What is the future of research? What will we see in the next decades, with our eyes or in our data, that we never thought possible? What problems will we be able to solve with the technology developed by our scientists and researchers? Who better to imagine than the scientists who are relative beginners in their careers, and may be a part of these breakthroughs in 10 or 20 years?
Every member institution of the University Research Corridor has its up-and-comers — rising stars in the science world that are bringing new energy, verve, and perspective to their fields. As a new school year begins and the halls of Michigan’s universities echo with the footsteps of new students — prospective star scientists of the future — we talked to three researchers who have earned uncommon early-career success and recognition about why they became scientists and what they hope to accomplish in their research, in the next few years and for their fields in the foreseeable future.
Wen Li Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
Wen Li likes Albert Einstein and lasers. As if that wasn’t cool enough, Wen was recently awarded $1 million to spend on his research over the next five years. The 35-year-old scientist was granted the money as part of his 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Dr. Wen Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Wayne State University. His research in reaction dynamics, ultrafast dynamics, and attosecond spectroscopy is, in his words, “bridging the gap between the ultrafast laser community and the physical chemistry/chemical physics community.”
URC: What is your current research project?
Wen Li: We are developing novel ultrafast optical probes to study the most exquisite details of chemical reaction and we produce movies about atoms and electrons.
URC: How did you get started on this path?
WL: Light (sunlight or laser light) has always been an inspiration to me. The question of what we can do with light has brought me to my current research.
URC: What is it about your field/project that excites you?
WL: It promises a method for manipulating chemical reactions and a deeper understanding of the ever-dynamic microscopic world. And mentoring the younger generation of scientists is also exciting and rewarding.
URC: Where do you hope to see yourself as a researcher in 10 years?
WL: I hope that I will achieve two of my research goals: 1. Detect two electrons in correlation in real time (three is even better but that’s too much to ask). 2. Reactions on demand with laser light.
URC: Where do you hope to see your field in 10 years?
WL: My colleagues in this field will achieve these goals if I fail for some reason. Hopefully by then some more challenging and interesting questions will emerge.
Georgios Skiniotis Assistant Research Professor, Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, U-M Medical School
For all the awards and distinctions he’s earned, the University of Michigan’s Georgios Skiniotis finds his satisfaction in the simple thrill of discovery. With the help of high-resolution electron microscopes, Dr. Skiniotis has been studying the dynamics and architecture of complex proteins. And while seeing things that no one’s ever seen before is enough to excite Dr. Skiniotis, it’s his results that have brought him attention – so much, in fact, that the National Institutes of Health nominated the 38-year-old researcher for a 2012 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which he received this past July.
URC: What is your current research project?
Georgios Skiniotis: My lab primarily focuses on elucidating mechanistic aspects of signaling through different types of cell surface receptors. However, we are also heavily involved in electron microscopic studies of other cellular systems in collaboration with several laboratories.
URC: How did you get started on this path?
GS: I always liked images, machines, and solving problems. I first became interested in using electron microscopes as a graduate student, and have spent the rest of my career working to directly visualize the architecture of cellular protein complexes, figure out how they talk with other cellular components and ultimately understand how they function.
URC: What is it about your field/project that excites you?
GS: When we are successful, we are able to see things never before seen by a human eye. I hope our work leads to new therapeutics and better medicines in the future, but there’s also something thrilling about seeing and understanding the form and function of these incredibly small parts of the body.
URC: Where do you hope to see yourself as a researcher in 10 years?
GS: Science is unpredictable, and you have to thrive on the not-knowing. So I’m not sure where I will be in 10 years — and I somehow prefer to keep it that way. Having said that, one thing I would like is to encompass many more new and complementary technologies in my laboratory.
URC: Where do you hope to see your field in 10 years?
GS: We are poised to push the technology as far as we possibly can, and as we move in this direction we will be able to visualize and describe things we can’t even imagine. We are already in the process of not just getting more detailed images at the molecular level but also capturing dynamic aspects of molecular machines. This additional dimension will undoubtedly yield many varied and exciting insights.
Robert Abramovitch Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Michigan State University
Robert Abramovitch had a research career in plant pathology before he decided to dedicate himself to fighting tuberculosis. He couldn’t be happier for it. Dr. Abramovitch, 36, has made a name for himself through his tuberculosis research, improving our understanding of how bacterial pathogens avoid or survive attacks from the host immune system. Robert sees Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, as an inspiration, citing Farmer’s “truly heroic efforts to improve the health of those suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases associated with poverty.”
URC: What is your current research project?
Robert Abramovitch: The mission of my lab is to make basic research discoveries that jump-start the development of new drugs to treat tuberculosis (TB). The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes TB in humans and is one of the leading causes of death by an infectious disease. A signature feature of M. tuberculosis pathogenesis is that the bacterium survives inside macrophages, a host immune cell that kills many other bacteria. I am developing M. tuberculosis biosensor strains that fluoresce when the bacterium is stimulated by cues in the macrophage. These biosensors are then translated into high throughput screening platforms to identify small molecule compounds that interfere with M. tuberculosis adaptation physiology. It is my hope that some of these compounds may act as new TB drugs.
URC: How did you get started on this path?
RA: After completing my first undergraduate microbiology course, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in microbiology. My path to working with TB was not direct. At first, I studied fungi and bacteria that cause plant diseases. Following my Ph.D., I switched my focus to human infectious diseases. When I learned about the ongoing TB epidemic, I wanted to be part of the team working to solve this problem.
URC: What is it about your field/project that excites you?
RA: I am particularly excited about a high throughput screening facility I have set up at Michigan State University. We have successfully run a pilot screen in this facility and are preparing to launch a full-scale screen of over 500,000 small molecule compounds for inhibitors of biosensor fluorescence. Once we complete the first screen, we have a second unrelated biosensor ready for screening. Over the next few years, we will be very busy looking for new compounds that interfere with M. tuberculosis physiology.
URC: Where do you hope to see yourself as a researcher in 10 years?
RA: My goal is to discover and characterize new genetic and biochemical pathways that M. tuberculosis uses to sense and respond to the host environment. I also plan to have completed several high throughput screens for compounds targeting these adaptation pathways. I am optimistic that these screens will identify new lead compounds that limit TB infections. Moving a lead compound to clinical trials is a long path that will require an industry partner. I plan to forge industry partnerships and guide the most promising lead compounds through preclinical characterization studies to identify a development candidate. By the end of 10 years, with some luck, it is possible that we will have a compound that is ready for clinical trials.
URC: Where do you hope to see your field in 10 years?
RA: The TB community has banded together to develop a variety of community resources that are driving forward the pace of discovery. The availability of M. tuberculosis mutants, small compound libraries, genomic and gene expression databases and other resources should lead to the development of a new, deeper understanding of M. tuberculosis physiology. Some of these discoveries should translate into novel treatments or vaccines.
