Interview with Dr. James Galligan, 2022 Young Investigator Award Recipient, American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Toxicology.
Interview with Dr. James Galligan, 2022 Young Investigator Award Recipient, American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Toxicology.
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采访美国化学会化学毒理学部 2022 年青年研究员奖获得者 James Galligan 博士。
DOI：
10.1021/acs.chemrestox.2c00309
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发表时间：
2023
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Estrada,Vanessa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Boggess,Ryan;Estrada,Vanessa
加利根教授年轻时就开始了他的科学之旅。小学时，他在密歇根州立大学任教的父亲介绍他进入了实验室。他在那里获得了本科学位，在那里他尝试了许多实验室，包括生理学、免疫学、化学和神经药理学。获得生理学学士学位后，他度过了一个间隔年，在实验室和三明治店工作。在药理学实验室的经历引起了他的兴趣。这促使他在科罗拉多大学丹尼斯·彼得森博士的指导下攻读博士学位，在那里他研究了酒精性肝病的驱动机制。然后，他寻求提高自己的化学知识，在劳伦斯·马内特博士的指导下在范德比尔特大学接受博士后培训。 1 虽然他一直认为自己确定自己想在学术界从事职业生涯，但有一段时间他并不确定。在博士后培训的第四年，他思考了自己目前的处境，有妻子和孩子，也思考了工业职业可以带来的好处。在与他的导师交谈后，他意识到他的技能和知识的最佳利用是在学术环境中。尽管他认为博士后很有趣，但也充满挑战。他回忆起他的第一次实验室会议，会上有关于 DNA 加合物合成的演示，他觉得这些信息超出了他的理解范围，心想“我把自己陷入了什么困境？”。尽管他经常告诉人们“我不是化学家”，但他意识到自己作为一名科学家的演变。随着时间的推移，他被动地吸收化学机制方面的信息，这是他职业生涯中最关键的部分。不确定性是他在博士后训练后期遇到的一个障碍。鉴于他对学术界的兴趣，他知道自己必须获得 K99，否则就必须有人对他抱有信心。他强调建立人际网络和保持联系的重要性，这两个因素让他进入了亚利桑那大学。加利根教授在范德比尔特大学学习化学生物学的经历激发了他对翻译后修饰 (PTM) 的热情。他最喜欢他的研究的部分是，有很多 PTM，因此从不缺少需要追求的东西。他喜欢他们开发的质谱方法，以及它能够扩大研究范围，超越测试他们最初的假设。他们不是寻找一个 PTM，而是“不可知论地衡量一切……发现你没有预料到的新事物并追求这些新事物，而不是遵循中心假设并说实验失败了”。他在实验室的长期目标是培养学生并见证他们的成长。他谈到了 2022 年秋季在伊利诺伊州芝加哥市 ACS 毒理学部发表演讲的研究生，并指出了他们自加入他的实验室以来取得的进展。最终，他希望“拥有一个由在各自领域取得成功的学生组成的网络”。除了 2022 年 ACS 化学毒理学部向 Galligan 博士颁发的青年研究者奖外，他还因其工作而获得了其他奖项，包括亚利桑那大学颁发的“年度导师奖”和“青年研究者奖”。 “年度导师奖”对加利根博士来说非常重要，因为他是由学生们选出的。
Professor Galligan started his scientific journey at a young age. In elementary school, he was introduced to the laboratory by his father who is on the faculty at Michigan State University. He obtained his undergraduate degree there, where he tried out many laboratories including physiology, immunology, chemistry, and neuropharmacology. After receiving a BS in Physiology, he took a gap year and worked in a laboratory as well as a sandwich shop. His time in the pharmacology laboratory struck his interest. This led him to pursue his Ph. D. at the University of Colorado under Dr. Dennis Petersen, where he studied mechanisms driving alcoholic liver disease. He then sought to improve on his knowledge of chemistry, pursuing postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt University under the supervision of Dr. Lawrence Marnett. 1 While he always thought he was certain that he wanted to follow a career in academia, there was a period during which he was unsure. In the fourth year of his postdoctoral training, he thought about his current situation, having a wife and child, and he considered the benefits that a profession in industry could offer. After speaking to his mentor, he realized that the best use of his skills and knowledge was in an academic setting. Although he considered his postdoc to be fun, it was also challenging. He recalls his first lab meeting, where there were presentations on the synthesis of DNA adducts and he felt that the information was way over his head, thinking “what did I get myself into?”. Although he often tells people “I am not a chemist”, he is aware of his evolution as a scientist. Over time, he absorbed information passively on chemical mechanisms, which was the most critical part his career. Uncertainty was a hurdle that he encountered during the tail-end of his postdoctoral training. Given his interest in academia, he knew he had to obtain a K99 or have someone take a leap of faith on him. He emphasizes the importance of networking and maintaining contacts, both of which led him to the University of Arizona.Professor Galligan’s time at Vanderbilt studying Chemical Biology ignited his passion for post-translational modifications (PTMs). The part he loves the most about his research is that there are a lot of PTMs and thus never a shortage of things to pursue. He loves the mass spectrometry method that they have developed and its ability to expand investigations beyond testing their initial hypothesis. Instead of looking for one PTM, they “agnostically measure everything... finding new things you didn’t expect and pursuing those instead of going with the central hypothesis and saying the experiment failed”. His longterm goal in the lab is to train students and see their growth. He spoke about his graduate students who presented at the ACS Division of Toxicology in Chicago, IL in Fall 2022 and noted how they have progressed since joining his lab. Ultimately, he wants “to have a network of students that are succeeding in their own areas”. Along with the Young Investigator Award presented to Dr. Galligan by the Division of Chemical Toxicology at ACS 2022, he has received other awards for his work including a “Mentor of the Year Award” and “Young Investigator Award” from the University of Arizona. The “Mentor of the Year Award” was very important to Dr. Galligan as he was selected by the students for this award.