Rotimi Mesubi: Time Well Spent.

Abstract

HomeCirculation ResearchVol. 122, No. 6Rotimi Mesubi Free AccessNewsPDF/EPUBAboutView PDFView EPUBSections ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload citationsTrack citationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InMendeleyReddit Jump toFree AccessNewsPDF/EPUBRotimi MesubiTime Well Spent Pam Goldberg-Smith Pam Goldberg-SmithPam Goldberg-Smith Search for more papers by this author Originally published16 Mar 2018https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.312867Circulation Research. 2018;122:807–809Olurotimi (Rotimi) Mesubi is currently a Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he also completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease. Originally from Nigeria, where he earned both a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Ilorin, Rotimi continued gaining an impressive amount of experience in the United States. He earned his Master of Public Health at Harvard University and residency and internships at MetroHealth Medical Center (Case Western Reserve University). It is his research as a Cardiovascular Disease Fellow at the University of Iowa—initiated under his mentor, Dr. Mark Anderson, before they moved to Johns Hopkins University—that earned Rotimi the American Heart Association BCVS (Basic Cardiovascular Sciences) Melvin L. Marcus Young Investigator Award.Download figureDownload PowerPointRotimi MesubiWhat Can You Say About Your Background and What Led You to Study Cardiovascular Science in Particular?As the first of 4 children, I was fortunate to grow up in a nurturing environment. My dad, a college chemistry professor, and mom, a high school chemistry teacher, encouraged my siblings and me to be curious about the world and pursue our dreams. The seeds of my interest in science were sown in elementary school, when I would spend after school hours in my dad’s chemistry lab and interact with his graduate students. Later, I was attracted to medical school, which I attended in Nigeria. One of the reasons I moved to the United States was to pursue postgraduate training; I always dreamed of being at the cutting edge of scientific discovery at the best institutions in the world. I felt then, and still do today, that the US is a unique place that offers such opportunities to someone like me from a foreign country. I began my internship and residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics at MetroHealth Medical Center (Case Western Reserve University) with a plan to become an infectious disease—HIV—specialist. However, on my rotation through the cardiac ICU (intensive care unit) in my second year, I became fascinated with abnormal heart rhythms. It was only a matter of time before I changed my plans from infectious disease to cardiovascular disease. MetroHealth had an excellent physician-scientist training program, and a great heart and vascular institute under the leadership of the late Dr David Rosenbaum, that opened my eyes to the exciting world of scientific investigation of cardiac arrhythmias. This ultimately informed my choice of cardiovascular science and specifically arrhythmias as an area of interest. I was fortunate to start my cardiovascular disease fellowship training at the University of Iowa where I met my current mentor, Dr Mark Anderson. He was willing to take me into his lab despite my lack of basic science training or experience and I ultimately moved with him to Johns Hopkins University to continue to pursue my research interests.Tell Me About Your Current Project, and What Interests You About It?I started working on my current project in July 2014 under Dr Anderson. We are trying to better understand the mechanisms underlying atrial fibrillation, and why diabetes mellitus increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, as both are major health problems. Current treatments available for atrial fibrillation have limited efficacy. The group is working with the enzyme CaMKII (calmodulin kinase II) which has been previously proven to have involvement in processes that are associated with heart disease, such as heart failure and arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms).1–3 In particular, I’m looking into how CaMKII is involved in promoting atrial fibrillation in diabetes using diabetic mice as a model to study this, I found that CaMKII becomes more active in diabetes and this increases atrial fibrillation in diabetic mice. Genetically preventing this increased CaMKII activity, or treating with compounds that target the pathway by which CaMKII works, was effective in preventing atrial fibrillation in diabetic mice. Although no current medications that target CaMKII can be used in humans, the hope is that such medications will be developed that can treat or prevent atrial fibrillation and potentially other heart conditions in which CaMKII plays a deleterious role.You’ve Won the American Heart Association BCVS Melvin L. Marcus Young Investigator Award. What Was That Like?In one word—elation! Only in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever end up a winner of such an award. In fact, without the advice and prodding of Dr Anderson, I wouldn’t have applied for the award competition. This is one of the benefits of having great mentors. They are always looking out for their mentees and thinking 10 steps ahead. This award means a lot to me, especially as someone who trained in cardiovascular disease at the University of Iowa where Melvin Marcus was one of the giants instrumental in creating an excellent cardiovascular training program and a unique place for cardiovascular disease fellows interested in research training. I am grateful for all the support I have received and continue to receive from the various institutions I have attended as part of my training and from professional bodies such as the AHA (American Heart Association). All of these continue to encourage young people to pursue their dreams with the support of resources and a strong research environment for cardiovascular training. It’s given me an impetus to do what I do, and now I can always look up at the plaque to draw even more inspiration.What Has Been the Most Exciting Moment in Your Career Thus Far?As we researched the relationship between diabetes and atrial fibrillation, it led us down the path to develop a new mouse model. My mentor said that we’d need to make some transgenic mice to explore this new hypothesis, and my first thought was “I don’t think I can do that.” I remember growing up in Nigeria and reading about all the cool and interesting science happening worldwide, and here I was working on making a new mouse! It did not work the first go-around, and although it took a few months, I did make my first mouse model. It was exciting for me, even though I know there are tons of people who do this routinely. Another reason this was particularly exciting for me is the fact that I was mentoring a summer undergraduate student and we worked on it together. This made this experience quite gratifying. These mouse models have opened new areas of investigation that we are currently pursuing in the lab.What Has Been Your Main Challenge, and How Have You Overcome It?One of my major challenges was trying to understand the language of basic science and the rules of scientific inquiries while balancing clinical requirements. I was a late bloomer, with no background in basic science, who was going to be spending significant time in a basic science lab. I realized early on that I needed to commit a great amount of time doing what was necessary to navigate this “new world” and its challenges. I had several conversations with my mentor and he provided great support. He encouraged me to keep the big picture in mind as I continued to make progress in my work. I ended up spending 3 years in the lab and I continue to work on ongoing projects. In retrospect, it was time well spent.How Hard Do You Work?I’ll say I work pretty hard. I used to think I worked hard in clinical medicine, where you’re there for a finite amount of time and then you go off, but my wife thinks I work even harder now in the lab. When I was on an institutional postdoctoral T32 training grant up until June 2017, a typical working day I spent 10 hours in the lab. In addition, I came in at least 1 day on most weekends as I worked with diabetic mice that required frequent checks. Since then, I have transitioned back to full-time clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellowship training, though I find time to continue my ongoing projects in the lab. Some of this is protected time for research, which the program is generous to offer, and the rest is done on my own time, usually weekends. In general, if you must do an experiment 10 times to make it work, then you have to stick with it until you get the experiment to work. This is something you learn as you go along. If you do an experiment several times and it does not work, you do encounter frustration. However, this does not compare with the joy you feel when an experiment finally works, especially when you find something new and it makes the hard work worth it.How Do You Spend Your Time Outside of the Lab?My wife and I have a 5-year-old daughter, who is full of energy and life. I make time for family as much as I can. My daughter gets to come in with me on weekends, sometimes when I come into the lab. It reminds me of growing up and spending time in my dad’s lab. Outside of the lab, I value our quality time together. Since I was on call for Christmas, we went to see the movie, Ferdinand, on New Year’s Day. My daughter is really into the movie Frozen and likes to dress as Elsa or Anna (I can’t remember which one). We had a blast visiting Disneyland in California last year, and meeting these Frozen characters was definitely the highlight for her.What Qualities Do You Consider Important for Success in Research?I think you have to be tenacious, pay attention to the details, but also have patience and perseverance. Being optimistic and open-minded also lends itself to science. It particularly gets you through those times when you get negative or contradictory results, or no results at all. I’ve learned this from different instances where I am presenting data at lab meetings and I’ll think the data were no good or something didn’t work. Then Dr Anderson looks at it from a different angle, sheds some insight that never crossed my mind, and says to try it another way. It’s hard work but it can be fun, and you do have moments of indescribable excitement when something finally works.What Do You Like and Dislike About Research?I like being able to come up with original questions and go through the scientific method to explain something new, to show proof of how something in nature works. It may be in small increments, but I believe all of these contribute to a better understanding of disease processes and how the body works. Sometimes the challenging part is then trying to get your work to the point where it’s presentable to the science community. It feels like you jump through many hoops to get your work published. You have to expect the rejections. I’m still learning to handle those which also comes with each experience.What Would You Do to Improve Training in Research?Having dedicated, protected time for research in training is invaluable. I went to Iowa for cardiovascular disease training, where fellows were given protected time for research. At the end, one might decide it’s either not for them or they’ll keep along this track. Also, in terms of incentives, trainees are set back financially sometimes. Support in this will help trainees dedicate more time for research.What Worries You Most About Your Future? What Is the Main Obstacle in Your Pursuit of an Academic Career?Like most up-and-coming trainees interested in pursuing an academic career, the thing I worry about most is the funding environment and the challenge of getting funding support for research. Senior colleagues, however, point out that everyone always worried about this even in the past, yet there are several examples of people who have successfully navigated this challenge. There is also the challenge of combining research pursuits with clinical care (which I enjoy doing). I think the current structure of our academic medical institutions makes the achievement of these dual goals daunting, especially given the reimbursement incentives in place. Despite these challenges, my plan is to be a physician-scientist with a focus on understanding fundamental mechanisms that are involved in abnormal heart rhythms while providing care for patients with these conditions. The idea is to be able to go from bench to bedside and back with the goal of improving our understanding of disease process and development of new and better treatment options. These are achievable aspirations given the right environment, support, and mentorship.DisclosuresNone.