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Snakes & Ladders
Profiles of Women in Science and Stories of the Snakes and
Ladders They Have Faced in Their Careers
The Road Less Travelled
First published in AUSTRALIAN BIOCHEMIST 2006 Vol 37(2): 26-28
(reprinted with permission)
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I always thought I wanted to be a zoologist, but luckily my parents felt that
(a) there were very few jobs in that area and (b) I wasn’t really suited.
Without themselves being scientists or having been to university, they convinced
me to consider biochemistry. I wasn’t prepared to give up on zoology, but
biochemistry seemed appealing too — the trouble was, universities in the early
‘70s were not flexible and studying both disciplines was not an option. However
RMIT provided a more flexible opportunity where I could study both. A year of
zoology involving identification of invertebrate
mouthparts and I was a committed biochemist!
In my final year, I did a presentation about diabetes — little did I know that
this would end up being my research career for the next 17 years. Despite not
having an Honours degree, I was accepted by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
(WEHI) as a Masters student — to say this was being thrown in the deep end would
be an understatement and I’m not a good swimmer! I lasted a week. Luckily, Len
Harrison’s research assistant had just quit. Len had six months left on his
grant before he left for the USA, so my career in diabetes research commenced.
Len and I worked together on and off for the next 12 years as I obtained my
Masters (with Richard Larkins while Len was away) and PhD. My PhD was an
exciting project in the mid-80s and it generated several great papers. In my
thesis introduction, I quoted Thomas Huxley — “The great tragedy of science, the
slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.” Although no “ugly facts”
disproved my PhD work, this aspect has been consigned to the sidelines of the
diabetes story.
The strength of my PhD publications, however, enabled me to obtain a good
postdoc. Whilst if I’d been really serious about a research career I would have
gone to the USA, I wanted to work in the UK where I was born but had never lived
as an adult. Len and I didn’t have many contacts there so I looked in the most
recent editions of Nature and found an article by Mike Waterfield’s group on the
sequencing of the EGF receptor — this was close enough to the insulin receptor
for me and I thought I would be able to learn some of the new molecular biology
techniques, especially site-directed mutagenesis (SDM). There was no email back
then, rather a slow process of letter exchanges. I was accepted into the lab,
and a CJ Martin Fellowship gave me independent funding and a position on return
to Australia. In early 1985 I set off for London.
The Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) was a great place to work with a
constant stream of impressive international speakers coming through and great
people to work with. I ended up being taught molecular biology by an American,
John Haley, who’d come via the Howard Florey Institute where he’d been involved
in cloning the relaxin gene. The ICRF is situated in Lincoln’s Inn Fields not
far from Covent Garden and the theatre district of London. How fortunate to be
so close and have the opportunity to pick up cheap tickets for wonderful shows,
plays, concerts and dance. My arts education really started there and to be
honest, I learnt more about culture than molecular biology!
My project was to perform SDM on the three phosphorylated tyrosine residues in
the EGF receptor. We were having some trouble with the techniques — no kits in
those days — when we noted a course in SDM at the EMBL labs in Heidelberg. It
was a great opportunity, so off I went for a week and learnt some tricks and
tips. Mike Waterfield was in high demand in those heady days and could not
accept all his conference invitations; for a short while, it seemed like each
postdoc would be favoured with the opportunity to attend in his place. I was
lucky enough to score a wonderful conference in the Loire. We stayed in a small
chateau which was a conference centre, with four course lunches and five course
dinners, all with wine, naturally! We had morning and evening presentations and
in the afternoon the French tourist board took us to visit various chateaux of
the Loire, such as Chambord, Chenonceaux, Blois — the upside of a research
career!
Halfway through my postdoc, Mike became head of the University College Branch of
the Ludwig Institute. The move was a very disruptive time — made more so by the
fact the building wasn’t finished. We had to walk up the road to another
building to go to the toilet for a few weeks! At any time the water or power
might be turned off (the sequencing guys really loved that) and we learnt a lot
of new Geordie swear words! Looking back, my postdoc wasn’t a great time for me
scientifically — I’d made a serious mistake of concentrating on a single project
for which the lab did not have expertise and I failed to also set up a ‘bread
and butter’ project. However, the people I met there, several of whom have
become lifelong friends, the travel I was able to undertake and the cultural
experience made it memorable overall.
After three years I returned to Melbourne for the final year of my CJ Martin
Fellowship. Len Harrison had become Head of the Burnet Clinical Research
Institute at WEHI, thus I continued my research career in arguably Australia’s
best research institute. I returned to biochemistry, working on activation of
the insulin receptor by a protease. I always remember Gus Nossal’s words during
the obligatory ‘Meet the Director’ sessions, “There are only two rules in the
institute, Stella: one is you attend the Wednesday seminar, the second is that
you always come to morning tea.” Sounds trite perhaps, but over time the
importance of everyone meeting together in a congenial environment at a defined
time became evident and is something I’ve tried to instigate in other
organisations.
While I was away, Len’s research direction had focussed on the immunology of
diabetes and no longer in my area of interest, insulin receptor signalling. I
felt that I would fit much better back in the Department of Medicine (DOM) and
so after almost three years at WEHI, I joined the Larkins/Dunlop/Proietto
Program Grant at the beginning of 1990. The other significant event was my
involvement with the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR); I was
elected as a Director in 1990 — little was I to know how this would lead to my
leaving bench science for other options.
In the DOM, I worked with a great team on cell signalling projects, particularly
phospholipase activity in diabetes in a shared lab with Marjorie Dunlop. An
exciting confluence happened when phosphorylation of a focal adhesion kinase, my
work in association with the insulin receptor, was shown to be increased in
Marjorie’s diabetic rat kidneys, resulting in a landmark paper.
Alongside the lab activity was an increasing ASMR involvement, becoming
President Elect in 1994. I spent much of that year travelling to Canberra with
the ASMR President to lobby for increased funding — a successful exercise as it
turned out. I also enjoyed all the other activities associated with ASMR:
advocacy, policy development, careers, public relations, etc, and I realised
that when my year as President was over, I didn’t want to return to the lab. I
loved all my lab time and, though not a brilliant scientist, I believe I made a
solid contribution. Yet I now realised that phase was over and I wanted to move
from focussing on my narrow area of research to doing something bigger picture —
hopefully facilitating things for others.
As ASMR President, I spoke to all kinds of people and I took the opportunity to
ask them about career options in a wide range of fields. It was hard for me to
articulate clearly what I wanted to do — I never have been able to do that, but
I learnt a lot from these ‘informational interviews’ and I certainly found some
things I wouldn’t be happy doing. I’m also fundamentally lazy and didn’t want to
go back to study again, an MBA for instance — I looked at the subjects and
thought, “No way!” Applying for jobs, when I didn’t think I had skills other
than being a scientist and my years on the ASMR Executive, was a bit scary and
meant I probably wasn’t adventurous enough at the start. Going for a job
interview was very nerve wracking — I hadn’t done that since my very first job
as a research assistant! Quite quickly, I was taken on as Research Coordinator
for the Deakin Institute of Human Nutrition run by Kerin O’Dea; 50:50 management
and research. It was a toe in the water and when a year later the chance came
along to become the Scientific Executive Officer (SEO) of the Baker Heart
Research Institute, I was ready.
The SEO job gave me the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and I was
fortunate also at this time to be asked to sit on the NHMRC Council. One of the
things I will always be grateful to Kerin O’Dea for is suggesting I apply for
the Williamson Community Leadership Program — a remarkable program that really
expanded my outlook on life. I undertook the program in my first year at the
Baker. Most events
occurred on a Wednesday and instead of talking business on Thursday mornings,
the Baker Director, John Funder (a long time friend and mentor), and I would be
drinking Yunnan tea and discussing the previous day’s program! I have since gone
on to become a Council member of Leadership Victoria and to chair the SkillsBank
Advisory Team — but that’s another story. As SEO I was responsible for the
postgraduate students at the Baker and especially developing support programs
for them at the Institute, which is some distance from Monash University where
most were enrolled. It was in sourcing a presenter for one program that I met
Julie Warnock. Julie revolutionised the way I thought about myself — and I know
she’s had the same effect on others. She made me realise all the transferable
skills I had developed as a scientist and how to use them to advance my career
beyond the lab bench. I also learnt about the core values that underpin my
career choices (why I love variety and tend to change jobs fairly frequently,
why I hate routine and love coloured paper!).
I always felt at the Baker that I hadn’t quite thrown off the ‘bench scientist
pretending to be something else’ shackles, although it did (and does) help to
know where researchers are coming from buttons. Then along came the advert for
Faculty General Manager (FGM) of the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) at the
University of Melbourne. In my role looking after students at the Baker I was
well aware of the enrichment programs being developed at SGS, a leader in that
area. I looked at the position description and reckoned I could do it, although
as FGM I would be responsible for managing all the staff and overseeing the
budget — how hard could it be, I’d managed a research team before?! My only
concern was that it would be all administration and no fun but the Dean, Barbara
Evans, assured me it would be about 40:60, so I applied and somewhat to my
surprise was offered the job (although I did have the benefit of Julie Warnock’s
assistance with the CV and letter).
So began the next three years — and what a shock! I thought having worked at the
University as a research scientist I’d understand how the university worked —
not at all. I went in at the deep end (again) and it was the support of my staff
and colleagues that made sure I didn’t drown. I learnt so much about the basics
of running a business; from HR to finance, compliance to risk management to the
endless round of university committees. One interesting insight was that
surprisingly I found staff management very draining — and I had wonderful staff
— whereas I’ve never found supervising students to be like that or indeed the
case work (student supervisor issues) I dealt with at SGS. The more
project-related work I undertook was really rewarding: running workshops for
students and supervisors, visiting off-campus students, developing new tools to
assist students. For instance, working on a collaborative project to investigate
reasons for lack of, or slow completion of, PhDs led to the production, with
Richard James, of the PhD Calendar, a very useful tool for students and
supervisors alike. In the end though, the administrative side of the job began
to dominate and I knew I would have to move on. Lucky for me, a call came from
David Penington asking me to take on the role of CEO at Bio21 Australia Ltd.
Bio21 is where I’ve been for over three years now. This is a great job! Back in
medical research which is my passion; a very small office so low levels of
administration; and, something different to think about every day. Bio21 is a
biomedical / biotechnology research cluster of 17 members which supports
collaborative infrastructure projects, translational research, shared technology
platforms, business development and education programs. Bio21 Australia Ltd
(www.bio21.com.au), a not-for-profit public company, was established to
facilitate collaboration within the cluster, drawing together the existing
strengths and capabilities of the members. My job is to encourage people to work
together and support them to achieve the aims of the cluster. It’s been very
rewarding to see the collaborations develop around the infrastructure projects
that have been the main driver in the first phase of Bio21. However, involvement
in education and business development projects means I’m always learning
something new — just where I want to be!
As for the future, I’m sure there will be other new jobs. They’ll be different
to what I’ve done to date, probably starting something from scratch or taking
something in a new direction, they’ll probably be in the medical research or
science space, they’ll involve great people and probably students and they’ll be
fun! I realised long ago that the journey through life is only in the forward
direction and I shall pass through each day but once, so living it to the
fullest is the most important thing. I’ve had a life full of variety and rich
experiences and would say whatever you do, be passionate about it and travel
your own road.
www.bio21.com.au
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