University of Minnesota

My mom dropped me off at the Applebee’s on Washington Avenue at 7:45 am this past Thursday, and I ate an early breakfast with Dr. Sandy Armstrong, the head of the MICaB program (Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology). She told me a bit more about the program, as well as talking a bit about my fellowship (just a bit more money, and since I’m sponsored by the university, I would have more flexibility in choosing a lab).

My first interview was in the Cancer Center (between MCB and Fairview Hospital) with Dr. Bruce Blazar, a pretty famous hematology/oncology specialist who does bone marrow transplants in pediatric patients and works with stem cells and hematopoesies (hema = blood; poesies = forming/growth/process; so the differentiation of blood cells from stem cells). We talked extensively about the research climate at the U, as well as his time here as a dual MD/PhD. There are quite a few researchers here (especially in this discipline) which have extremely relevant clinical and translational research. When you are an MD doing research here, you do about 20% clinical and 80% research (which ends up being about two afternoons a week).

A fourth-year graduate student from the program then walked me over to the Translational Research Facility (for those of you familiar from the U Campus, this is past the new stadium, aka a LONG walk). Since it was spring break, the shuttles that normally go to TRF were not running. Oops.

My next interview was with Sing-Sing Way, a professor who does work with listeria. We mainly discussed his particular research, as well as scientific progress in general. He’s a fairly new member of MICaB, and also wants to work with vaccines and bringing his research directly into the clinic.

I had another interview in TRF with Dan Kaufman, the head of the stem cell center at the U of M. He’s also originally trained as an MD/PhD and works primarily in hematology and stem cell research.

I made the long trek back to the hospital, and spent a while talking with Dr. Bryce Binstadt, a pediatric rheumatologist who does research with a nifty arthritic mouse model. He is also a new transplant here in Minnesota and lives in Shoreview. He was particularly intrigued with the dickcissel project as well.

Three second year graduate students took me to lunch at Loring Pasta Bar, a swanky and odd restaurant in Dinkytown. The bathrooms are cool, but they look like they were built by aliens who found a bunch of human paraphernalia and tried to put it back together. For instance, you wash your hands under a showerhead, and there are mirrors right next to your face when you are in the stalls. Quite different, but still fun. We talked a lot about life as a graduate student here in Minnesota, as well as the friendliness of the program and professors, and how the quals/prelims system works at U of MN. They had a good time goofing around, and it was really cool to be around students that regardless of their age and where they came from before school, they got along very well. (23, 28, 36; Togo, Connecticut, Puerto Rico).

My final interview of the day was with Dr. Stephen McSorley, a professor originally from Scotland who does work with typhoid and gastroenterology. He commented that his field used to be obscure tropical/third world diseases, but now he is considered the investigator of a bioterrorism lab. Apparently salmonella has been used before as a bioterrorism agent (the last time being a cult in Oregon that contaminated salad bars with the bug…over 750 people ended up in the hospital).

I walked back to the bus stop, and completely serendipitously, I ran into three students from my school on Washington Street. What a small world…gotta love Minnesota!