Here’s what I’ve been doing in my lab, plus some interesting science that you probably didn’t know:

14 years ago, the first journal club I ever delivered looked at the effects of culturing cells in serum derived from different animals. These findings have lived rent-free in my mind through subsequent years of working in academic, government, and industry laboratories:

🐭 Mouse cells cultured in human serum had a human-centric immune response.

👵 Human cells cultured in mouse serum had a mouse-centric immune response.

…..And isn’t it interesting to consider these results in light of the fact that (all types of) cells are most commonly cultured in serum from foetal cows? 🐮

Like many scientists, I’ve cultured a lot of cells in foetal bovine serum (FBS) because “it works” and “that’s how it's done.” Like many scientists, I could also list the many reasons why FBS is far from ideal scientifically and ethically.

In my lab, I’ve been developing an alternative to FBS that supports the growth of the most nutritionally demanding primary cell types. I’m a scientist - so I’m naturally skeptical - but I've gained enough confidence in my results to incorporate a company. Introducing Media City Scientific - That feels really cool.

And while it feels strange to be public about this, I’ve benefited massively from working at a hypergrowth startup, watching & learning from the founders. I want to pay that forwards for other scientists thinking about the many directions in which their careers could take them.

Who knows, maybe you’ll also find your career circling back to the very first journal club you ever delivered.