Read time 13 minutes | Monday, 9 December 2024
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Research is itself an educational activity. With the laws of science and nature for teachers, researchers conduct experiments to learn how life and the world work. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is world-renowned for breakthrough bioscience research. What many outside the scientific community might not realize is that the Laboratory was founded as an educational institute. That was all the way back in 1890. Over the following century, CSHL’s Meetings & Courses Program, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, and DNA Learning Center helped to cement the Laboratory’s reputation as a leader in sharing scientific knowledge.
In 1999, CSHL made it official with the launch of an innovative graduate school program, the CSHL School of Biological Sciences (SBS). The program immerses students in the labs of CSHL faculty members, where they conduct cutting-edge experiments and interact with visiting scientists and collaborators from around the world. Today, SBS graduates are leaders in research, academia, and industry. Some run basic biology labs of their own. Others help bring new medicines to doctors and patients. Their accomplishments reflect the wide range of experiences and opportunities available to SBS students. To celebrate the School’s 25th anniversary, we spoke with five graduates about their time at CSHL and what they’ve been up to in the years since. Here are their stories.
Seeding excellence: Plant biologist Michelle Heck
Michelle Heck first caught the biology bug as a high schooler in New Hyde Park, NY. It happened during a visit to CSHL’s Dolan DNA Learning Center. Even decades later, Heck recalls the hands-on experiment she conducted to cut and separate viral DNA. “When I saw that we could actually look at DNA, there was a part of me that became hooked,” she says.
image of Michelle Heck
Michelle Heck was a William R. Miller Fellow with the SBS graduating class of 2005. She is now a research molecular biologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and a professor at Cornell University.
After earning her bachelor’s degree at Boston University, Heck returned to Long Island to complete her Ph.D. at the SBS. Here, she joined Professor David Jackson’s lab, which studies genes and signals in cells that regulate plant growth and shape. She looks back on her homecoming with fond memories:
“I was excited to come back and be a part of the Cold Spring Harbor environment. If you go there, the place is like one extended science camp. It’s heaven on Earth for people who love to do science.”
For her thesis, Heck conducted the first-ever genetic screen to uncover genes that regulate how plant cells communicate. “It was so thrilling to be a part of that discovery and to have that knowledge that no one else on Earth knew,” she says.
Heck became interested in disease when Jackson introduced her to a plant virologist. She was fascinated by how viral proteins hijack the pathways plant cells normally use to communicate. Today, she works to expand our knowledge of plant viruses and bacterial diseases spread by insects, and she uses this information to help farmers develop new agricultural management tools. For one, she is the co-inventor of a new biotechnology called Symbiont, which allows therapeutic molecules to be delivered directly into trees.
The fatal citrus greening disease has decimated groves across Florida. Heck is carving out new solutions at the USDA. “Interestingly,” she says, “we’re now using the discovery that I made as a grad student—this particular gene that I discovered in my screen—to help optimize the Symbiont technology we developed.”
Heck’s lab is located at Cornell University, so she also has an appointment as an adjunct professor of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology. “Through my role at Cornell, I am able to mentor graduate students, undergraduates, and postdocs,” she says. Many of the lessons she passes along were informed by her time at CSHL:
“Cold Spring Harbor scientists are pushing the boundaries of their fields, and that has shaped the scientist I’ve become. I am not afraid to think big. I’m not afraid to fail. I want my science to push the boundaries of knowledge. And it helps me develop a rigorous research program where people know that we strive for excellence.”
Sharing knowledge: Journal editor Darren Burgess
Rigor and a commitment to excellence are qualities that all universities look for in students. Of course, that doesn’t mean these qualities only translate to academic success.
image of Darren Burgess
Darren Burgess was an Engelhorn Scholar with the SBS graduating class of 2007. He is now senior editor at Nature.
After finishing his master’s studies at the University of Oxford in England, Darren Burgess found himself at a crossroads. He knew he wanted to pursue a Ph.D. but wasn’t quite sure where. The choice came down to whether he would stay in the U.K. or move to the U.S. to enroll at CSHL.
He recalls his thought process at the time:
“In terms of the atmosphere, I really felt Cold Spring Harbor had an edge. Everyone was very welcoming, very smart. But they’re also very keen to be the best right now.”
In their first year at the SBS, students rotate through laboratories before deciding which one to join. Burgess landed in then-CSHL Professor Scott Lowe’s lab. His research focused on developing new screens to better understand chemotherapy resistance in cancer. However, once he received his Ph.D. in 2007, Burgess stepped out of the lab and into the world of science communication.
Burgess joined the Nature staff in 2010, initially working for Nature Reviews Genetics and Nature Reviews Cancer. In 2023, he became a senior editor at Nature, handling manuscripts in biotechnology, genomics, and clinical research. He now reviews about 20 new manuscripts per week. He then arranges for those articles to be peer-reviewed by other scientists and oversees the manuscripts as they go through multiple rounds of revisions before they are officially accepted for publication. In addition to reviewing manuscripts, he does “quite a lot of outreach” to ensure the best research is submitted.
Academic researchers often find that their careers are measured by how many papers they’ve published and in which journals. So, emotions can run high during the publication process. Interacting with researchers requires tact, diplomacy, and the certainty that one’s decisions are based on “solid science,” Burgess says. “Our decisions have a big impact on people’s careers, so we need to make sure we’re thoroughly professional, robust, and consistent in the way we make those decisions.”
Even decades later, Burgess says he still benefits from the skills and “approach to life” he learned while enrolled in CSHL’s Ph.D. program:
“Cold Spring Harbor is the sort of environment where you learn not to be intimidated by people’s job titles, success, stature, or influence, because everyone is a scientist, everyone’s interested, and everyone’s human. It’s also taught me very high standards. At Cold Spring Harbor, they don’t settle for second best. They want everything to be the best. And that’s very similar to what we strive for.”
Bridging bench to bedside: Pharma leader Cathy Seiler
Over the course of her career, Cathy Seiler has jumped between several industries. She’s worked in academia, managed a biobank in a hospital, and led groups at biotech businesses. Now, she supports translational medicine and cancer research at one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
image of Cathy Seiler
Cathy Seiler was a Beckman Graduate Student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow with the SBS graduating class of 2007. She is now chief of staff in translational medicine and oncology at AztraZeneca.
Seiler and Burgess were classmates at the SBS. And like him, she remembers feeling drawn to CSHL’s unique intellectual atmosphere where everyone is excited about the latest cutting-edge science. Seiler recalls:
“It really is all-encompassing and all-consuming. I loved the idea of the program. I loved the idea that you were going to learn how to think. You were going to learn how to question. You were going to learn how to learn.”
Seiler joined the SBS in 2001 and conducted her thesis research in then-CSHL Professor Yuri Lazebnik’s laboratory, which studied how cancer cells evolve and can be selectively killed. Seiler focused on how certain enzymes are activated during programmed cell death. However, throughout the course of the program, she began to think about pursuing other avenues. Along with a thesis advisor, SBS students are paired with an academic mentor who provides additional support. Seiler’s was David Stewart, the executive director of CSHL’s Meetings & Courses Program. Seiler says the pairing was “really well-placed,” as it allowed her to visualize a career path that didn’t end in a lab.
During the program, students share their research with other scientists and learn how to evaluate studies outside their areas of expertise. Seiler sought out more opportunities to further hone her communication skills, like writing for CSHL’s Harbor Transcript magazine and conducting interviews at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. Today, sharing research findings with the public is a big part of her job, but it’s not just about communication. It’s about improving people’s lives.
Seiler joined AstraZeneca in 2022 as director of operational excellence in translational medicine in oncology research and development. AstraZeneca researches, develops, and manufactures prescription drugs for cancer and rare diseases, among other conditions. The company produces nearly 40 medications available to patients in the U.S.
Earlier this year, Seiler began a new role as business planning and operations lead supporting translational medicine in oncology. Working in translational medicine, she helps the company bridge the gap between basic research and patient treatments. One of her main duties is helping manage a multimillion-dollar budget for a department of over 160 people. Seiler credits CSHL with teaching her how to quickly pick up new skills, like overseeing large budgets or using new technologies:
“I know that I can go in there, and I can learn it. I think that’s allowed me to be more confident in taking risks in my career.”
Championing research: Preclinical powerhouse Rebecca Bish
One thing students learn quickly at CSHL is the importance of private funding. Private grants and fellowships are major sources of funding not only for the labs in which the students work but also for Ph.D. student salaries. CSHL is a private nonprofit institution. And while Becky Bish might not have known it when she graduated, she would eventually bring her extensive cancer research experience back to the nonprofit world.
image of Rebecca Bish
Rebecca Bish was a David H. Koch Fellow with the SBS graduating class of 2008. She is now head of discovery and preclinical research at The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
Today, Bish is the head of discovery and preclinical research at The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, a nonprofit that funds basic and translational cancer research. In this role, she identifies research that could have a big impact on patients yet is difficult to fund through traditional sources. She explains:
“Maybe it’s a little bit too out there and needs some more preliminary data before the government would be willing to fund it. Or it’s too far away from direct clinical impact for a pharma company to fund it. So, we try to identify those gaps, step in, accelerate the findings that scientists make in the lab, and get them to cancer patients faster.”
After graduating from MIT with a bachelor’s degree in biology, Bish joined then-Professor Michael Myers’ lab at CSHL. Her thesis focused on studying proteins in a cell, seeing how they interact in different disease states, and identifying findings that could be applied to diagnosing or treating cancer. Bish went on to conduct research at New York University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During this time, she also founded a company that offered scientific editing for life sciences research. She then worked with a computational biochemistry research company before joining the Mark Foundation in 2017.
In her role at the Mark Foundation, Bish reads through hundreds of researchers’ grant proposals each year and helps decide which scientists should receive funding. In the seven years Bish has been with the foundation, it has awarded $230 million in grants and funded eight different startups. The nonprofit currently funds research at more than 100 institutions in 16 countries.
Bish says she uses the skills she learned at CSHL daily, especially “the ability to quickly and rigorously evaluate scientific output.” She says CSHL’s atmosphere of open collaboration helped her learn to take criticism well and communicate her own criticism clearly to others:
“You have to be flexible and willing to say, ‘No, I was wrong. I have to go in a completely different direction now.’ And it doesn’t matter who points that out to you. The data are what they are, and that sort of humility and flexibility is key to being a good scientist.”
Inspiring innovation: Entrepreneur Yaniv Erlich
The ability to go off in new directions is also invaluable when changing careers, like when CSHL graduate Yaniv Erlich left academia to pursue his dream of starting his own company. He’s now the CEO and co-founder of multimillion-dollar biotechnology startup Eleven Therapeutics. The company uses “next generation” RNA molecules called xRNA to silence disease-causing genes.
image of Yaniv Erlich
Yaniv Erlich was a Goldberg-Lindsay Fellow with the SBS graduating class of 2010. He is now CEO and co-founder of Eleven Therapeutics.
Erlich was drawn to the SBS in part because of its small community, where, as an international student, he felt he would be well taken care of. He completed his thesis in then-CSHL Professor Greg Hannon’s lab, which focused on developing tools and strategies for manipulating gene expression. There, Erlich devised a method that allows researchers to sequence thousands of DNA samples at once. “We call it DNA Sudoku because it’s like solving a puzzle,” he explains. “You have a few sets of cells that are assigned, and then you can go and complete everything.”
After completing his Ph.D., Erlich moved to the Whitehead Institute at MIT, where he started his own lab. During his time there, he published several high-profile studies, including a paper in Science suggesting the identities of anonymous participants in research studies could be recovered by analyzing Y chromosomes. However, after authoring over 50 peer-reviewed papers and patents, Erlich was ready to try something else. He worked for three years as chief science officer for the genealogy company MyHeritage before deciding to set out on his own.
In 2020, Erlich founded Eleven Therapeutics with his mentor, Greg Hannon. The company uses artificial intelligence and biochemistry to create new, specially modified messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules. In recent years, mRNA vaccines have become extremely popular, but the technology has built-in limitations, Erlich says:
“If you want to create drugs for chronic treatments, you want to have long-lasting expression of your therapeutic protein or peptide. An RNA molecule is pretty bad for that because it enters into the cells and breaks quite rapidly. We developed chemical strategies that make these molecules much more stable by introducing chemical modifications to the molecule.”
In the company’s early stages, Erlich did much of the science himself. He even coded its first website. Now, his role has switched to managing a team and considering the company’s future.
Erlich says his time at Cold Spring Harbor taught him “so many things” he still uses in his career today, including how to recover from failure and communicate with other scientists. Moreover, it taught him to be both bold and humble:
“You can try new things. You can do something crazy and inspiring and take high risks. And it will reward you. Greg used to ideate this type of approach, and I think I learned that as well.”
25 years of insight and innovation
The five stories above offer a glimpse at the many different paths SBS graduates may take after leaving Cold Spring Harbor. They also illustrate some of the things that set the SBS apart from other graduate schools. However, it’s important to keep in mind that these are the stories of just five of 156 students who have received a Ph.D. from the SBS since 1999.
A current list of graduates includes professors at Yale and Cambridge University. Others have positions at leading technology companies Amazon and Meta. Others still have found their way back to Cold Spring Harbor. Arkarup Banerjee (class of 2016) is an assistant professor studying neuroscience at CSHL. Zachary Lippman (class of 2005) is a professor and HHMI investigator studying plant biology. As CSHL Director of Graduate Studies, he’s also the head of the SBS.
No two students’ stories are the same. However, in each case, the CSHL School of Biological Sciences has offered its graduates the experiences needed to help them better understand life and the world. They pay these opportunities forward every day, improving lives around the planet and making the world a better place for all of us.
Written by: Margaret Osborne, Science Writer | publicaffairs@cshl.edu | 516-367-8455
Stay informed
Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest discoveries, upcoming events, videos, podcasts, and a news roundup delivered straight to your inbox every month.
Newsletter Signup