A Visit to the National Institutes of Health

PhD Candidate Sarah Olson shared about her experience visiting the National Institutes of Health over the summer, how the trip helped her achieve her academic and career goals, and some advice. 

How did you come upon this opportunity to train at NIH?
My PI Dr. Catharine Smith used to work at NIH and remains collaborators with her previous co-workers, including Dr. Daniel Larson who is an expert on transcriptional bursting. It is established that transcription, copying genes (DNA) to RNA, is not constant, but instead occurs in “bursts.” One of my research projects involves imaging these transcriptional bursts using fluorescent markers in live cells to understand how steroids modify gene expression. A tool to use in that is an automated microscope called the CV7000 that takes pictures of the cells over hours. Dr. Larson was open to my flying out to NIH for training as prior grad students in the lab have done before me to train on this microscope and acquire images for me to analyze.

How long were you at NIH and what were you most excited about going into it?
I was at NIH for a week and a half and was in the lab every day while I was there. I was most excited to meet collaborators who up to that point had only been names to me and to explore a city I’d never visited before.

How does this experience with the NIH align with your academic or career goals?
Most PhD students can tell you that their academic goal is to succeed in their projects and contribute to the lab, and mine is no different. The training I received at NIH is already helping me advance a couple of my research projects and has built my confidence in my abilities. Furthermore, my long-established career goal has been to obtain a government position after completing my program. The connections I made at NIH are proving invaluable in more ways than one.

What did you find most exciting or interesting about your time?
I had never been on a government research campus before going to NIH, so I was excited to see what that was like and experience somewhere new. It was really interesting to see how a government lab functions, and it wasn’t all that different from how labs here function.

Did you establish any professional connections or networks that you think will be valuable in the future?
I most definitely made professional connections and am still in contact with those connections now. I am a firm believer that everyone I interact with is a professional connection and met not only those individuals with whom I worked closely but also other individuals who worked in the lab.

Can you share any insights or lessons you learned from your NIH training[SO1]  that you think could be beneficial to others pursuing similar opportunities?
To quote the science icon Ms. Frizzle, “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.” I am in the Pharmacology & Toxicology program to learn, train, and develop into a professional scientist. Learn from the mistakes you make and don’t let them stop you in your tracks. Growth doesn’t come from within our comfort zones, and traveling to an unfamiliar city on my own to meet people whom I had not met in person was definitely out of my comfort zone.