechanisms that govern the formation of endodermal organs, I use high resolution imaging with single-cell genomic technologies, coupled with precision mouse genetics approaches to further our understanding of normal endodermal organ development; a cornerstone for improving the understanding and treatment of congenital birth defects.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
During my graduate training, I focused on trying to understand the role metabolism plays in lineage decision using in vitro systems. However, for my postdoctoral work, I wanted to switch gears and study later stages of development and use the mouse as a model organism. I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the lab of Dr. Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis who is an expert in mammalian embryo development, with a longstanding interest in the endoderm, the tissue which gives rise to the respiratory and digestive tracts and associated organs.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My earliest childhood inspiration would have to be my uncle. I was always amazed by his ability to take things apart, fix them, and put them back together. This really resonated with me, as in developmental biology, we follow a similar process when we’re trying to understand normal development and/or disease.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
In addition to advancing the field of developmental biology, I would like to provide increased opportunities to marginalized groups, minorities and women in science to remove the barriers these groups face and make science more inclusive and accessible to all.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to have a paper or two published from my postdoctoral work and focus on my career path towards an independent research program to do science and mentor the next generation of scientists.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
The scientific freedom to explore the unknown. The most satisfying aspect of research is when you first make a discovery--big or small--and for that moment in time you are the only person who knows about it.

What drew you to apply to this course?
The CSHL Mouse Development, Stem Cells and Cancer course is an intensive, 3-week course that brings together world-class researchers, instructors and students to learn and exchange their unique knowledge and expertise. Coming into this with little mouse experience, this course was exactly what I needed to enhance my competence in this area of science. The instructors and TAs were extremely knowledgeable and approachable, and truly made this experience unforgettable.

What is your key takeaway from the course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The course was designed in a way to expose us to many different techniques. The point is not to be an expert, but perhaps learn and develop valuable skills that we can take back to our own labs and implement into our individual research projects.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
JUST DO IT! The lectures and the technical knowledge and various topics you will learn about during this course are invaluable.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the course?
The most memorable aspect is easily the collaboration I established with the CSHL Metabolomics course. I wanted to expand my knowledge and was lucky enough to interact with the students and instructors from the Metabolomics course, which was taking place at the same time as the mouse course. We were able to work on a project together and present the data to the class. Collaboration is exactly what science is all about, and CSHL is the perfect place for this.

Is this your first in-person course/workshop since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
Yes, this is my very first workshop ever. To many around the world, this pandemic has been very difficult. We in science thrive on collaboration, networking, discussing ideas as well as going to conferences to learn and present our work. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend the CSHL Mouse Development, Stem Cells and Cancer course to learn from experts in the field and learn from amazing individuals.   

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Without a doubt, it is the people I met in the course. I really enjoyed being able to thoroughly plan experiments, talk about science and just spend time at the bar relaxing after a long day with all the wonderful folks. The friendships that I have gained from this course will be everlasting.

Mohamed received a scholarship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Mo, thank you to HHMI for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Mo for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Image provided by Mohamed Gatie

Visitor of the Week: Eman Helmy Thabet

Meet Eman Helmy Thabet of Alexandria University where she is a lecturer in the Medical Physiology Department, a member and researcher in the Centre of Excellence for Research in Regenerative Medicine and its Applications (CERRMA), and helps run the experimental animal facility. She joined us at the virtual Mouse Engineering Minicourse from June 15th to 18th. This is her first CSHL course experience and it “was more than what [she] had envisioned. [She] got introduced to many concepts of genetic engineering of which [she] was unaware.”

Tell us about your research.
Currently I work on the isolation of cardiac stem cells, the precursors of beating heart cells, from mouse hearts. By exposing them to different conditions and testing their regenerative abilities we aim to understand how they can be used to treat heart diseases.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I was always fascinated by stem cells and thanks to the multidisciplinary nature at CERRMA, I am able to research the ability of germ cells to regenerate postnatally and preserve ovarian function and then switch gears to another dogma of cardiac stem cells and the challenges of their isolation and therapeutic potentials in ischemic heart disease.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
To start with, I have always been supported and encouraged by my parents to pursue excellence in my scientific career. My first professional inspiration in research is former PhD supervisor and now current PI, Professor Radwa Mehanna. Dr Mehanna is a professor in the Medical Physiology Department and also runs the CERMMA lab. Her passion for stem cell research is contagious to those around her and is what spiked my curiosity for stem cell research. Dr. Mehanna’s leading personality and team spirit attracted me to shadow her and absorb as much of her knowledge and expertise. I was blessed and privileged to have her as my PhD supervisor, whom without  I wouldn’t have graduated. Dr Mehanna is, so far, the only PI I have seen who completes all the administrative work, funding applications, and gets her hands wet in the lab by conducting cell culture experiments and mouse dissections herself.

Excited and eager to learn more, I then spent a year at the University of California, San Francisco on a Fulbright Scholarship and meeting Professor Diana Laird was the ultimate takeaway of my adventure: she steadily walked me through a period of profound growth in my researcher career. Through our weekly meetings, she introduced me to a great deal of good science. I learnt how to think critically, develop out-of-the-box ideas (wacky science!), and how to self-learn new techniques and improvise during challenging situations; such as lab shutdowns during the pandemic. More importantly, I learnt “the art of making mistakes.” Dr. Laird always had a way of reshaping situations so that all experiences became learning opportunities and never failures. Her continuous one-on-one mentorship throughout my stay at her lab was a treasure. Professor Laird will remain an inspiration that will continually fuel my research career for years to come.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I would hope to contribute to generation of new cell lines or mice at our facilities that in turn would greatly impact our research and open new opportunities for us and future researchers.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
That I get to play around and create science. I am always excited by new ideas and techniques, and very eager to try them.

What drew you to apply to this course?
I knew nothing about mouse genetics. I gradually started listening to webinars on the JAX website that I found to be very helpful and introductory. But I hoped to learn and understand more so I am able to manipulate mouse genomes and produce genetically modified animals to model numerous diseases.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
Some of my key takeaways were constructing alleles, creating reporter lines or mice, getting to know more about CRISPR and its applications and, lastly, troubleshooting some of common scenarios that can happen during breeding and colony management and might be puzzling to researchers.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
Get acquainted with the helpful websites and databases provided in advance by the course instructors, read some basic mouse genetics, and hop on!

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
One of the course instructors is my former PI, Diana Laird. I loved reconnecting with her and remembering how pleasant it was to meet with her weekly (as much as it seemed stressful at the time!). Also loved seeing my former lab members, Bikem and Eliza (who would occasionally Slack me when I needed to get to a breakout room and was lagging behind :)).

Thank you to Eman for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured researchers - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Image provided by Eman Helmy Thabet

Visitor of the Week: Mackenzie Davenport

Meet Mackenzie Davenport of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Mackenzie is a graduate student and member in the lab headed by Dr. Mick Edmonds. She is currently on campus training at the 37th iteration of our Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer course – her first course at CSHL.  

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I’m really interested in the genetic mechanisms underlying disease. I’m currently working on studying genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in lung cancer pathogenesis.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
Lung cancer is a devastating disease, acting as the number one cause of cancer-related deaths, and while several of the genetic drivers of lung cancer have been identified, a lot of them have been found to be “untargetable,” or cancer cells quickly develop resistance mechanisms to current approaches. This really highlighted a huge unmet need to further understand other genetic mechanisms underlying this disease.

How did your scientific journey begin?
I think high school was a really pivotal time in my life: I took an AP Biology class by an incredibly enthusiastic and talented teacher; I met a little boy battling muscular dystrophy; and a friend’s mother passed away from lung cancer. These events happening concurrently and simultaneously really inspired a need to understand how genetics and DNA were playing a role in disease.

Was there something specific about the Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer that drew you to apply?
I’m really interested in mouse models and how better models can be made to more accurately recapitulate disease, so learning a lot of the techniques -- from zygote isolation and microinjection to mouse embryonic stem cell culture -- essentially how to make a genetically engineered mouse model, was really appealing.

What and/or how will you apply what you’ve learned from the course to your work?
In addition to sharing the techniques that I have learned with my lab mates, one of the biggest things I will apply to my own work is a greater perspective on cancer, especially from a developmental viewpoint.

What is your key takeaway from the course?
The course has been a fantastic experience, and one of the biggest takeaways is having been able to meet so many amazing scientists who are leaders in their fields and actually being able to learn directly from them.

If someone curious in attending a future iteration of this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
The course is amazing, and I highly recommend it. In such a short amount of time, there is so much information that you can learn about mouse development, the creation of mouse models, stem cells, etc. It really is a privilege to attend and is an invaluable experience.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
The campus is absolutely beautiful, and there are so many fantastic people to meet who are visiting from all over the world.

Mackenzie received a scholarship from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to cover a portion of her course tuition. On behalf of Mackenzie, thank you to NCI for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Mackenzie for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Visitor of the Week: Guillaume Burnet

Meet Guillaume Burnet of the University of Queensland (Australia). Since the beginning of this month, the first-year PhD student and Josephine Bowles lab member has been on campus training in the Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer course. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I am working on male germ cell development and spermatogonial stem cells specification. I am particularly interested in the role a protein called Cripto plays in the maintenance of pluripotency of those cells. 

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research? 
Given germ cells ultimately give rise to sperm or oocytes, and are responsible for the maintenance of the population at the species level, I find the germ cell biology field fascinating and dedicated my PhD journey wanting to understand how these cells achieve such a function. 
 
How did your scientific journey begin? 
I completed my postgrad studies in France, majoring in genetics and developmental biology. I did several summer projects, including one in my current lab, which is where and when I knew I wanted to work in research and start a PhD. 

Was there something specific about the Mouse course that drew you to apply?
I am interested in learning more about embryos and organ culture; and was most excited to gain hands-on experience producing a transgenic mouse, from microinjecting embryos to performing an oviduct transfer. 

What and/or how will you apply what you've learned from the course to your work? 
Through the course, I became more proficient in microinjection which I can reproduce  at my home institution. I will also be able to try new conditions of embryo culture that could help with my project. And if I have any questions regarding a technique, I can contact the instructors and teaching assistants. Another advantage of taking this course is the possibility of returning back home with collaborations. I met many different people during the course and already have possible collaborations in mind. 

What is your key takeaway from the course?
I feel so much more confident about trying new experiments by myself. I discovered a lot of new techniques during this course, a lot of which I can envision incorporating into my research. I also met a lot of the field’s experts and being exposed to their ideas have sparked new thoughts for my project. 

How many CSHL courses have you attended? Have you participated in a meeting at CSHL?
This is my first course and I hope to attend a future Germ Cells meeting here. 

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I would highly recommend they attend this course – no matter their level of experience. In the start of the course, a number of my course mates did not have any experience with mice whatsoever but they are now handling mice like pros. And for those who have some experience working with mice, the range of techniques taught is so diverse that there is something for you. Plus, you will meet the leaders in the field, and can easily interact with them thanks to the relaxed environment. 

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I really liked bonding with my course mates and teaching team – all of who I now happily call a friend. I also enjoyed connecting with the invited speakers over an occasional drink!

Guillaume received a scholarship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Guillaume, thank you to HHMI for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network. 

Thank you to Guillaume for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

A Word From: Benjamin Allen & Amy Ralston

We recently chatted with the Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer course instructors Benjamin Allen and Amy Ralston. Ben and Amy, for a number of years, have been involved with the course in various capacities but this is the first year both are co-lead instructors so we dived right into the benefits of participating in the course.  

Ben: From my standpoint, the students get two important things out of the course. Sure they learn how to do these techniques and practice them a few times while they’re here but, more importantly, they get introduced to the people who are experts in each of those techniques. So even if they walk out of here not an expert in a particular technique, they’re now friends with an expert they can contact. So if they’re doing experiment X and running into technical troubles, they can feel free contact one of the best people in the world to get advice.

Amy: In addition to the professional and scientific opportunities, we’re trying to maximize our students’ networking opportunities. We bring in about 30 additional experts from fields we’re not experts in so the students are exposed to a broad number of topics and taught classes and labs by those experts. One thing that is new to this year’s course is “First Drink”, where the students sign up to host a lecturer of their choice and take the lecturer to the Blackford Bar to buy his/her first drink. I think the students really like it! I’ve asked feedback from the lecturers too, and one comment I heard from a lecturer who has been here several times was that there were interactions that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Curious as to what other updates were made, we asked the first-time lead instructors if they made any changes to the curriculum. 

Ben: Amy and I replaced a few of the labs with ones that fit more smoothly with the flow of the course and that give the students a fuller grasp of the different stages of mouse development. We also swapped out some of the lecturers.

Amy: Another thing we’ve done, which is in response to survey feedback from last year’s students, is to give the students multiple opportunities to try each experiment rather than offering more experiments with fewer opportunities to practice. So far, I see people mastering things a little bit more and I’ve seen a lot less frustration than in previous years when we were ambitious with the number of experiments we taught.

In addition to the changes made to the course curriculum and lecture lineup, Amy and Ben incorporated a hot new experimental approach into this year’s course. 

Amy: Top secret! No, I’m kidding. It’s CRISPR. The course was originally designed to teach scientists how to make transgenic mice or knock-in mice the old fashioned way. But now that CRISPR exists, we adapted a lot of those same approaches to facilitate CRISPR, which is more efficient than the old approaches but it requires the same skillset.

Ben: CRISPR is the newest and biggest thing we incorporated into this year’s course. Last year was the first year we taught CRISPR and it was successful…

Amy: Successfully CRISPR-ed.

Ben: …we expanded it this year and we’re hoping it will be successful again.

The Mouse course celebrates its 35th iteration this year. To commemorate the course’s milestone anniversary, the organizers coordinated a special one-day symposium. Trainees of this year’s Mouse course – in between checking in on their experiments, of course – were treated to a full day of talks from scientists who made significant contributions to both the course and to mouse biology. 

Amy: We’re really excited that we were able to invite all 3 of the founders of the Mouse course. They were all present for the Symposium: Brigid Hogan gave a talk at the Symposium, Liz Lacy gave a lecture this week, and Frank Costantini is arriving in a few days. It’s special to have all the founders present to acknowledge the course’s 35th anniversary.

We closed our laughter-filled conversation with their advice for future Mouse course applicants. 

Amy: It’s very important to justify how the Mouse course will enhance their career and research project. When we have a clear understanding that the student is familiar with what happens at the course, then we can be confident that they’ll have a satisfactory experience.

Ben: Also, we would recommend they ask their advisor or letter writers to do the same, to emphasize how the course is going to be a practical benefit. We don’t want this to be an intellectual exercise. Our hope is that students walk out of here trained, to actually use the techniques we’re teaching them here.

Thank you to both Amy and Ben for taking the time to chat with us. For more conversations with our other meeting organizers and course instructors, go here. Also, to gain a trainee's perspective on the Mouse course, read our Q&A with Rebecca Lea. In the meantime, enjoy the results of our rapid-fire photography session with Ben and Amy.