Dr. Mariana Byndloss and graduate student Nic Shealy make friendship bracelets and chat about their microbiome research!
Video Transcript
Mariana (M): Salmonella and Brazil….my two favorite things.
Nic (N): Scary.
[laughter]
VI4 Scientists Doing Things
M: Hi, I'm Mariana Byndloss. I'm an assistant professor at Pathology Microbiology and Immunology.
N: My name is Nic Shealy. I'm 5th year graduate student here at Vanderbilt and I'm in the lab of Mariana Byndloss.
[What does your lab study?]
M: Well, my lab studies how the gut microbiota, which are the microbes that live in your gut, how they work with you to protect you against different diseases.
N: Everything in life wants two things, a place to live and food. So I study how a certain organism just gets its food and how it essentially has to, you know, bump a little bit elbows to get it.
M: That's good.
[What is the best advice you’ve ever received?]
N: I think a piece of advice I've gotten was be open to the possibilities. When you go in with a, you know, direction and decision that things are going to happen this way. You kind of have the potential either to force science but also not be open to the discovery. So you can be really close-minded to what else could be there.
M: Recognize that people are different in what they want and what they see as success may be different than what you see, so you have to respect that. Like when you are working with other people, I'm thinking about mentorship style, is to think that except that it's about the other person and it's not about you a lot of times.
[If you were a pipettor, which one would you be?]
M: Oh, jeez.
N: That's a very hard question… I think I'm going to be a single-channel P20. The reason being is it's the pipette I use most often. P20. It's pretty solid. Always need it, it’s a staple in the lab.
M: For me…. It’s a non-digital multichannel one. Can be the 200… yeah P200 on that channel because it's efficient. Just one pipette.
N: Yeah, you're filling up lots of cups right now, as a PI especially. Makes sense.
M: I didn't even think about that.
N: Deep thoughts, deep thoughts. I'm focused on one thing. That's it.
M: Like a psychologist.
N: That's it.
