Physician-scientists are integral to the medical field, where they combine clinical observations and patient care with scientific research to investigate challenges and answer questions in biomedical science and healthcare. The role of physician-scientist is highly specialized and unique—even more so in child health—making the recruitment and development of interested individuals critical to the future of children’s healthcare. Recognizing this, Lurie Children’s is committed to preparing promising medical residents and fellows for careers in research through its Pediatrics Physician-Scientist Training Program administered at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I would like to introduce you to three trainees—Ashley Zurawel, MD, PhD, a second-year fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology and critical care; Samuel Dowling, MD, PhD, a second-year fellow in pediatric rheumatology; and Jeffrey Hansen, MD, PhD, a second-year pediatrics resident interested in cardiology—who will share how the training program’s educational programs and strong professional networks support them as they navigate the increasingly complex, yet rewarding, path toward careers as physician-scientists and leaders in medical research.
While in graduate school studying structural biology, Ashley originally planned to pursue a career in vaccine design, but her work with a physician-scientist and the connections she made with others in the field inspired her to attend medical school after earning her PhD. What attracted her to our pediatric physician-scientist training program is its emphasis on fostering relationships between fellows and residents in the program and physician-scientists, clinicians, and researchers at Lurie Children’s and Manne Research Institute. The program facilitates this in several ways, including through a series of presentations by physician-scientists who share their successes and failures as they advance their careers. Ashley believes this generates excitement around the scientific problems they are studying: “You never know how other people’s research interests and clinical experiences might spark a creative idea for you in ways you would never anticipate.” These relationships and professional development opportunities, along with Ashley’s own experiences in the clinic and lab, continue to shape her career objectives. She initially focused on pediatric hematology/oncology; however, through her work addressing clinical problems and examining the research literature, Ashley recognized a need to explore the critical care of the pediatric hematology/oncology population in depth. Now she plans on pursuing dual training that includes pediatric critical care. Her primary research mentor, Bria Coates, MD, a critical care attending physician and principal investigator of the Coates Laboratory, guides Ashley’s research on innate immune training in patients undergoing stem cell transplantation to investigate how this process may help them respond to viral infection.
For Sam, our physician-scientist training program strikes the right balance between being large enough to offer a variety of key learning opportunities and small enough to provide trainees with personalized experiences. He is also impressed with the integration of Lurie Children’s, Manne Research Institute, and Feinberg School of Medicine. (Lurie Children’s is the pediatric teaching hospital for Feinberg, and Manne Research Institute is one of the interdisciplinary research institutes for the school.) Though he specializes in pediatric rheumatology, Sam is housed in an adult rheumatology lab led by Harris Perlman, PhD, the Chief of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Feinberg School. The proximity of the three institutions allows Sam to move quickly between the lab, office, and clinic, something not possible at many other medical research organizations. He adds that the institutions’ close working relationships enable him to draw upon resources from both the pediatric and adult medicine and research areas, which in turn has helped him make strides in his investigations into characterizing the pathogenesis and disease progression of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Additionally, fellows and residents in our physician-scientist training program can access myriad research and career services through Manne Research Institute’s research administration offices. Sam credits the grant application support he received for helping him identify National Institutes of Health funding and foundational grants, ultimately securing funding from the Arthritis National Research Foundation and training support from the Brinson Foundation.
As a second-year resident, Jeff is newer to the program. But in a short period of time, he has gained experience in balancing clinical and research responsibilities, developing leadership skills, navigating the funding application process, and building confidence—all components necessary to excel as a physician-scientist. Most meaningful to Jeff are the relationships he has formed with mentors and collaborators, including his research mentor, Gregory Webster, MD, MPH, the section chief of electrophysiology at Lurie Children’s and an assistant professor of pediatrics (cardiology) at the Feinberg School, as well as the team he leads. Jeff recalls how, as a PhD candidate at another institution, he often conducted narrowly focused experiments at the bench by himself. Now, his training as a physician-scientist affords him opportunities to regularly meet with others from diverse academic and professional backgrounds to share interdisciplinary ideas and discuss project progress, which benefits his work on Dr. Webster’s team. The research aims to identify the genetic causes of congenital heart disease to both predict individuals’ genetic risk and better understand the mechanisms underlying the disease. Jeff explains that collaborating with people who have different perspectives and specialized skills—in his case, Dr. Webster with research experience on the genetics of heart disease, a geneticist with statistical expertise, and a pediatric cardiologist with extensive clinical expertise—enriches the research experience and allows the team to accomplish more than if each person worked on their own.
Under the guidance of Divakar S. Mithal, MD, PhD, Associate Director; Catherine D. Michelson, MD, MMSc, Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program; and Jennifer Trainor, MD, Associate Chair of Education, the Pediatrics Physician-Scientist Training Program nurtures a community of curious people who can take problems from the clinics into the laboratories to create solutions. Through collaboration and mentorship fostered by this community, Ashley, Sam, Jeffrey, and other budding physician-scientists are building a solid foundation to excel as the next generation of physician-scientists and applying what they learn at the bedside to advance medical discoveries and improve children’s health.
