Alumni Spotlight
Marie Heffern, a 2014 Ph.D. graduate from the Meade Lab, is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis. The Heffern Lab seeks to solve problems at the interface of bioinorganic chemistry and hormone biology, with the overarching objective of investigating, understanding, and applying the biochemistry of metals in the extracellular space.
You attended NU Chemistry from 2009 - 2014. How did your time in the Department shape you and inspire your current work as a professor?
NU Chemistry was a place where I could really explore my own professional identity, not only as a scientist, but also as a leader. Scientifically, the department was rich in collaboration and disciplinary barriers were low. Labs such as the Meade lab had students not only from chemistry, but also from neuroscience, biomedical engineering, developmental biology, and immunology. In this way, I felt immersed in a scientifically multilingual environment. Additionally, strong core facilities, such as IMSERC, gave me regular exposure to the departmental community, facilitating conversations with people in other labs. These experiences has shaped my approach to research questions, my love for multidisciplinary techniques and strategies, and the way I mentor my students. It also influenced what I looked for in a home department, as I sought to be in a place that similarly exhibited low barriers to collaboration and interdisciplinary efforts. From a leadership standpoints, the department also offered a multitude of opportunities for me to learn and grow as a leader in graduate student organizations and expand my passion for outreach and my desire enhance early access and exposure to STEM.
How would you explain your area of research to non-scientists? What drew you to this line of research?
While my research in the Meade lab was focused on metal-based inhibitors, my current research area was also influenced by my exposure to others in the lab who focused on developing MRI contrast agents, as well as being housed in Silverman Hall, where I was surrounded by a diverse set of scientific expertise. This alongside my exposure to nutrition-based research in my postdoc as well as my personal experience being born in a different country (the Philippines) that has vastly different diets and access to medical care as we have here in America contributed to my current research directions. Broadly speaking, my research group seeks to profile the biochemistry of dietary metals, like zinc, copper, and iron, in the extracellular space such as the blood plasma. This is motivated by our ultimate goal to identify new biomarker, diagnostic approaches, and diet-associated intervention for metabolic diseases that include fatty liver disease and diabetes. To achieve this, we take simultaneous approaches to characterize metal-biomolecular interactions with extracellular components, such as hormones, and also develop new imaging and analytical tools for monitoring metal-associated species.
You did research in Tom Meade’s group while at NU. Can you tell us a memorable part of that experience?
The entire thing! I can still vividly relive most of my time in that lab in my head! With that being said Perhaps the most memorable part of that experience are the parts that may seem rather undefining -- jumping from office-to-office to brainstorm ideas, having shoulders to lean on when experiments didn't work, getting to nervously "pitch" my ideas to Tom and my labmates, and having the joy of discoursing over how to make my research dreams reality. These all sound rather cliche, but ultimately, the most memorable part of my time there was having a community of people who I could talk science and life with. It is a special opportunity we get as graduate students that is hard to replicate in any other context.
Is there any advice you could give current Department students?
Grad school and research can be mentally and emotionally hard as you put your whole self into your experiments and your science. Fill your time with people and activities that give you energy over those that drain it. Don't forget those who believe in you, and make sure to be that person for others. Remember that success does not happen in a vacuum, and the connections and friends you make in grad school can be those that you carry with you for maybe 5x (at least) the years that you're actually in grad school.
Where do you hope to be in your career in the next 10 years?
Much of the past decade has been identifying questions that others have neglected to ask and figuring out what fundamentals and new tools we need to develop to be able to begin answering them. I hope that in the next 10 years, this foundation has proven itself useful for us to actually untangle answers to our questions. That is research-wise. As a mentor, I hope to see many of my lab alumni in professional careers that are vibrant, interdisciplinary, and empowering, whether that is in research or otherwise.
What is a hobby or activity you do outside of teaching Chemistry?
My biggest hobby is finding new hobbies. Currently, my favorite hobbies are a tie between exploring the beautiful outdoors with my family (including my almost-3-year old and my 7 month old!) and gardening! Living in Davis, I can delude myself into believing I'm a good gardener, since everything grows here and we can garden year-round!