JHU-NIH

It has been a while since I have written anything here and figured it was time for an update. The world that I have become so accustomed to over the past five years is soon changing… many things are in the works that are both frightening and sad, but at the same time are exceptionally exciting. I am heading to graduate school!!

I recently blogged about some hard times that developed over the past few months. They sucked, indeed, but more than enough has been said about them already and I am tired of being sad and pathetic. Now it’s time to focus on the happy portion! I spent most of February traveling and interviewing at different schools around the nation, and was fortunate enough to receive multiple offers. It was very difficult decision, but I eventually decided to accept a PhD partnership program at Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The more I learn about the program the more I feel that it is a perfect fit for my interests… at Johns Hopkins I will be studying cellular, molecular, developmental biology & biophysics (CMDB), providing a very broad background of training in biology, with the thesis portion of my education at NIH in one of over 1200 labs. I am very excited about both prospects, and the engaging opportunities they will provide. Picking an area of focus beyond that broad training is quite difficult, but I have spent considerable time considering those options…

Over the past few years I have developed a strong interest in immunology and cancer, and moreover the potential of utilizing immunotherapy as a modality towards treating cancers. Cancer seems the summation of coinciding maladies: be it genetic susceptibility, mutation events, environment, infectious influences, or other insults. Following this premise, I feel that future treatments to cancer are going to require appreciating the interaction between cancer and the immune system; to what extent, be it causal or secondary, remains unclear. That interaction is specifically what I would like to study — potentially attempting to understand inflammation and consequential changing susceptibilities to cancer, the progression/promotion of cancer by inflammation, autoimmune disease pathophysiology, immunoediting, or another theoretical event connecting them.

Here are a couple of links describing the program:
- Graduate Partnership Program: JHU-NIH
- Johns Hopkins CMDB Program

The time-line of events that are going to occur over the next few months feels extremely abbreviated; this is exciting but also a significant portion of stress and worry. I have decided to sell my home, and most of my things. Maybe I will blog when they go online; in short, if you are looking for a two-bedroom two-bath condo in downtown Seattle near South Lake Union please contact me!

At some point this summer I am going to have to leave the job that has placed me on this exciting path. The past five years I have worked in drug discovery at Amgen in Seattle in the inflammation department. I have moved around a bit, and have worked in the areas of immunology, protein biology/biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. I can’t really say enough; it has been an awesome experience and amazing company to work for. I will greatly miss it, and all the exceptionally talented people I have been able to interact with over this time — they took me in a week out of my undergraduate education and taught me how to conduct scientific research.

So the plan for how to sell, leave, move, orient, return, spend a week in HI (to shoot a wedding), and fly again is somewhat convoluted, and requires me to be on opposite ends of the country for a couple of different things throughout the month of June. A cross-country drive is definitely required. The current planned route includes: Seattle, Boise, Pocatello, Salt Lake City, arches area, Denver, the big wide open, Omaha, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington DC. Any suggestions for additional stops and/or highlights would be most appreciated. I am planning a lot of photography on this journey. =] Here is a visual version.

Edit: this linkmight be useful.

It will be a very sad thing for me to leave Seattle, my family, friends, and Amgen. I have been exceedingly fortunate and happy here; complex times definitely bring those elements to light. The important point to appreciate, as I have been reminded, is that this is a fantastic opportunity that will let me continue my education (something I have wanted for a long time now) and put me in the position to go wherever I wish. That is exciting indeed, and something I won’t pass up.