Barnes-Jewish Hospital Research 2000 Annual Report: Training of Young Researchers
There’s a familiar catch-22 many college students face upon graduating – employers want to hire people with experience; new graduates can’t gain experience without someone hiring them.
A similar dilemma exists for young biomedical investigators. After years spent completing their medical, doctorate and/or postdoctorate studies, they are poised to begin their careers as researchers and junior academic faculty members. That’s when their particular catch-22 comes into play: Large funding sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) won’t support research projects without preliminary data demonstrating the efficacy of studies. Young investigators can’t develop that data without first securing funding.
Part of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital mission is to bridge that funding gap by making available short-term research grants from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation. “These grants, which usually cover a one- to two-year period, provide the seed money needed to launch young investigators’ careers,” says Robert Senior, MD, attending physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) and the Dorothy R. and Hubert C. Moog professor of pulmonary diseases in medicine and professor of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). “The research data generated using this funding can be incorporated into larger applications to federal agencies or other institutions supporting medical research where much greater grant dollars are available.”
“Establishing proof of principle is critical to development of young investigators with new and fresh ideas that truly propel biomedical research,” adds Dwight Towler, MD, PhD, admitting physician at BJH, division chief of bone and mineral diseases, department of medicine, and associate professor, medicine and molecular biology and pharmacology at WUSM. “The Foundation’s grants provide necessary resources for generating data that reveal the true potential of new lines of investigation – research that routinely becomes supported by funding from extramural institutions once proof of principle is established.”
The practice of supporting young investigators is designed to benefit not only those receiving grants, but also the hospital’s current and future research efforts as well. Drs. Senior and Towler agree the ability to attract and retain young investigators is absolutely critical to advancing BJH’s biomedical research activities.
“Securing research funds is often very difficult for new investigators, as is our ability to attract and retain young physician-scientists to a biomedical research career. Without resources such as those provided by the Foundation, young investigators often gravitate to alternative career paths, either choosing to focus solely on patient care – thus relinquishing their academic research goals – or moving into an industrial research environment,” explains Dr. Towler, who feels the Foundation’s start-up grants are particularly important to physician-scientists.
“Changes in health care financing over the past decade have meant physicians are spending more time on patient care and administrative functions,” he says. “Having research dollars available helps physician-scientists set aside the time to pursue the truly innovative – and inherently less routine – research activities that advance our understanding of human biology immediately relevant to disease. Such an investment in our young academic physicians also helps create future thought leaders and role models, all results that ultimately improve our ability to care for patients.”
Besides supporting research, Foundation grants are sometimes used to obtain advanced technologies difficult to finance through traditional funding sources. In addition, whenever possible Barnes-Jewish Hospital is committed to providing young investigators with laboratory space and the administrative support needed to manage grant funds.
Mentoring: another critical source of supportThe ultimate goal of every young investigator is to achieve independence by receiving grant money from outside sources. For those with no experience applying for grants, writing a proposal for the Foundation’s consideration previews an effort that will be an ongoing part of their research responsibilities. Compared to proposals to other sources, the Foundation application is short – three to five pages – which forces those applying to use the principles of effective grantsmanship: being clear, concise and cogent.
Foundation grant writing represents one of many areas for which young investigators receive help from senior WUSM faculty members who serve as mentors. Dr. Senior, who was first appointed to WUSM’s faculty in 1969, is recognized on campus and throughout the country as an outstanding mentor to young investigators working in pulmonary medicine. Richard Pierce, PhD, a member of BJH’s adjunct staff and a research associate professor of medicine/pulmonary and cell biology and physiology at WUSM, is one of many researchers to benefit from Dr. Senior’s guidance.
“Dr. Senior exemplifies the role of a mentor in the research environment,” says Dr. Pierce. “He not only takes a tremendous interest in the development of a person’s career, he is also wise enough to know what someone’s potential is or is not. That’s a very difficult part of mentoring – giving people the opportunity to see what they do well and what that means for their future.”
Dr. Pierce is principal investigator on two NIH grants for which preliminary research was begun with Foundation grants. He is one of several newly independent investigators at BJH carrying on the mentoring tradition of Dr. Senior and other senior faculty members.
“The important lessons mentors pass along are how to survive in an academic research environment; how to maintain a consistent level of productivity, including having manuscripts published each year; and how to establish and meet deadlines,” he says. “For instance, for graduate students or fellows the clock isn’t really ticking because there’s no deadline for finishing their training by a certain date. But failing to establish or meet goals and deadlines for a research grant can result in serious consequences, such as an investigator losing funding and personnel in his or her lab.”
He adds, “We’re in the business of developing new knowledge, and because of that there is a high degree of failure involved. A mentor’s job is to help those just starting out to learn from their failures but not be crushed by them.”
Helping young investigators choose the correct avenue of research is another essential role played by mentors, accord to James Shipley, PhD, assistant professor in medicine at WUSM. Dr. Shipley’s first funding from th NIH came in 1998, and he begins his second NIH-sponsored project in 2001. Both grants were based on observations made through BJH-funded projects.
“Often young investigators have the choice of trying to develop several projects, and advice from their mentors on what to focus on and how to proceed is very important,” says Dr. Shipley. “The last thing a researcher needs at the start of a career is to get sidetracked and spend a year working on a project where the chance of success might be low. Early on, it’s important to focus on those projects most likely to result in data that will secure funding.”
The mentoring process is advanced through research seminars at which BJH junior investigators present their results and research plans to small groups of established scientists, other junior investigators, and trainees who work in the same division or whose research interests overlap with those of the presenters.
“These meetings provide young investigators with an opportunity to present their research data in a safe but critical environment,” says Abderr Azzaq Belaaouaj, PhD, assistant professor in the departments of internal medicine and molecular microbiology at WUSM. Dr. Belaaouaj completed his postdoctoral training at WUSM in 1995. A grant award from the Foundation led to his first NIH-funded research project. “They learn from outstanding scientists the strengths and weaknesses of their findings, the next critical experiments needed, or whether their work is ready for publication.”
Dr. Towler describes the Foundation’s grant-making efforts as a means for Barnes-Jewish Hospital to develop its intellectual venture capital. “The seed money provided by Foundation grants is really at the heart of research innovation and encourages completely novel discoveries,” he says.
