Postdoctoral Research Articles

Disaster Preparedness among Healthcare Professionals in Lebanon.

Disaster disrupts the normal functioning of a community, causing significant damages and losses. In recent years, Lebanon faced multiple disasters, including one of the largest explosions ever recorded, the Beirut Blast, in August 2020. Limited studies in the literature have examined disaster medicine preparedness among healthcare professionals (HCPs). To examine the knowledge (K), attitude (A), readiness to practice (rP), and KArP associated with disaster medicine preparedness among HCPs in Lebanon. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in Lebanon using data from participants answering an online survey. Participants enrolled in this study were HCPs (residents and faculty), medical students, and postdoctoral research scholars. Levels of knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice were assessed and used to examine their association with participants' socio-demographic characteristics. A total of 195 participants (average age 30.6 ± 11.4 years) were included in this study. Participants reported moderate scores of knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice. Older participants reported better readiness to practice and a KArP score. A significant difference was observed in all categories according to gender, with men having higher scores than women. No significant difference was observed between the level of education and knowledge, attitude, and total KArP scores. Our study's findings showed that age and the level of education were positively correlated with readiness to practice. Men, compared to women, had significantly higher scores in all categories. Barriers to the KArP should be identified and targeted in future studies, as disaster preparedness at the institutional level may improve outcomes in future disaster encounters.

Euripedes C. Miguel: Risk factors for obsessive-compulsive and other mental health disorders and their treatment and public policy implications

Euripedes Constantino Miguel is a full, tenured Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (FMUSP), and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University School of Medicine. He graduated from FMUSP and completed his Psychiatry Residency and PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of São Paulo. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Professor Miguel returned to Brazil in 1994 to pioneer the Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders Program. He leads the National Institute for Developmental Psychiatry www.inpd.org.br, focusing on early identification and intervention of mental health disorders. Since 2023, he has led the National Center for Science and Innovation in Mental Health (CISM) www.cism.org.br, enhancing mental health education and research through innovative solutions and public-private partnerships. This Genomic Press Interview features Professor Miguel's candid reflections on his professional achievements and life's journey.

Travis I. Thompson (1937-2023).

Travis I. Thompson was born on July 20, 1937, in Minneapolis to William and Loretta Thompson. Travis completed his BA (1958), MA (1961), and PhD (1961) degrees all at the University of Minnesota in Psychology, with postdoctoral work at the University of Maryland with Joseph V. Brady and at Cambridge University (United Kingdom) with Robert Hinde. Travis began his academic career at the University of Minnesota in 1963 rising to the rank of professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Psychology and Pharmacology in 1969. A prolific writer, Travis, published more than 200 articles and chapters and 30 books including four on the translation of research on autism for parents, teachers, and professionals. He had a knack for motivating people to believe in their ability to grow and develop as researchers and work collaboratively on complex issues related to intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Travis was part of the intellectual force founding the area now known as behavioral pharmacology. Throughout his career, Travis remained deeply curious about how basic principles could be used to understand how things worked-his approach was to identify the functional pieces, take them apart, and put them back together. He wanted that activity to matter. It did. He is survived by his wife, Anneke, four children, and seven grandchildren. He died in Roseville, Minnesota, on August 2, 2023, at the age of 85. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Revolutionizing Postdoctoral Training Using the Social Ecological Model: Insights and Experiences from the Propel Scholars

Revolutionizing Postdoctoral Training Using the Social Ecological Model: Insights and Experiences from the Propel Scholars

First person – Stephanie Bouley

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Stephanie Bouley is first author on ‘ Chemical genetic screens reveal defective lysosomal trafficking as synthetic lethal with NF1 loss', published in JCS. Stephanie conducted the research described in this article while a PhD candidate in Yolanda Sanchez's lab at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA. She is now a post-doctoral research fellow in the lab of James A. Walker at Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Genomic Medicine, Boston, MA USA, where she is interested in identifying novel therapeutic targets for treating neurofibromatosis type 1-associated tumors.

Perspectives on Academic Training in Clinical Oncology in the United Kingdom: A National Cross-Sectional Analysis

AimsThere are longstanding concerns relating to clinical academic training pipelines, with evidence for multiple barriers and enablers to clinical academic career progression. We sought to assess the extent to which these and other factors apply to academic training in clinical oncology in the United Kingdom. Materials and methodsA cross-sectional survey was undertaken using a bespoke, pre-piloted online electronic questionnaire that was distributed to clinical oncology specialty trainees and consultants who had at any point between January 2013–January 2024 commenced an academic post whilst in training. Collated information included demographic data, location and stage of training, research experience and ambitions, research skill confidence and academic career progression. ResultsSeventy eligible responses were included, representing 84% (n = 16/19) of UK training deaneries. Thirty-seven (53%) of the respondents had obtained their certificate of completion of training (CCT) whilst 11% (n = 8/70) and 40% (n = 28/70) were at specialty trainee level and respectively pre- or within-/post-doctoral studies. Of 34 post-CCT respondents, 58% (n = 20) had ongoing research commitments but this reached 30% of their overall activity for just 30% (n = 10). Barriers to academic progression included clinical training requirements, post availability and limited mentorship. Most (60%; n = 35/58) undertook doctoral studies in their final two training years. A majority of respondents lacked confidence in radiation oncology (RO) skills relevant to their career ambitions, with 60%, 40% and 30%, respectively, confident in RO clinical research outcome evaluation, in vitro radiation analyses and using RO animal models. ConclusionThese data provide a granular, long-term analysis of academic clinical oncology training at a national level; identifying poor progression to research independence underlined by limited confidence in RO research skills and multiple barriers to academic career progression. These data provide areas in which policy makers, research funders and training programmes can focus to improve academic training in clinical oncology.

Pathway to Independence - an interview with Martina Cerise.

Martina Cerise is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of George Coupland at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany. She is interested in using different plant organisms to understand the floral transition, which helps define plant architecture, and leads to fruit and seed production. Martina is one of the 2024 fellows of the Pathway to Independence Programme. We caught up with Martina to find out more about her research interests, her passion for science outreach and her plans as an independent group leader.

Pathway to Independence - an interview with Louis Prahl.

Louis Prahl is a postdoctoral fellow in Alex Hughes' lab in the Department of Bioengineering and the Center for Soft and Living Matter at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. He is interested in how epithelial cells organise into complex structures and in developing engineering strategies to control tissue organisation. Louis is one of the 2024 fellows of the Pathway to Independence Programme. We caught up with him to talk about his physics and bioengineering background, his interdisciplinary research interests, and his plans as an independent researcher.

Engagement of early career researchers in collaborative assessments of IPCC reports: achievements and insights

The participation of a diverse –in terms of geography, discipline and gender– group of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the peer review process can help alleviate the workload of senior researchers and counteract the perceptual biases that the latter tend to show. Moreover, ECRs can benefit from developing skills that are often not included in educational programs. From 2018 to 2021, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, in collaboration with other associations, organized six group reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports by a total of more than 600 ECRs from over 70 different countries. This study aims to evaluate this group review in terms of its contribution to the production of scientific knowledge, and as a career development opportunity for ECRs. The data analyzed consists of application forms, review comments, and feedback surveys that were collected during each review process. The results of this study show that, overall, the group reviews were a success in terms of the experience of ECRs and their contribution to the peer review of the IPCC reports. Most survey respondents considered the general organization of the group reviews satisfactory and expressed interest in participating in future group reviews. However, most participants did not engage in discussions with their peers, which constitutes a missed opportunity to engage in active learning and the shared production of knowledge. ECRs made a significant contribution to the review of the IPCC reports by producing an average of 2,422 ± 532 comments per group review, 36% of which were substantive. PhD students were shown to be as proficient reviewers as postdoctoral researchers and faculty reviewers. More importantly, the diversity of reviewers in terms of geography and discipline, together with the fact that they are ECRs, can help produce more balanced scientific reports since they bring new perspectives, thus counteracting the biases that senior researchers have. These group reviews could be improved by providing more comprehensive training and facilitating communication among reviewers so that they can engage in meaningful exchanges. We conclude that the IPCC should formalize the inclusion of ECRs in future reviews of the IPCC reports.

Ex nihilo nihil fit – New cities as territorial infrastructures in Brazil and Portugal

The pre-foundational stages of new cities are marked by several decisive elements that ultimately led to their genesis. The reason for their existence and where they materialize necessarily depend on decisions made by agents, institutions and specific political-economic-social circumstances that have guided each of these undertakings. In some cases, new cities have not only involved the destruction of local ecosystems (human and natural) but even their eventual disappearance, within a context whereby the human species has simply viewed them as being subsidiary (almost always superfluous) to pursuing its colonizing determinations. The aim of this article, which is the result of post-doctoral research, is to characterize new cities, those intentionally created and professionally designed, as infrastructural devices for territorial activation and urbanization. Rather than being the end-products of a political-spatial dynamic, could these cities be understood as intermediary cogwheels for productive and extractive activities? In the pursuit of an answer, attention has been focused on the cities founded in the central-south region of the Amazon (Brazil) and in the Sines region (Portugal) during the 1970s, all of which emerged from developmentalism, state authoritarianism, the dynamics of capitalization and accumulation and the expanded participation of private sectors. While maintaining the due proportions and scalar differences, the processes of occupation, colonization, infrastructure development, and exploitation of natural assets characterize both territories, including the predatory urban planning practices that are harmful to local ecosystems. Thus, these cities have become our exploratory field in this investigation, conducted through an historical perspective, underpinned by consultations with primary and secondary sources and on-site visits. With an understanding that “nothing comes from nothing”, this study qualifies each new city as a representation of the conditions that led to its birth and its strategic position in the recent capitalist system.

Shining a Light on Inflammation as a Critical Modulator of Drug Metabolism.

Since his graduate studies on alcohol induction of a novel cytochrome P450 (P450) enzyme, through his postdoctoral work on hormonal regulation of sexually differentiated cytochrome P450s (P450s), the author has maintained an interest in the regulation of drug metabolizing enzymes. This article is a recounting of his scientific career and focuses on his laboratory's work on inflammatory regulation of P450 enzymes that formed the basis for the Bernard B. Brodie Award. Key findings and publications are identified and discussed that contributed to the elucidation of some important principles: 1) inflammatory stimuli generally downregulate P450 enzymes, resulting in reduced metabolism of substrate drugs; 2) the main mechanism for this downregulation is transcriptional and involves both the activation of negatively acting transcription factors and the suppression of positive transcription factors; 3) inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1, interleukin 6, and tumor necrosis factor α act on hepatocytes to mediate this regulation; 4) these cytokines selectively regulate different P450 enzymes, and therefore different P450s are downregulated in different inflammatory diseases or disease models; 5) nitric oxide formed by inducible nitric oxide synthase 2 reacts with P450s in an enzyme-specific manner to stimulate their proteolytic degradation; and 6) both tyrosine nitration and heme nitrosylation are likely required for this NO-stimulated degradation. Finally, findings from clinical studies are discussed that shine a light on the importance of P450 regulation by inflammation for drug development, clinical practice, and personalized medicine. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This article discusses the key publications and findings in the author's laboratory that helped to identify inflammation as an important factor contributing to interindividual variation in drug metabolism.

Ex vivo susceptibility to antimalarial drugs and polymorphisms in drug resistance genes of African Plasmodium falciparum, 2016-2023: a genotype-phenotype association study.

Given the altered responses to both artemisinins and lumefantrine in Eastern Africa, monitoring antimalarial drug resistance in all African countries is paramount. We measured the susceptibility to six antimalarials using ex vivo growth inhibition assays (IC50) for a total of 805 Plasmodium falciparum isolates obtained from travelers returning to France (2016-2023), mainly from West and Central Africa. Isolates were sequenced using molecular inversion probes (MIPs) targeting fourteen drug resistance genes across the parasite genome. Ex vivo susceptibility to several drugs has significantly decreased in 2019-2023 versus 2016-2018 parasite samples: lumefantrine (median IC50: 23·0 nM [IQR: 14·4-35·1] in 2019-2023 versus 13·9 nM [8·42-21·7] in 2016-2018, p<0·0001), monodesethylamodiaquine (35·4 [21·2-51·1] versus 20·3 nM [15·4-33·1], p<0·0001), and marginally piperaquine (20·5 [16·5-26·2] versus 18.0 [14·2-22·4] nM, p<0·0001). Only four isolates carried a validated pfkelch13 mutation. Multiple mutations in pfcrt and one in pfmdr1 (N86Y) were significantly associated with altered susceptibility to multiple drugs. The susceptibility to lumefantrine was altered by pfcrt and pfmdr1 mutations in an additive manner, with the wild-type haplotype (pfcrt K76-pfmdr1 N86) exhibiting the least susceptibility. Our study on P. falciparum isolates from West and Central Africa indicates a low prevalence of molecular markers of artemisinin resistance but a significant decrease in susceptibility to the partner drugs that have been the most widely used since a decade -lumefantrine and amodiaquine. These phenotypic changes likely mark parasite adaptation to sustained drug pressure and call for intensifying the monitoring of antimalarial drug resistance in Africa. This work was supported by the French Ministry of Health (grant to the French National Malaria Reference Center) and by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-17-CE15-0013-03 to JC). JAB was supported by NIH R01AI139520. JR postdoctoral fellowship was funded by Institut de Recherche pour le Développement.

Value-based Russian language teaching as a priority of the modern era (to mark the anniversary of the &lt;i&gt;Axiological linguistic methodology&lt;/i&gt; school of thought)

The article aims to comprehend the fundamental role of value-based Russian language teaching in modern education. The key points of the speeches delivered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, and Minister of Education of the Russian Federation S. S. Kravtsov are related to the preservation and strengthening of traditional spiritual and moral values. Therefore, the thirty-year activity of the scientific school Axiological linguistic methodology: the worldview and value aspects in school and university teaching of the Russian language, the leader of which is Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Methods of Teaching the Russian Language at the Institute of Philology of MPSU, is A. D. Deikina, winner of the Russian state award - the A. S. Pushkin medal, the K. D. Ushinsky medal, is becoming more relevant than ever. We used analysis of scientific research in the field of axiological linguistic methodology and scientific generalisation to characterise the activities of the scientific school whose origins relate to M. T. Baranov’s concept of schoolchildren’s linguistic worldview formation. Moreover, we outlined the key positions of axiological linguistic methodology substantiated in the concept of A. D. Deikina and thirteen postdoctoral studies of her students as scientific areas developing the idea of value-based Russian language teaching at school and university. The postdoctoral research conducted within the framework of the scientific school of axiological linguistic methodology with A. D. Deikina as the scientific advisor developed the leading linguistic methodological approaches to Russian language teaching. Drawing on the Russian canonical methodologists’ ideas, the members of the Moscow Methodological Scientific School create and predict promising ways of developing higher and school education in the Russian Federation, expand the research space in different regions of this country, increase the scientific status of methodological science, and contribute to the success of interpersonal and intercultural communication in Russian. The works of those who represent the axiological linguistic methodological scientific school, as well as other like-minded researchers have a beneficial effect on the creation of a holistic value picture of the world using the Russian language in modern education.

(Mis)alignments between postdoctoral and supervisors' perceptions of mentorship competencies in engineering and computer science

AbstractBackgroundPostdoctoral training holds an increasingly important place in preparation for leading academic and research positions. While little empirical research has described postdoctoral training beyond the sciences, across all fields, “misaligned expectations” are often touted as a key source of postdoctoral strife.Purpose/HypothesisThis article describes mentorship competency beliefs within engineering and computer science fields, which increasingly engage in postdoctoral training.Design/MethodAn embedded mixed‐methods design was used to quantitatively identify mentorship profiles from survey data using latent profile analysis (LPA) from a sample of n = 118 postdoctoral scholars and n = 165 postdoctoral supervisors. Qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with n = 29 postdoctoral scholars and n = 20 postdoctoral supervisors was used to identify meaning in the differences between quantitative profiles. The combination of LPA with thematic analysis enabled the triangulation of distinct postdoctoral mentorship profile definitions.ResultsLPA identified six postdoctoral fellow profiles and four supervisor profiles, which became clearly definable through thematic analysis. Postdoc profiles included Technical Manager, Autonomy Focused Advisor, Stretched Mentor, Well‐Rounded Mentor, Exemplar Mentor, and Leader‐Mentor, while supervisor profiles included Autonomous Mentor, Reflective Mentor, Research Lab Mentor, and Confident Leader‐Mentor. Some of these are aligned, but several are not, giving insight into the phenomenon of “misaligned expectations” in postdoctoral literature.ConclusionsThe mentorship profiles illustrate the misalignment in expectations, which leads to negative mentorship experiences for many postdoctoral scholars.

Daniel H. Wolf: Understanding motivation impairment from clinical, behavioral, and neurobiological perspectives to pave the way for better treatments

Dr. Daniel Wolf grew up in Los Angeles, completed his BA at Harvard College, MD-PhD at Yale University, psychiatry residency at MGH-McLean, and neuropsychiatry fellowship at UPenn. He is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine. As head of the Laboratory for Motivation in Psychiatry, Dr. Wolf uses functional neuroimaging to study the neural mechanisms of amotivation and other symptom dimensions in psychosis and at-risk states, aiming to develop novel assessment biomarkers for early-stage drug development. Dr. Wolf also provides outpatient care to individuals with psychosis while supervising clinical trainees. As Director of the Clinical Neurosciences Training Program and Co-Director of the Psychosis T32, he provides seminars and mentoring to medical and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; he earned the School of Medicine's teaching awards in both Basic Science and Translational Science. He is also an ACNP Fellow and member of the Neuropsychopharmacology editorial board. Dr. Wolf answered the Genomic Press Interview, providing our readers with reflections on his life and career.

Field ecology: Atlantic Forest Biome, coastal and marine environments

In this compilation, you will find the activities, ecological studies and experiences during the Field Ecology course, offered annually by the Graduate Program in Ecology and Environmental Monitoring (PPGEMA, UFPB, Brazil). The course took place from August 14 to 25, 2023 and PPGEMA students had the opportunity to gain a practical understanding of the development of research projects related to the different organisms belonging to the fauna and flora of the Atlantic Forest, Coral Reef and Mangrove Biome in the state of Paraíba. The activities were conceived and carried out with the guidance of PPGEMA professors and post-doctoral students, as well as the contributions of guest professors. We hope that this book will inspire all those who are interested in understanding how ecosystems work and the importance of maintaining our natural resources. May this work also stimulate the reader's curiosity and help them understand the importance of ecology as a science. And that it raises awareness of how fundamental it is to understand our resources, so that they can be preserved for future generations.

First person – Thomas Williams

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Thomas Williams is first author on ‘ Distinct TORC1 signalling branches regulate Adc17 proteasome assembly chaperone expression’, published in JCS. Thomas conducted the research described in this article while a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in Dr Adrien Rousseau's lab at the MRC-PPU, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, UK. He is now a PDRA in the lab of Prof. Pedro Carvalho at Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, UK. Thomas is interested in the mechanisms cells use to adapt to changes in their environment, encompassing changes to intracellular signaling, proteome composition and cell physiology.

A Coaching-Based Leadership Program for Women Postdoctoral Fellows at the National Cancer Institute that Cultivates Self-confidence and Persistence in STEMM

Despite making strides in gender equality, women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) continue to face a persistent underrepresentation in leadership roles. In an effort to reverse this trend, the National Cancer Institute created the Sallie Rosen Kaplan (SRK) Postdoctoral Fellowship, a year-long coaching-based leadership training program. The SRK program aims to empower women to explore careers across a broad range of fields, including academia, industry, and government, and to excel in leadership positions in those fields. Analyzing a decade of data from 111 participants, we describe the positive impact of the SRK program on participant's self-reported capabilities. Increased self-confidence, improved time management and work/life balance, enhanced goal-setting and attainment skills, and strengthened communication and relationship-building abilities are highlighted as statistically significant outcomes. Moreover, the program’s emphasis on coaching, mentorship, peer cohort support, and building lasting professional relationships also contributed to high ratings for satisfaction and value of the program. Successful programs like SRK can serve as a model for institutions striving to close gender gaps in leadership.

First person – Heta Mattila

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Heta Mattila is first author on ‘ Flavonols do not affect aphid load in green or senescing birch leaves but coincide with a decrease in Photosystem II functionality’, published in BiO. Heta conducted the research described in this article while a postdoctoral fellow in Esa Tyystjärvi's lab at University of Turku, Turun Yliopisto, Finland. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Sónia Cruz at University of Aveiro, Portugal, investigating the effects of high light stress on different photosynthetic organisms.

“In my blood”: External factors for international stem postdoctoral scholars’ career decisions

This instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) explores the external factors that influence international science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) postdoctoral scholars in the United States to pursue a career in STEM. Interviews with 20 international STEM postdoctoral scholars were analyzed deductively to shed light on their unique backgrounds and experiences. Three themes emerged: (a) parents were highly encouraging, (b) a love of science was nurtured in school, and (c) they were eager to engage in and promote scientific innovation. These findings illustrate the ways in which family, schools, and community influence the STEM career trajectories of international postdoctoral scholars.