To celebrate Black History Month DPAG’S Associate Professor Becky Carlyle interviewed Dr Michael Ranes (Biochemistry) about his work, career, and advice to young scientists.
First up, can you tell us a little bit about your work?
Our lab works on the Wnt signalling pathway, one of the key morphogen signalling pathways in multicellular organisms, which play a central role from embryonic development (cell fate determination, cell polarity, axis determination) all the way through adulthood (tissue homeostasis, regeneration). We are particularly interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that lead to pathway activation at the plasma membrane upon binding of the secreted morphogen, Wnt, to the Frizzled and LRP receptors. Towards this aim we use a variety of methodologies at the core being protein biochemistry, structural biology, and some cell biology.
It sounds like the paper you published prior to your Wellcome award really stirred up some feelings in the Wnt signalling world. How did you know you were on the right track with your work?
This was one of those high risk, high reward projects which at first glance seemed for many in the Wnt field as overly ambitious. This stemmed primarily from the past knowledge that several Wnt signalling labs have tried to do what we were aiming to do but didn’t succeed. We ‘just’ took a pragmatic approach and thought that there have been enough advancements in the technology and reagents which would make the project feasible. Over the first 2 years, the project was moving forward but we still were not completely sure about the overall feasibility of the project. In the end it boiled down to a set of key technical insights which swung open the doors and enabled us to in vitro reconstituted and dissect part of the Wnt signalling pathway.
What inspired you to follow this career path? Do you have any mentors that really stand out?
I have always enjoyed trying to figure out how things work by taking things apart (computers, clocks, etc) and putting them back together. I think research was a natural career choice for me and I enjoyed every step along the way from undergraduate internships, PhD, Postdoc and now as PI. Of course, no career path comes without the fair share of trials and tribulations, and navigating those is not always an easy/pleasant feat, but I guess that’s when it’s important to have people around that can help, whether these are family, friends, colleagues, or mentors. Regarding the latter, I was lucky enough to have at each stage of my career some great academic mentors (Colin Logie, master’s internship Netherlands, Andres Aguilera master’s internship Spain, Jesper Svjestrup, PhD London and Sebastian Guettler, Postdoc London) from whom I learned a lot, not just research but also about how to navigate the different stages of one’s career path.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
That would be during my postdoc when I got the first raw result (western blot) showing the successful in vitro recapitulation of phosphorylation-dependent ubiquitylation of beta-catenin. Tied to that would also be obtaining the 8-year Wellcome CDA to start my lab here in Oxford.
How do you find balancing starting your own lab with being a Dad?
As any parent would say, balancing work and family time is not always easy. I have to say that my son was born just a few months before I started my postdoc position, which meant from the start I had to be very efficient and focussed with my time to get home not too late. In fact, for the large part of my postdoc I was doing Mon-Fri 9am – 5/6pm, with exceptions when needed. It wasn’t easy as most days I would just be non-stop in the lab running around with maybe a 10-minute lunch break just to squeeze as much I can in the working day. This strict work-family balance made me much more productive in the lab and it’s something I still strive to maintain as I started my lab. Being a PI comes with a different set of challenges and time pressures, but thus far I would like to think that it hasn’t significantly altered my family time.
What does the University of Oxford get right when it comes to welcoming diverse Group Leaders?
Over the past ~7 years there has been a general drive across many organisations/universities, including University of Oxford, to increase diverse representation at senior levels. This is translated in casting a much wider net and increasing transparency during the recruitment process for group leaders. Creating a level entry point at the recruitment stage is a good starting point in welcoming diverse (potential) group leaders.
Where in your opinion could we be doing better?
Generally speaking, there is still room for improvement when it comes to transparency of recruitment processes at certain levels across the university.
If you had one piece of advice to inspire young scientists, what would it be?
Be bold, think big, don’t be afraid to try new things or get out of your comfort zone. By continuously challenging yourself you can grow as a scientist and break new ground in your research. It’s a gradual process but it can be applied from early on all the way through senior researchers.