Our First Collaborative Paper
I am happy to celebrate our lab’s first collaborative paper! Here, we worked with manufacturing engineers at Arizona State University and gynecological surgeons to develop a novel biomaterial for pelvic floor support. I cannot speak to the details of the advanced manufacturing techniques described, as they were developed by the engineers, but I am very excited to now be published in the biomaterials space. Our lab contributed by conducting in vitro tests to confirm that the materials developed were not toxic to cells and had some ability to foster cell growth. Like many activities in science, the goals seemed simple on their face, but I learned a lot about biology as we got this paper over the finish line to publication.
Some problems are extremely complex and can take lots of different times of expertise to solve. But it is impossible to be an expert on everything. In science, collaboration with a team of scientists and engineers with diverse specialties is critical to achieving complex goals. Collaborations are highly encouraged within science and are especially supported by funding agencies. But collaborations are challenging by their very nature- they demand the coordinated effort of a group of leaders, themselves being experts in different disciplines. If you could imagine a body with many heads, each seeing the world through a different lens, you could imagine how difficult it could be to move the body forward smoothly.
Since I have unique technical expertise (I take pretty videos of live cells as they move within live tissues), I was partly hired because many scientists could imagine how the use of my techniques could improve their research programs. I also work for a rather famous hospital with brand name recognition. As a result, I get approached quite often to be a collaborator. And everyone has really cool shiny projects, which makes me want to work on them. But I am now running up against my limited amount of mental bandwidth and more importantly, the limited work output me and my staff can handle while still achieving the goals of our own research. Thus I am learning the intricate art of choosing my collaborations.
I learned as a postdoc that collaborations are easy to propose, but difficult to see through to completion. One party or the other is often volunteering some time and effort to some extent, especially when a new project needs preliminary data before it can gain dedicated funding. Now that I am responsible for setting up and maintaining my collaborations, I decided that they need to fulfill 3 criteria to some extent:
The project’s scope or goals aligns with my current or future research goals
The work will not take significant time or resources away from important projects
I like the collaborators
With respect to my recently published collaborative paper, I have been interested in learning more about the developing science of regenerative medicine. As I am interested in not only studying immune aging but in perhaps developing therapies to improve aging immune responses, I have wanted to learn more about this interesting science. I had been in contact with a group within my institution, and they asked me if I would help with a collaboration that they didn’t have the manpower to assist. Since I have wanted an entryway or a baby step into regenerative medicine, this fulfilled my first criterion.
With my new collaborators, we identified the immediate concerns for their biomaterials: we needed to demonstrate that they don’t kill cells. My group has expertise in aseptic cell culture, there are many accessible biological assays to measure cell viability, and much of the experimentation was also doable by an undergraduate intern with some supervision on my part. Because of these considerations, I judged that this would fulfill my second criterion for a promising collaboration.
Phase contrast image shows spindle-shaped cells growing around and below the 3D-printed mesh-like material, but likely not actually on it. Microscopy by ASU intern Joel Haug.
The project was not smooth sailing though. Our cells were fibroblasts that were recovered from patients by clinicians, and we wanted to show that they would grow on the biomaterials. The big problem we encountered was that the cells found it easier to grow on the container, rather than on the woven biomaterial sample. Also, the piece of sample was smaller than our growing wells, and I suspected the sample would float around in the growth media and disturb the cells. After consulting with a bioengineer, I found out that getting cells to grow on biomaterials was not a trivial matter. I decided that we could lay a thin layer of agarose gel on the bottom of the wells, and stick the material with one face exposed before it dries. The agarose is too smooth for the cells to effectively grow on, preventing them from growing on the dish. The cells would be forced to grow on the sample or die, and there was the added benefit of the sample no longer being able to float around in the dish. For a little while, I was very scared that the cells would just die, but to my happiness, they began to grow on the material! Success!
Scanning electron microscopy of fibroblasts. The next phase of the project will use this imaging technique to see these bad boys attaching to the biomaterials. Microscopy by ASU intern Tiffany Pulido.
One of the greatest benefits of working so long to obtain a job in academic science is that there is a certain amount of freedom. One of these freedoms is being able to pick who you work with. The collaboration is not only the chance to contribute to a project greater than what I can create on my own, but a chance to work with friends. In general, I have had great experiences with my fellow scientists so I am not too worried about being stuck with a dreadful person. But I still think it is important to determine if my prospective collaborator is someone that I actually like as a person. My engineering collaborators have been great to talk to and meet with. We even took a tour of their amazing new facilities—the ASU Polytechnic campus and I was blown away by all the amazing technologies being developed, the applications being explored bordered on science fiction. I was even gifted with a tiny replica of the Eiffel Tower, printed with their advanced 3D techniques:
La miniature vie en rose!
As my own lab gets established, I am looking forward to developing my collaborations. It is a chance to use my expertise in interesting new ways, expand my research portfolio, and learn cool new things. Most of all, I am excited for the chance to grow professionally with a wonderful network of collabofriends!*
* I first heard the term ‘collabofriend’ from the academic podcast, The Effort Report. I don’t listen to podcasts as much now, but this was a really great listen when I was first starting out in my faculty position.