From the Lab to the Limelight - Blog version of our #TraineeTuesday Twitter series
Meet Ben Sanders, a graduate student in the Lim Lab and this week's #TraineeTuesday star! He recently received an F31 grant from the National Institute on Aging for his research on the role of Nemo-like kinase in Alzheimer's Disease.
Upon opening the decision, Ben’s first reaction was disbelief, followed shortly by elation and a bit of light-headedness. The award validated his thesis plan and all the work he put in over the last few years at Yale.
Since joining the Lim Lab in 2020, Ben had hoped to explore Alzheimer’s Disease. He was interested in the lab’s prior research on a protein kinase in the brain called Nemo-like kinase. Using a neurodegenerative model, they had previously found that depletion of this Nemo-like kinase in microglia (the immune cells of the brain) increased their phagocytic activity (which is crucial for clearing cellular debris). Ben hoped to apply this approach to other neurodegenerative diseases wherein impaired protein quality control causes an aberrant protein to accumulate.
That inspired him to tackle the amyloid beta deposits that are common in Alzheimer’s; in his current project, Ben studies how Nemo-like kinase can affect the transcriptional changes that microglia undergo over the disease’s progression.
Sometimes I just need to remind myself of the stakes at hand when I think about my research. Yes, there is a lot of value to adding something to the field that gets us closer to understanding a disease that directly affects so many people, and also indirectly affects their loved ones. That almost feels like too massive of a weight to constantly bear when thinking about my research. As a balance, I feel that it’s helpful to consider what doing this research means for future scientists.
Ben Sanders
Ben’s passion for science started at a young age. However, rather than in neuroscience, his childhood interest lay in oceanography. This inspired a family trip to Woods Hole, MA, during which he encountered an exhibit on a giant squid axon. “That’s apparently all I needed to hook my attention,” he said. The following year, he started high school and tried to learn as much as he could about the brain and neurodegenerative diseases.
As an undergraduate at Northeastern University, he continued to explore subsets of neuroscience through the co-op program. During his first two co-ops, at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, he studied fly and mouse circuitry. His last-co-op, however, proved most influential: at Merck, Ben studied the pathological spread of tau in Alzheimer’s Disease. Neurodegeneration became his primary research interest.
He went on to apply to Yale’s INP program, which he found not only boasted great neurodegeneration labs, but a strong research community.
Ben said that faculty are genuinely interested in developing students as scientists. When seeking outside expertise to expand his project, he can count on his neighboring labs to be incredible resources.
You can really feel that an incredible amount of work has gone into building up this program into something that supports me both in and out of the lab. A lot of this energy comes from the grad students in the program who value inclusivity, mentoring, and outreach in addition to their research. It just feels like whichever direction you choose to go in, either with your research or professionally, there’s this network of support available.
Ben Sanders
Though he is unsure of his next career steps, Ben is adamant about finding the right environment and mentorship. He owes his mentors, past and present, for inspiring his excitement and passion for research. In his own research career, his main hope is to foster a similar love and enthusiasm in young scientists.
“Right now, I’m incredibly lucky to have both a strong research community and a mentor whose enthusiasm for science and energy are infectious,” Ben said. “So, as much as it’s a high bar, I would want to continue my future research somewhere that values that as much as the science.”