MPATH Faculty Search Webinar and Q&A

October 05, 2023

Information

On September 18, we held a Q&A session about the MPATH faculty search. We discussed the search process, starting a lab in the department, resources for support and mentorship, and life in Connecticut.

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00:22Hi everyone. Thank you for
00:24joining and we'll give everyone
00:25a few minutes to get logged in.
00:53Okay, Let's get started.
00:56My name's Andy Goodman,
00:59I'm chair of the Department of
01:01Microbial Pathogenesis at Yale
01:03School of Medicine and want to thank
01:05everyone for joining in this webinar.
01:07The plan for the next hour is to spend
01:11about the first half talking a bit about
01:15the the search and the faculty position.
01:20The panelists here will talk about
01:22different aspects of starting and running
01:24their labs here in the in the department.
01:27And and then I want to wrap that up
01:31at around 12:25 and dedicate the
01:33rest of the time for your questions.
01:36And so by hopefully 1225,
01:39we'll be ready to start taking any questions.
01:42Just to tell you in advance,
01:45the questions can be written into the
01:48Q&amp;A box at the bottom of your screen.
01:51Then I will look through them and
01:53I'll read them out loud for everyone,
01:55for everyone to hear.
01:58And then the panelists will help me
02:02out with answering your questions.
02:04So first we're going to do some brief
02:08quick introductions of the panelists.
02:12My name's Andy Goodman.
02:13Like I said,
02:14I work on the human gut microbiome.
02:18And I think an unexpected positive
02:22for me in start since starting
02:25my lab about about 12 years ago
02:28was a life in Connecticut.
02:30I really had no idea about
02:32living in Connecticut.
02:33I'm not from here and have really
02:36enjoyed the environment that we we have.
02:40So, so next Hesper,
02:41how about you?
02:43Hi everybody. My name is Hesper
02:45Rigo and I'm an associate
02:47professor here in the department.
02:49My lab studies uses bacterial
02:52genetics and imaging techniques
02:54to study mycobacterial infections
02:56at the single cell level and I
03:01would say 1 unexpected or maybe,
03:03I don't know, maybe it was kind
03:04of expected but but my strength
03:06of enjoyment was unexpected.
03:08In terms of running a lab.
03:09Turning a lab is really just
03:11what it means to mentor trainees
03:12and getting to see their growth,
03:14especially graduate students
03:15from the beginning of their time
03:17in the lab to to graduating.
03:18It's it's a really it's an amazing
03:20experience and a great honor to
03:22be involved in their training.
03:29I meant this Yachi Ho,
03:31associate professor in this department.
03:33I started my lab in 2017.
03:36I work on mechanisms of HIV persistence,
03:39particularly using clinical samples and
03:41single cell multionics and genomics
03:44or C based profiling approaches.
03:46Walther and I,
03:47we are the two director of graduate
03:50studies in the microbiology PhD program.
03:52It was well three in the previous
03:54years and recently it's me taking
03:56taking on this and so we both work
03:58very closely with our students and
04:00unexpected surprise for me is that
04:02before I interview and applied here at
04:04this department about 6-7 years ago,
04:06I knew nobody, not even welfare.
04:07We've never met in meetings you
04:09know talk any to anybody and people
04:10in here are doing great science
04:12but I just never know them.
04:14I I didn't even expect that I will
04:15get the interview and get get an offer
04:18but it turn out it's being a wonderful
04:20wonderful environment and to work
04:22with and that's a great surprise to me.
04:27Walter
04:28Walter Motis professor in the department.
04:32I'm a biologist and the image HIV and
04:36Sascori 2 across multiple scales.
04:40Fun fun fact about my start was that I
04:44had a student from day one because first
04:48year student transferred from from a
04:51different lab into my lab. It was great,
04:57great. Thank you.
04:58And we'll circle back to each of our
05:00panelists to talk about other aspects
05:03of the faculty position in a minute.
05:06But I wanted to start by taking a
05:08few minutes to talk a bit about the
05:11search process and the calendar.
05:13So as you've probably seen in the
05:16advertisements or on Interfolio,
05:18this is an open search.
05:20We're interested in bringing in
05:24colleagues that are working on viral,
05:26bacterial or parasitic infections,
05:29pathogen host interactions,
05:31as well as the role of microbes more
05:33broadly in in health and disease.
05:36And you know,
05:37one way that we're thinking about this,
05:40this question in such a broad range
05:43of research areas is how we can best
05:46support and mentor each applicant.
05:48So to give you a bit of an inside
05:50peek in the discussions that happen,
05:52once the applications come in,
05:54we ask the question of will an
05:59applicant have the support they
06:01need and do better here than
06:03they would somewhere else.
06:05So again,
06:05we're looking to bring in new
06:07areas and also to find those links
06:10where again we can be the best
06:12mentors and and provide the best
06:14set of colleagues to allow junior
06:17faculty member to help them thrive.
06:20In terms of the calendar,
06:22things are a bit approximate,
06:24but just to give you a general overview,
06:27we're going to start reviewing
06:30applications October 15th.
06:32So the Interfolio site will
06:34not close on October 15th.
06:36But it's really a good idea
06:37to have your application in,
06:39because it's harder for applications to
06:42catch up if they come in after October 15th.
06:47Over the course of the fall,
06:48we'll have multiple rounds of review.
06:50Every application will be read
06:52by multiple members,
06:54faculty members in the department,
06:58and then a second round of application
07:00that will be read by all faculty
07:02members in the department,
07:04with the goal of inviting
07:08a subset of applicants to a faculty search
07:11symposium that will be held in the spring.
07:14So we hope to have those invitations
07:17out by early January and have
07:21the symposium in February.
07:23So the way that this symposium will
07:26work is the final group of of applicants
07:31will be invited to come visit on site
07:34and I will spend 2 days together.
07:38The the every applicant will give
07:41a seminar for the department and
07:45well as well as have meetings with
07:47trainees as well as individual faculty
07:50members and and then we plan to have
07:54second visits in in March and April.
07:57So that that's a general calendar as
08:01you've probably seen on the interfolio
08:02site and in the advertisements there
08:05is a a goal of of actually making
08:09multiple offers in this search and
08:12recruiting a multiple faculty.
08:13So this symposium is a bit of
08:16an unusual format,
08:18but we found it can be a very effective
08:20way of getting a sense of of the growth
08:23of the department as well as learning
08:27about some really exciting science.
08:29So that's the general calendar.
08:31Once we get to our Q&amp;A in a few minutes,
08:33if you have questions about
08:35the search or the calendar,
08:37I'm happy to talk,
08:39talk more.
08:39But now I'll hand it over to Hesper
08:42who's going to talk a bit about research
08:45and teaching and a few other things.
08:54I got a giant screen of myself. Okay.
08:57Yeah. So I'm, I'm going to talk a
09:00little bit about the your research
09:02teaching balance in the department
09:05and then some office support,
09:08our admin support that we have
09:10here in the in the department.
09:11So where the Med school which I think
09:13for many Med schools and and this
09:15one is no exception means that our
09:18teaching load is actually quite light
09:20compared to our colleagues on the in
09:22the FAS department at the main camp.
09:25And so we really teach beginning
09:28graduate students and and primarily
09:32we have two courses that are that are
09:37departmental faculty participate in.
09:40One is a course directed towards
09:43bacterial pathogenesis and mechanisms
09:45of interactions and with the host
09:48and and bacteria and then the
09:50other one is related to virology.
09:52And so each departmental faculty
09:55typically teaches one or two lectures
09:57every semester And one of those courses,
10:00you know there are other opportunities
10:02to teach around campus.
10:03So, so I actually teach several lectures
10:08in the graduate level microscopy course
10:11here at the Med school and I also
10:14actually teach several lectures in the
10:16undergraduate course about microscopy.
10:18But overall I would,
10:19you know the balance,
10:20the teaching research balance tips
10:23heavily towards research here in
10:25this department which I think if
10:26you know you're anything like me,
10:28I think was a huge benefit actually
10:32to joining this department.
10:33And then in terms of, you know,
10:36I've never been in any other department,
10:37so I don't know what it's else
10:39it's like out there in terms of
10:41office support or admin support.
10:43And and that means really, you know,
10:44and I didn't know this when I started my,
10:46my lab,
10:47I didn't understand how vitally important
10:49these people are to getting, you know,
10:51your research program up and going.
10:53But they're extremely important.
10:55And I would say, you know,
10:57I'm always amazed at like just the vast
11:00amount of help that I get on in any one area,
11:04especially around grants,
11:05Submitting grants is,
11:07you know,
11:07something we have to do a lot.
11:09And having the support there of
11:11like understanding how to create a
11:12budget and what that means and and
11:14all of the support going toward
11:16to the submission of that grant
11:18has been really phenomenal here.
11:21So Okay, I guess I'll stop there,
11:25Okay. Thanks, Husper.
11:27I'll turn it over to Yachi,
11:29who's going to talk a little more about
11:32the graduate program and mentorship
11:33and support for junior faculty.
11:36Sure. So we are running this
11:40microbiology PC program.
11:41So our department is
11:42about 12 primary faculty,
11:44but this PC program involves
11:46A faculty around the campus,
11:47about 100 faculty.
11:49So naturally faculty in our
11:51department will be in this PC program.
11:53But then with this,
11:56this collaboration with other people,
11:58it means that we are able to recruit
12:00a diverse range of PhD student
12:02because they're attracted to a very
12:03rigorous diverse kind of program.
12:05So right now we have more than
12:0850PHD students currently.
12:09With that each each year there
12:12may be about around 8PHD students
12:14each year coming in and these
12:16students are supported either
12:18by micro microbiology training
12:19grant or virology training grant,
12:22some departmental funds,
12:23school funds and then this creates
12:25us a very good opportunity
12:26for us to interact with them.
12:28All these students come in and
12:30doing 3 rotations frequently with
12:32our faculty versus others and
12:34with this collaboration we we've
12:36been having a great time and
12:38having our PhD students and for
12:40the junior faculty support and
12:42in our department we have this a
12:45faculty rib kind of presentation,
12:47basically just faculty and that we
12:50talk about and our ongoing research.
12:53How do we drop this into aims that
12:55we can submit for the next hour one
12:58we get each other feedbacks and
13:00we have these closed door but very
13:03intimate kind of interaction and
13:04what if you do this, what if you do that.
13:07These are very insightful wise and
13:09hands on kind of and help from
13:12each other at a faculty level.
13:14For example when I started as a
13:17faculty I may have problems you
13:19know strikes like a shaping my
13:21own research directions or trying
13:23to crack into a grant.
13:24And I feel like these support
13:26from our our you know department
13:28colleagues are very very helpful.
13:30And also I would like to say that
13:33different from some institutes I
13:34sort of feel that at at least at
13:38yellow in my our department on the
13:40day one I got so much so much support
13:42as a junior faculty that welfare helped me.
13:45At that time.
13:46Jorge was the the department chair.
13:48He helped me as if if I cannot get
13:50tenure they will feel terrible.
13:52They will feel as if if
13:54they didn't help me enough.
13:55This is a a department trying their
13:58best to help me. Do you need resources?
14:00Do you have everything? Can I read?
14:01I can read your grant for you.
14:03It's a very,
14:04very unhelpful collegial and you
14:06know wonderful department and I feel
14:08like this is a great place for junior
14:11faculty to develop your own career.
14:19OK. Thanks she and and and Walter
14:21I think I had asked you to say a
14:24bit about departmental activities
14:25and and life in Connecticut.
14:28Yeah. So we have many academic activities
14:33and and career events and and yeah
14:38she and Andy know how important is
14:41this so so in general is what what we
14:43is that our trainees, our students,
14:46our post docs are involved in in
14:48the organization of these events.
14:51Like we just had our department
14:54retreat on Friday where students post
14:58docs and faculty gave short talks
15:0010 minute each and we had a poster
15:03sessions there and many percent.
15:05So I think I really really liked
15:08the format the we have of seminars,
15:13the departmental seminar seminars.
15:15Again a committee of this all trainees
15:19involved oversee the nomination process
15:22and and the of course secondary as well.
15:26But this helps us really to to make this
15:29an institution of our department that
15:32has a support from all constituents
15:37and then the research and progress
15:41one student and one postdoc,
15:43the present in these this
15:45and our experience give us
15:47gives us the best attendance,
15:49the best faculty attendance as well,
15:51so we can provide feedback to our trainees.
15:54And in these events
15:59I like to say a few words about
16:02living in Connecticut as well.
16:05Connecticut is very green but it
16:09has a strap board bridges so so the
16:13entire state they formed when the
16:17African continent separated from
16:20America and and they continues in
16:22Massachusetts all the way into Southern
16:24New Hampshire the New England scenic
16:27trail and starts in Guildford goes
16:29along these switches all the way to
16:31the Monadnock and the urban life.
16:34So my I spent my open life in New Haven.
16:38I love I love New Haven I love the
16:41year campus SLS in West Hartford
16:43because my wife and my kids work and
16:46go to school in West Hartford and
16:48and both are really great places.
16:51Thanks. Right.
16:54Thanks, Walter.
16:56So that was a a quick whirlwind tour of
17:00some of the topics that that you know,
17:03maybe come to mind as you're thinking
17:05about about faculty positions.
17:06But I hope the overall message that
17:09you've seen is that, number one,
17:11this is a department that is a beginning
17:14a significant phase of of growth.
17:17This will be the first in a series
17:19of faculty searches that have been
17:23commissioned by the School of
17:25Medicine to significantly expand
17:27in microbial pathogenesis.
17:29Concurrently, they'll be an expansion
17:32in space as well in the floor
17:35directly above where the department
17:37is currently currently located.
17:39So it's a period of a very exciting,
17:41exciting growth and and it's a group
17:45of people who are serious about
17:48their research and serious about
17:50their mentoring and we really take
17:53take pride in our graduate program
17:55and and supportive of postdocs.
17:56I'd add one more example which is a retreat,
18:00a second retreat that we held earlier
18:02this year that was focused specifically
18:05on trainees where we brought in
18:08alumni and other microbiology pH D's
18:11representing diverse careers and spent
18:14the whole day actually off site at
18:17the Mystic Aquarium for trainees to
18:20learn about a wide range of careers in
18:23academia and biotech and and beyond.
18:26So, so again a department with a lot
18:30of growth and we're very excited to
18:32have this search under underway and
18:34maybe I'll stop there and set aside the
18:37rest of our time for any questions.
18:40Like I said before,
18:41please write your questions in the
18:44Q&amp;A and I'll keep an eye on those.
18:46One thing I'd add is that if you have
18:49questions about specific research topics,
18:52probably best to send those by by
18:57e-mail and and rather than than
19:04here. But yeah, we'll open
19:06up the Q&amp;A for any questions.
19:14OK. So the first question
19:18has already come in.
19:20It's the question is about
19:22computing resources and data storage
19:25services available on campus.
19:30Anybody wanna start with that?
19:32I can also answer address that one
19:37and I can. I can start first though,
19:39because we work on single
19:40set RN A/C based approaches,
19:41so we need a whole lot of and
19:43high high performance computing.
19:45So right now we have like
19:47a 40 terabytes with YCGA.
19:49So basically this is a Yale
19:51Center for Genomic Analysis.
19:53There's a very large investment
19:55from the School of Medicine
19:57to make sure that we can,
19:58we can proceed very well on
20:00these big data analysis.
20:02So we have a huge amount of
20:03storage at a very affordable
20:05price and they're still keep
20:07expanding to meet the need
20:09for different labs.
20:12Thanks, Archie. Yeah,
20:14so every faculty member has access
20:16to the High Performance Computing.
20:19Cluster. You can opt in to
20:21purchase additional compute nodes
20:23within the cluster if you want,
20:26but even without any payment at all.
20:29My lab, which does a lot of microbiome,
20:33metagenomics, RNA seq, etc.
20:35Has always just used the default
20:38allocation of computing resources
20:40that every faculty member gets,
20:42and that's been sufficient in in in my case.
20:46I'd also add that the High Performance
20:48Computing group is also very well staffed,
20:51and they can help you implement
20:54software onto the cluster,
20:57either for use by your lab only or
21:00for broader use across the university.
21:03So it can be if you if you seek that it can.
21:07In addition to storage and compute nodes,
21:09it can be an interactive experience
21:12where you're working with the HPC
21:15group on software implementation.
21:19Yeah yeah we we need a lot of
21:23computing space so cryo Electro
21:25tomography and and and the center
21:27has just been upgraded and these
21:30all units I never heard about
21:33before because every this is an
21:36exponential expansion really of what
21:40is needed for all the large data.
21:42But this is this is state-of-the-art,
21:45and very cheap.
21:50The next question is about the source
21:53of funding to support new faculty.
21:57So as part of a recruitment,
22:01we offer a startup package that includes both
22:06lab space as well as funding to support.
22:12We typically look at expenses
22:16required for fully funding salary
22:19for the first three years as well as
22:23resources for starting the lab and
22:25that comes from the School of Medicine
22:29provides that that startup package.
22:31I would add that after the first three years,
22:34if there's any of those funds that
22:36you haven't spent, for example,
22:38you know if you've got gotten
22:40grants in those first three years,
22:41that funding from the startup
22:44is still yours to keep.
22:46So it doesn't expire.
22:48You're not forced to spend
22:50everything at the last minute.
22:52That's a resource that you'll
22:53have as long as you're at at Yale
22:58and and and and. In fact,
23:02after that point, the university,
23:05the School of Medicine continues to cover
23:1050% of salary, with the expectation
23:13that 50% of salary will be raised
23:16on grants again after three years.
23:18For the first three years, 100% of the
23:20salary is paid by the medical school.
23:22But after the first three years,
23:24if you raise more than 50% of your
23:28salary on grants, any overlap goes
23:31back essentially to your startup.
23:33So you can actually grow your
23:35startup over time,
23:38even after the first three years.
23:42The next question is is
23:44also a very good one.
23:46To what degree is research in the
23:48department motivated by grants?
23:50Does the question come first
23:52or the funding concerns?
23:56I can give my answer to that,
23:57but I mean I'll let, I'll let our other
23:59panelists give their perspectives.
24:10Okay, I can go ahead first in in my
24:13mind there really is no question
24:15that the question comes first.
24:18When we look at applications,
24:21we are not doing this from the perspective of
24:26you know that how something's going to
24:28be funded or whether something's going
24:31to be funded is the primary question.
24:33We're looking for transformational,
24:38exciting, groundbreaking,
24:40creative science and scientific questions
24:45that again as a department we can provide
24:48support to allow someone to really thrive.
24:50That's where we start.
24:51We offer a lot of support for
24:54funding those projects along the way.
24:56I think you heard about some of
24:59those examples like our faculty
25:01research in progress,
25:02like our very strong business
25:05office etcetera.
25:06But in my view the the question
25:10very much comes first.
25:15I would like to add some of
25:17my my experience with this.
25:19I would say when I joined this
25:21department my my assigned role is Yachi.
25:24You just do the best science.
25:26You don't need to pretend to
25:27write a grant with anyone any
25:28colleagues to help each other.
25:30No, you just find a question and do the best.
25:33And I think that these great
25:35scientific directions which which
25:38I hope what would develop we'll
25:40get into grants for example like
25:41I would say so fix my hasper got
25:43a Searle and Pew in the the very
25:45beginning of how she started this
25:47program and that's a very like a
25:49clear and saying is that you know
25:51we have someone who's working on
25:53something that may hopefully change
25:55the textbook change the paradigm
25:57then the funding will just come by
25:59itself because of the great science.
26:09Yeah. I would just I guess add you know
26:12and one thing I didn't mention
26:13sort of in the my introduction is
26:15you know when one of the things
26:16that I think is always really
26:18impressed me about this department
26:20is that the their ability to,
26:22you know what I mean I guess
26:24at this point I mean us like
26:28when we evaluate applicants, right,
26:30we aren't looking at like your just
26:34check boxing in terms of like your
26:37papers and your you know maybe your
26:39fellowships and all of that stuff.
26:40Like we're actually trying to evaluate
26:42you know the whole package and and
26:44what we think is in terms of potential
26:46for great scientific discoveries.
26:48And I think a good example of this
26:51is actually when I got hired I didn't
26:53have a postdoc paper and it came later,
26:56you know, came out actually while
26:58I was when I first started the
27:00lab I I pushed my post op paper.
27:01But there the willingness for the
27:04committee to like bet on me as as a
27:07scientist and not like a reviewer,
27:09you know, not based on the,
27:12you know the opinions of sort
27:14of three anonymous reviewers,
27:15I thought was a incredible thing.
27:18And I think just speaks to the
27:20quality of mentorship and the
27:22type of you know exciting science
27:25that people want to see here.
27:30Yeah if I if I can add
27:33so it's it's three times that you
27:36know faculty where were recruited
27:40and by by this department before the
27:43main postdoc paper came out So this
27:45this kind of illustrates that we are
27:48you're not checking superficially
27:50boxes we we we we are looking for
27:55exciting greater science and this
27:57relates also to the next question we
27:59are not we are not going for specific
28:02fields I'm just back from the from
28:05the crossing harbor horse partage
28:07and meeting and you're you had the
28:11scientists come from Europe and they
28:13came from the institute for franchise
28:16research so each an entire for each
28:18topic an entire institute that's not
28:20how we think So we we believe if if
28:23they have diversity we learn the most
28:26from each other so they're not really
28:29we are interested in you and what
28:32you bring and not topic and they're
28:35not superficially checking boxes
28:39right thanks. So the next question
28:41for the audience to was whether
28:44there was any specific research
28:46areas that were hoping to expand and
28:48Walter kind of answered that already.
28:51I would highlight again that that
28:53there's the possibility of actually
28:56recruiting multiple faculty from this
28:58same search and we have a very wide,
29:02wide perspective,
29:04not targeting specific areas in advance,
29:07but instead thinking about individual
29:09applications and how we can provide the
29:13best support to help someone succeed
29:15even beyond how they would otherwise.
29:18The next question is about
29:20the symposium format,
29:21whether we've used it before,
29:22and what the feedback was from
29:24visiting participants.
29:25So the answer is,
29:27is we sort of have used it before.
29:30The other hat that I wear is director
29:33of the Microbial Sciences Institute,
29:35which is a group of microbiologists from
29:39various departments across the university.
29:43And we've used the symposium
29:45format there for multiple years,
29:47including in partnership with Microbial
29:51Pathogenesis in the in the past.
29:54And I'll be very honest,
29:55I think there's pros and cons and
29:57it's a bit of an art to doing
29:59a symposium successfully.
30:03I think that the advantage,
30:04what I really like about it is it
30:08allows us to look at at candidates,
30:11you know,
30:12in a very short time window and not
30:15stretched out over six weeks or two months.
30:17And so we don't have candidates
30:21who are being evaluated from a
30:24visit two months before compared
30:26to someone who came last week.
30:28It'll also allows us to have
30:31stronger participation across the
30:35medical school because people can
30:38just set aside that day to attend
30:41rather than some people see some
30:43visits and some people see others,
30:45and that includes our trainees.
30:46So our postdocs and students will
30:49attend all the seminars and be
30:52quite involved in this process
30:54and it facilitates that.
30:56And also again,
30:57I want the symposium to highlight the
31:01exciting phase of growth that we're in,
31:03in the department.
31:04And because we hope to be
31:07making multiple offers,
31:10the people who visit in the
31:13symposium will get to see the
31:15type of science that's around.
31:17I should clarify that the
31:18chalk talks will not be open.
31:20So that'll just be an individual candidate
31:25with the search committee and faculty,
31:29whereas the seminars will be
31:33attended by all the participants.
31:35So we have asked candidates or
31:39participants after about feedback
31:41in the symposium and I think that
31:44the thing that we have to get right
31:46is again the chalk talks that
31:49there's enough time for people to
31:51talk about their future research
31:53directions while also having everybody
31:56have a chance to participate.
31:59And so that's something again with our
32:01experience doing this over several years,
32:02I think we're pretty have
32:04pretty well well figured out.
32:08The next question is, is I think
32:12for maybe all three of our panelists
32:17a question about the microscopy
32:18facilities and support for
32:20data acquisition and analysis.
32:31Hasper and Walther can
32:33talk for two hours each.
32:35I can take, I'm going to stab at it.
32:39So you know I I would say that
32:41imaging at in all different
32:43modalities is like baked and deal.
32:44It's one of the things that it was
32:47so exciting to me about starting
32:48a research lab here was just the
32:51appreciation and desire for you know
32:54using advanced imaging technologies
32:56and that goes from light microscopy
32:59and you know or whole animal imaging
33:03down to cryoelectrontomography.
33:04So I would say that you know we
33:07in terms of like you know a lot
33:09of labs actually including mine,
33:11we don't really use the microscopy
33:12centers which I think are excellent
33:14here because because we have our own
33:17technology and and it's all in house.
33:19But I think because of that there's
33:21so much expertise here that you can
33:22really just like go to you know,
33:24you know who the experts are and and
33:26they're all and they're all willing to help.
33:29I also say there's funding set aside.
33:31You know,
33:32I was just actually talking to Jen Lu
33:34who's a member of our department who
33:35is really like one of The Pioneers
33:38in cryoelectronic topography,
33:39especially towards bacteria.
33:41And you know,
33:42we're planning a collaboration to to
33:46use this technology and my technology
33:49to kind of answer some cool questions.
33:51So I think there's, like I said,
33:53I think it's really big den.
33:54I think the support,
33:56you know you know I'll let others speak
33:58to sort of the institutional support.
34:00I actually I've never had to
34:02you know utilize that.
34:04But it's a very exciting area that I
34:08think Yale is incredibly strong in.
34:13Yeah, but I mentioned the image across scale.
34:16So we frequently use like 6 different
34:21instruments from biodominescence
34:23allowing in vivo imaging to photon
34:26down to confocal lightsheet and
34:30then Titan cry also basically across
34:34all the scale scales and because we
34:38work on South Korea two and HIV it
34:41does includes instruments in B, SS3.
34:44So and this is not possible this out
34:47storm institutional support but it's
34:50not it's not just institutional support
34:53but also support by your colleagues.
34:55So so it is kind of then then several
35:00times we needed new instrumentation
35:02and BSS three and then I I wrote
35:06instrumentation grants one it was
35:08funded and the other time it wasn't
35:11funded and but I I understood that
35:15this is my my responsibility as a
35:19citizen to to write an application
35:221st and and and outline the use
35:25and how many people would use it.
35:27And then then the second time when it
35:30didn't come through then colleagues
35:35several HHMI colleagues are willing to
35:38use the annual instrumentation funds
35:41to to contribute to this And then and
35:46that there's we were able to arrive at
35:4950% of the cost and then the medical
35:52school covered the remaining 50%.
35:53So this is just an example how institutional
35:57support and support from from colleagues
35:59is really what what makes us work.
36:02The Cancer Center supports many core
36:05facilities so that it's it's I think
36:07because Yale is so strong and imaging
36:10it's an appreciation across all
36:13levels that how important this is.
36:17I would add, I think Hesper and
36:20Walter represent one extreme of the
36:22spectrum and microscopy expertise
36:24and I represent the other extreme.
36:27But with the help from
36:29microscopy core facilities.
36:31I've had grad students do imaging
36:34focused imaging centered projects
36:36where again they're they're have
36:38just gone to the microscopy cores,
36:41gotten their training there and
36:42it's become the central technique
36:44in their project even though that's
36:46not my background and expertise.
36:48So from from both extremes,
36:51I think there's there's a
36:54lot of opportunities.
36:56The next question is about opportunity for
37:00interacting with departments and faculty
37:03outside the Med school in Arts and Sciences,
37:06for example, and grad students are,
37:10can you recruit grad students from
37:12Arts and Sciences into your lab,
37:13for example?
37:14And maybe Yachi,
37:16you could talk a little
37:17bit about the BBS program.
37:19Yeah. So at Yale BBS,
37:21all graduate students admitted to Yale
37:23BBS which is more than hundreds that
37:25they can join any lab within the LBBS.
37:28So Yale micro is BBS for example if
37:30they're MCDB student immunology student,
37:32genetic students,
37:33they choose to join any of those micro labs.
37:35Yes, they're, they're,
37:36they're they're fine doing so and this
37:39is under the full support with Yale.
37:41And then I will say a collaborations
37:44with undergrad campus and it's very,
37:46very active because it's not very far.
37:48This is like just no more than like 15
37:51minutes between these like undergrad
37:53campus versus our medical campus.
37:55For example over the COVID time I send
37:57a graduate student Kristen to doctor
37:59wrong fans lab bioengineering in the
38:02science field and we're have making
38:04these microfluidic device in their
38:06lab and just a natural collaboration
38:10so right so the graduate program in
38:14biological biomedical sciences spans
38:16both what we call the undergraduate
38:18campus as well as the medical school.
38:20So graduate students are not
38:22predestined for faculty of Arts and
38:26Sciences labs or medical school labs.
38:28They come in through an
38:30umbrella program that's
38:32both both parts of campus participate in.
38:37The next question may also be for
38:40Yachi about clinical potential
38:42for clinical access to clinical
38:45samples and clinical collaborations.
38:48Yeah, so my research builds
38:50on translational research.
38:51I take blood and clinical samples
38:53from people living with HIV.
38:55So when I move from Johns Hopkins over
38:57here and my first question is that
38:58do I have access to clinical samples?
39:00It's really my bread and butter just like
39:02immunologists they need their mouse models.
39:04So I asked for three people running
39:07these clinical trials on site.
39:09They are all just so willing to share their
39:12protocol and their their samples with me.
39:14So I have seamless no break in
39:17recruiting study participants
39:18and getting clinical samples.
39:20And even if if you're approaching
39:22a different aspect,
39:23there is this Yale Center for Clinical
39:26Investigation which Andy worked with
39:28too that they Yale wants to enforce
39:30these kind of translation research.
39:32So even if your pure PhD for example,
39:35I don't actually practice in
39:36the United States,
39:37but then that we are able to obtain clinical
39:39samples through these collaborations.
39:43So the Yale Center for Clinical
39:46Investigation is really a bridging
39:47program for basic science researchers
39:50to start bringing clinical translational
39:52questions into their program.
39:55And to be more specific about it,
39:57in my case, one of our early
40:00studies that involved human samples,
40:02the YCCI provided a study
40:07coordinator just you know,
40:08on an hourly basis.
40:09So rather than you need to hire somebody
40:11to be our clinical study coordinator,
40:14they already had study coordinators
40:16there that were able to provide
40:18a small amount of their time
40:20to do our small pilot project.
40:22They also helped us with developing
40:25software to access important parts
40:28of anonymized clinical records,
40:30which as a basic scientist was
40:33something I'd never done before and
40:35it was all done through the YCCI.
40:39The next question may be for
40:42Walter about BSL 3 facilities.
40:47Yeah, I mentioned you have imaging
40:52capabilities and BSS three and
40:56there there's basically one in the
40:59neighboring building 1 entire floors.
41:01The water to BSS 3 is really combined
41:05animal and biosafety Level 3 and they
41:09SASCO V2 increased the use tremendously
41:14but it's well organized and and
41:20there are some additional small
41:22groups but I think the school wants to
41:26continue to develop and maintain the
41:29main main facility that's that's the
41:32way to go because you have a high user
41:36base and and the investments like in
41:38fact we need the new facts sort of for
41:41instance that's going in, There are
41:43all in in one big core facility, right.
41:49There's a few questions about the
41:52promotion process and associate and tenure.
41:55So maybe I'll kind of combine them together.
42:01The I think the first thing to say
42:03about the promotion process is that
42:05the commitment from the medical
42:10school for someone to hopefully spend
42:13their career at Yale going through
42:16promotion is made at the initial offer.
42:19That's when the the the bottleneck
42:21is is really having the university in
42:24the medical school commit to allowing
42:26us to do a search in the 1st place.
42:29Because when the medical school
42:31commits to a search,
42:32they're committing to the plan that that
42:36person will stay through promotions
42:38and tenure all the way through.
42:40So it is not a scenario where many
42:44assistant professors are hired
42:45with the goal or plan that a small
42:48number would stay with tenure.
42:50It's really the opposite of that.
42:52For that reason,
42:54the commitment from the medical
42:56school for multiple faculty positions
42:58for microbial pathogenesis is
43:00is all the more exciting because
43:03they're actually very conservative
43:05at this stage of starting a search.
43:08Because once we start a search,
43:09the plan is that anyone we recruit
43:13will continue again their career
43:16here all the way through and beyond
43:20a tenure in the history of of the
43:24microopathogenesis department,
43:25I think there's been one person
43:27who has not gotten tenure in the
43:31department to date.
43:34And I would also,
43:37yeah, but this this one person
43:39also had the department to support.
43:41So we want you to succeed and
43:45then when we bring you here,
43:48we are committed to your success
43:51and we understand that the clock
43:54is different for each person. So we
44:02and some people need more time. So
44:07yeah, I will add one thing
44:08about like during COVID,
44:09when every institute around the
44:12nation are facing with challenges,
44:14I think Yale is doing very well.
44:16For example, during COVID,
44:17we as young faculties are vulnerable,
44:19you know, to stop our research program
44:21because of certain restrictions.
44:23The Dean actually gave us COVID
44:24Bridge funds to make sure that we're
44:27able to sustain our research to
44:28move forward and in other institutes
44:30they may not have this buffer
44:32to help faculty over this time.
44:35But not only we don't,
44:36we don't lay off people,
44:37we don't have furlough,
44:38but we are well supported by the school.
44:46The, the next question I guess we
44:51can we can go to this question about
44:52opportunities for small pilot grant
44:56funding either within the department
44:59or interdepartmental seat and
45:00pilot funding at Yale as a whole.
45:03I can I can maybe start with with with that.
45:08We are actually launching a pilot grant
45:12program within the department to support
45:16collaborative projects around imaging
45:17and cryo ETI don't think these guys
45:19have actually even heard about this yet,
45:20but it's coming soon and there are many
45:25grant opportunities especially for a
45:28junior faculty where the university
45:30is any university is only allowed to
45:33nominate one or two people and those
45:36go through an internal process first.
45:39I was actually on that internal
45:42committee for many,
45:43many years and and helped junior
45:46faculty with that that process.
45:48So they're really at all levels.
45:50There's there's departmental pilot funding,
45:53there's university pilot funding
45:56including for sequencing focused projects,
45:59for clinical and translational projects
46:04as well as a postdoc funding for for
46:09post doc candidates and then for the
46:12ones that are national or international.
46:15There's a lot of support in in
46:18preparing those those applications.
46:23Yeah, May at the Cancer Center.
46:25The Cancer Center has many pilot
46:27grants and the core facilities
46:29have pilot grants to help people
46:32transition into using technologies.
46:41So there's a question about
46:44Nodobiotics and metabolomics,
46:45which maybe I could, I could answer.
46:48So, So Yale does have a nodobiotic
46:51core facility that's been running
46:54for many years and that's really a,
46:57you know, pay per service set up
47:01where when you're not using it,
47:03you're not paying anything.
47:05But that's used by multiple labs
47:08across the campus for for neurobiotics,
47:13for mass spec and metabolomics.
47:14There's two different facilities.
47:17One is for proteomics and kind of more
47:24straightforward metabolomic studies
47:25where you drop off a sample and get
47:29either proteomic results or specific
47:31panels of metabolites return to you.
47:35The other is the West campus
47:38analytical core where it's a user
47:41focused facility where students and
47:44postdocs are directly operating the
47:46instruments and just sign up for
47:49your instrument time and they're
47:51developing their own protocols
47:53with the assistance of a fulltime
47:56engineer who supports the facility.
48:03There's a question about again more
48:06about interests are are we interested in
48:09structural biologists or are we focused
48:12on microbiologists and immunologists?
48:15I I would, I would say that we are
48:18interested in in structural biology.
48:20Again, I think that the question
48:22that we'll be using to think
48:24about applications is, you know,
48:25how can we help this candidate,
48:27and I'm repeating myself,
48:29but do better in this department than
48:31they would if they went somewhere else.
48:33And so if there's links with
48:36microbiology from a structural
48:38perspective that could very much
48:40be of interest for this search.
48:46Let's see,
48:52there's a few other questions
48:54about the the symposium.
48:56I know this is an unusual format.
48:59I just encourage you to
49:01keep an open mind about it.
49:04The the number of candidates
49:10invited to the symposium.
49:11We don't really have a clear number there.
49:15It will, you know, if I had to guess,
49:18it would probably be 4 to 6,
49:22although again, we're focused much more
49:25on the candidates rather than the,
49:28you know, getting to a certain number.
49:31And another question about whether we're
49:35conducting prescreening interviews
49:37by Zoom before the symposium,
49:40we we probably will not.
49:44Our goal is to be able to have enough
49:46time with candidates to really
49:49understand how they think about
49:51science and how they think about
49:53their research program and we'll,
49:55you know use the written applications
49:58and then more one-on-one time
50:00to get a better sense of that.
50:08Let's see,
50:13there's a question,
50:15I'm sort of jumping around here.
50:17There's a question about animal
50:20availability of animal core facilities.
50:27Walter, do you want to?
50:28Yeah. I mean, there's plenty of space
50:31and there's no new building being built
50:33without having more animal space.
50:36It's, it's always been a tough priority.
50:47Let's see
50:54to find other questions.
51:01There's a few.
51:10Let's see. Here's a question
51:12about collaborations with the
51:14Department of Immunobiology,
51:16which is physically located just directly
51:22kind of across the street from the
51:25Department of Microbial Pathogenesis.
51:27And the two departments have been,
51:29you know, closely linked for a long time.
51:32There are multiple faculty in
51:34the Department of Microbial
51:36Pathogenesis who have secondary
51:38appointments in Immunobiology.
51:42There's always the members of
51:45the immuno biology department at
51:47our seminars and vice versa.
51:49Many of our onboarding training for
51:51new students like our responsible
51:53conduct or research course,
51:55we teach collaboratively with
51:58the immunobiology students.
51:59So they're quite tightly linked
52:03and there's multiple opportunities
52:06for for collaboration there.
52:18And so here's a question asking about
52:23experiences about collaboration,
52:26such as joint grant applications
52:28and code supervision of students.
52:30Anybody want to talk about collaboration?
52:34We
52:41do have a couple of students
52:43who have joined mentors.
52:48I mean, at the moment, Mario, for sure.
52:53Yeah. So but they're they're whatever
52:56is best for the student and we are we
53:00are happier and yeah she you're the DJs
53:04to implement. So there's no it's it's
53:10a case by case if it if it helps in
53:13this case the most then then yeah she
53:18is willing willing to help. Yeah.
53:21She you you can talk about this.
53:25Yes several, several grants.
53:29There are many joint grants
53:31particular in a structure like Kyo ET,
53:33there are many grants as Junlu,
53:35there are many joint grants
53:37and microbiome there.
53:39There are joint grants this campus.
53:42And so that there are many collaborations
53:46that materialize in into joint grants.
53:52And so the first year I joined,
53:53just the very first year in October,
53:55I saw NIH RFA saying that NIH
53:58wants to fund to substance use
54:048HIV single cell transcriptional mix.
54:06I have no idea about these.
54:07So I just Google who's on campus, I yell,
54:09I found Google Clogger who's a practition,
54:10I found Sandy Springer who's a clinician.
54:12We just work together and wrote
54:13a grand that's iron level,
54:14the first iron level funding that I got.
54:16I know I don't know them at all.
54:18But then we work together,
54:19we have several publications afterwards.
54:21So these these collaborations
54:23just come driven by science.
54:25I would say people at Yale are more like,
54:27you know, you're in this town that you're
54:29like trick or treating with each other,
54:31that people know each other.
54:33I bump into daily sheds at Costco.
54:35I have a SLE grant,
54:37don't ask me why with you know,
54:39with like with immunologists.
54:41And it's just because when
54:43the signs come together,
54:44people are very willing to help and say,
54:46oh, this is exciting,
54:47let's just work together.
54:49We help each other's students and
54:50we we're on each other's committee
54:52and the students will just
54:54identify these faculties themselves
54:56and writing grants together.
54:58It's just very, very natural.
55:00I'll say there are many,
55:01many opportunities.
55:04I actually looked this up in the
55:06process of renewing one of our
55:09training grants for graduate students.
55:11So the when we look at at faculty
55:13who have participated in in this
55:16one training grant, which is a
55:18microbial pathogenesis training grant,
55:20in the last five years there's been
55:22over 100 coauthored publications
55:24between members of these labs.
55:27So again just in a five year span
55:30over 100 papers that included
55:33multiple labs related to microbial
55:35pathogenesis here at Yale.
55:37So I think that's another kind of specific
55:40example of of the strength of collaboration.
55:42And if I found for my entire time
55:45here that one thing I really liked
55:47about about this place is that it's,
55:50it's big enough that you can find an
55:53expert in anything you might think of.
55:56But it's also small enough that you
55:59can you e-mail somebody cold that
56:00you've never met before and just say,
56:02hey, I'm also at Yale,
56:04I'm trying to figure out how to do whatever.
56:06And those conversations
56:08go forward because again,
56:10we do see each other walking down the street,
56:13etcetera.
56:14So I think it's a very nice size
56:16in that way that that captures the
56:19strength of a strong community,
56:21but also the size and expertise
56:24that will help us do our best.
56:27So we didn't get to all of the
56:31questions and feel free to e-mail me
56:35directly with the ones I didn't get to.
56:37A bunch came in at the very end.
56:40Maybe just quickly,
56:41there was one question about
56:43the personal statement.
56:46So the the the content for the personal
56:49statement is provided in the interfolio site.
56:52So if you haven't seen that,
56:53I don't remember the wording of it exactly,
56:57but I just would refer you to the
56:59interfolio application site where if
57:01you click on the personal statement,
57:03it will give you a description
57:05of what we're looking for there.
57:08If you read that and it still is unclear,
57:11please e-mail me. We would.
57:14Another question was about the
57:16reference letters.
57:17We would like those to be sent by
57:20October 15th along with the rest
57:22of the application.
57:23Again,
57:24the interfolio site will not
57:25close on October 15th,
57:27but it really would be best if all
57:30your materials are there at that time.
57:35I see a question about the
57:37vision for the next 25
57:38years and the answer is things
57:40pretty simple. It's you.
57:41You will know what to do
57:43in the next 25 years. So
57:47that's that's right.
57:52And maybe just in these last couple
57:55questions about somebody asked if
57:57there was a requirement to have a
58:00K award to apply to this position.
58:02Absolutely not. We are looking at,
58:06again, creative, exciting science
58:09that we can support and help you
58:14achieve beyond what you can imagine.
58:17And we look at whether you're in the
58:21right place to make that progress and
58:25there's not a K award requirement.
58:30And again, we didn't get to everything,
58:32but I want to respect everybody's time.
58:33So if you had a A,
58:35a question that I didn't get to,
58:37really don't hesitate to send me an e-mail.
58:39I'm sure the rest of the panel here also
58:42wouldn't mind if you emailed them as as well.
58:45So again, thank you all for joining.
58:47Thank you to the panelists
58:49for donating your lunchtime.
58:51And we look forward to
58:53seeing your applications.
58:54Take care, everybody.
58:55Hi,
58:57everybody. Hi, everybody.