PhD Students and Postdoctoral Research Fellows: Career Profiles
Dr. Jeffrey Miner - PhD Scientist
I am a PhD basic scientist researcher and tenured Professor in the Division of Nephrology at WashU Medicine in St. Louis. My research is focused on the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), including its composition, how it functions as a filtration barrier, and the diseases that impact it. I joined the WashU Medicine faculty in 1996 after completing my postdoctoral fellowship in a WashU neuroscience lab, where I managed to become a self-taught kidney "expert" by necessity. This was because the knockout mice I had generated developed kidney failure, and I needed to try to understand why. These mice are a good model for Alport syndrome, a disease of the glomerular filter that I continue to study today. I was very fortunate that my postdoctoral mentor allowed me to follow the path away from neurobiology where the science took me. I have continued to follow the science in my own career as a Principal Investigator, and this led me temporarily into the unexpected areas of skin lipid biology and premature aging syndromes. But nephrology has always been my main research focus.
When I was a graduate student, I was never taught how to write or structure a proper NIH R01 grant application. (If you are a graduate student reading this, you must have gasped.) Yet I have managed to maintain NIH funding for my lab since 1997, thanks to all the highly productive trainees, technicians, and collaborators with whom I have been lucky enough to work. Like most PIs, I spend the majority of my time writing grants, papers, reviews (mostly the critical kinds, but also the invited summaries of my field), animal protocols, biosafety protocols, etc., as well as corresponding with collaborators. Although I expected to sorely miss spending time at the bench, the gradual movement away from my bench to my office was necessary and relatively painless, and I still get to experience the thrills of interesting and unexpected findings through the members of my lab. And although I rarely pick up a pipet, I still help design expression vectors and PCR assays for genotyping transgenic and gene-edited mice.
I was also never taught how to manage a lab but having been a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow in two different labs, I did have some disparate experiences to draw from. I have chosen to emulate both my former mentors' policy of having what is essentially an almost always open office door. I make myself available on the spot to discuss new results, technical issues, what the next experiment should be, or how to organize figures for a manuscript. I am usually available by email, phone, or Zoom if I am not in the office or out of town. I hold lab meetings approximately weekly, jointly with the labs of two former mentees who are now independent, in which one person has an hour to provide an in-depth discussion of his/her/their project in a seminar format, but with the caveat that the focus should be on new preliminary data that needs to be commented on (or critiqued) by the attendees. After the scientific component, we have a lab business component in which staff brings up issues about equipment, technical hurdles, safety inspections, etc.
In the sixth grade I put together a report about Spain, Italy, and Greece for a social studies class. This project spurred my interest in travelling the world. Little did I know when I entered graduate school that scientists get to travel to both domestic and international conferences to disseminate their research, network with other investigators, and learn from leaders in the field. I have been involved in planning multiple domestic and international conferences, and one common goal is to ensure that there are funds raised to support the travel costs of trainees, both students and postdocs. Everyone realizes that the future of biomedical research depends on a healthy pipeline of young investigators who need to be nurtured in every way possible.
Over the last 10 years or so, large and small biotech companies have become interested in the disease I study. This has led to sponsored research agreements (SRAs) in which companies provide funding to my lab to test their lead therapeutic compounds in my mouse model of Alport syndrome. Although this is not the typical hypothesis-driven research that is typical for academic labs to pursue, the potential of helping identify a therapy for a human disease, coupled with the funding it provides to support lab personnel, makes biotech-sponsored research attractive as a supplement to NIH and other agency funding. As part of the negotiation process, I have gotten to know many scientists who obtained their PhDs but chose to pursue careers in industry rather than in academia. It is important for graduate students to realize that they do have many career options to consider; attending career development symposia is a great way to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the different career path options.
Although the term "work-life balance" did not exist when I was a student, postdoc, or Assistant Professor, it has always been an important aspect of my approach. When I was a graduate student, I do remember feeling guilty about taking off a full weekend due to a last-minute invitation to go boating when I was trying to clone a cDNA and seemed very close to success. I will admit that I rarely go truly off the grid if internet is available; checking and responding to emails daily has been a part of my life for many years. Even though I always set an out of office autoreply if I am on vacation or attending a conference, I still make a point of answering the important emails as soon as I see them.
The final rewarding aspect of a career in biomedical research that I will mention is the opportunity to contribute to the field through service to scientific societies such as ASN. I have been involved with ASN "from the inside" since 2002 when I served as an abstract review category chair for Kidney Week. This led to serving on the 2006 and then the 2016 Kidney Week program committees, service on various standing advisory groups and committees, chairing two PhD Summits to address the needs of ASN's basic and clinical scientist members, and culminating in my service as ASN Treasurer and Councilor for 2024-2027. I have also been very active in the American Society for Matrix Biology through service on meeting organizing committees, on Council, and as President for 2022-2023. I have found that volunteer service to societies is rewarding not only for the experience of helping my fields and the researchers who drive them succeed, but also for developing long-term friendships and collaborations with like-minded researchers. Basic Science Research is a people-driven profession that I am happy to have chosen as my career.