The School of Medicine Basic Sciences has seen remarkable and diverse trainees come through its doors, collaborate with and learn from distinguished faculty, then graduate from one of our nationally ranked departments. But where are they now?
They go on to become leaders at notable institutions, universities, governmental entities, and research and development companies, among others. Some of the places where our alums work include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Pfizer Inc., Food and Drug Administration, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to name but a few. And some even decide to stay at Vanderbilt!
Meet Kathleen “Kate” Mittendorf, PhD’15, who graduated from the biochemistry department and is a research assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
We sat down with Mittendorf to discuss their experiences studying basic science and how it played a role in their successful career.
Tell us a bit about your current job and what you do.
I am currently a research assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine at VUMC. I typically act as a co-investigator, site principal investigator, or key personnel on studies, which means I lead large portions of bigger research projects under other principal investigators. However, I’ve just applied for my first R01 as PI a few months ago!
I focus my work on translational and implementation science work in genomics and bioinformatics, especially as relates to sporadic and hereditary cancers. I am particularly interested in health equity in these areas; in the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics research; and in community-driven and community-engaged approaches to addressing health disparities. I also have several collaborations with the research aspect of VIVID Health, VUMC’s LGBTQ+ inclusive adult clinical group. Finally, I am co-director for the Research II course in the Vanderbilt Master of Genetic Counseling Program.
Can you share a particular challenge you faced during your biomedical research training and how you overcame it?
This is both the easiest and hardest question to answer. In 2016, after a long diagnostic odyssey, I was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus. I have not had an easy time with my health over the last eight years. I have peripheral neuropathy which affects my ability to walk. I’m on a lot of medications and am highly immune suppressed, which has made my time during and since the pandemic hard on me.
I currently spend three days a month receiving infusions, which is challenging to balance around my science; managing my health feels like a full-time job. I have grade 4 gastroparesis, which means I have a very limited, mostly liquid diet. Together, that and my immune suppression makes travel to conferences and other scientific things more challenging. It can be hard to network and find in-roads to collaborators.
All that said, one of my primary service areas is in disability inclusion in the STEM pipeline. I’ve gotten to do a lot of really cool professional service in that realm. I’ve worked on a commissioned paper for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the topic and participated in couple different NASEM workshops, among other things.
Also, my career change from bench science to translational science has been really rewarding. It is really fun to work with humans. Not that cells and proteins aren’t fun, but it is rewarding to see the bench meet the bedside!
Were there any specific mentors or professors who played a crucial role in shaping your career aspirations?
Definitely. There’s so many throughout my life. But while at Vanderbilt for grad school, I had so many influential mentors and professors, including my whole dissertation committee.
Chuck Sanders is a great mentor. One of the most valuable activities he has a lot of his students do when they join the lab is write a review article related to their topic right away. That first review article I wrote with him is my most heavily cited paper to date, but it was also an excellent learning experience. My writing improved from that, and I learned more about gaining new ideas from published research. So, it helped me develop my projects.
I was also effectively co-mentored by Melanie Ohi in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. She’s not at Vanderbilt anymore, but her collaboration with Chuck in mentoring me was pretty crucial. Both she and Chuck had high expectations of me and really kept my confidence high. That confidence helped me when I needed to change career paths. Mel also saved me at a critically difficult time in my personal life during grad school. There’s no way to repay her for that.
In Chuck’s lab, I had a couple postdoc mentors. Wade Van Horn took me under his wing the first year and taught me how to use Adobe Illustrator, which has led to a whole side career in SciArt. Yuanli Song taught me a lot about nuclear magnetic resonance. Jon Schlebach and I had complementary projects and many scientific debates and problem-solving sessions together.
In what ways did your involvement in additional projects or internships during your time at Vanderbilt contribute to your current success?
I suppose the thing that was most influential was my involvement with mentoring an undergraduate student who was participating in the Aspirnaut summer research internship. I’ve stayed in touch with my mentees throughout their Ph.D. work and beyond. She ended up doing her Ph.D. under Jon once he moved to Indiana University. That experience certainly contributed to my passion for mentorship and working with students, which I do now in the Master of Genetic Counseling program. I definitely encourage anyone who is interested in that to get involved with Aspirnaut students.
How did networking opportunities contribute to your professional connections and career advancement?
I met Christine Micheel, who hired me out of graduate school, through Steven Damo, who was a postdoc in the lab of Walter Chazin and oversaw my rotation there. I had a great time and was offered a position in the Chazin lab, but I ultimately ended up picking Chuck’s group because I couldn’t stop thinking about the protein PMP22. Chuck’s group shared lab space with Chazin’s group, though, so Steve and I stayed in touch. I used to go out for breaks with him and Jon in Chuck’s lab and we’d do a lot of problem solving on our research projects.
I got my current job through Steve, whose wife happened to be looking for a good scientific writer and someone with informatics skills to join her group, which was under Mia Levy at VUMC. I was first a research analyst III, then a staff scientist. And that job is what put me on this career path. After a hiatus, Christine recruited me back remotely during the pandemic as senior staff scientist, and I just took my appointment as a faculty member this summer. She played a big role in that transition.
What skills or knowledge have been most valuable in your current role or industry?
Above all, critical thinking. Second to that, science communication. As I said above, I changed paths from bench science to translational science, so the activities that helped me the most were activities that focused on developing critical thinking and independent skill development, scientific writing and scientific communication, and responsible conduct in research and other research ethics.
Classes that were influential were the then-infamous biochemistry class led by Dave Cortez in which we did most of our learning and discussion from scientific papers and oral exams. It was very useful in terms of skill development. Scott Hiebert taught a grant writing class that really helped me; I teach a lot of the same principles for proposal writing in Research II to the genetic counseling students.
Can you share a pivotal moment or decision in your career that was influenced by your experiences at Vanderbilt?
The decision to return to VUMC in 2021. I was unhappy at my last job. I didn’t feel as though people were collaborative and there was a lot of unhealthy internal competition and toxicity. At Vanderbilt, however, there’s a really cross-collaborative atmosphere, and my specific research teams are really invested in learning from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. So, when Christine said she could hire me back to VUMC, I didn’t even think twice.
How has the interdisciplinary nature of biomedical research training played a role in your ability to collaborate with professionals from different fields in your career?
I always joke that I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. But in reality, what I am is an interdisciplinary scientist. And in a way, I have always been that, even in grad school, because I was effectively co-mentored by Mel and Chuck. So many of my projects have been on large genomics consortia where we have everything from laboratory geneticists, bioinformaticists, and statisticians to epidemiologists, genetic counselors, and ethicists. I’ve even worked with anthropologists.
I’ve come to believe that you can’t do good, community-driven translational work without both qualitative and quantitative components. I think embracing and training in qualitative approaches has really been the thing with which I surprised myself the most. But now I don’t think you can design equitable healthcare interventions without it. I think learning the value of approaches outside your niche gives you an open-mindedness to other scientific perspectives that can ultimately improve your research product.
Looking back, is there any advice you would give to current biomedical science students based on your own experiences and the lessons you have learned in your career?
Your path isn’t written in stone. It’s scary to abandon what you thought was your path, but try not to listen to the part of your gut that’s hanging onto the past just because it’s afraid. Don’t let fear of the unknown be the enemy of your success.
Also, always find mentors who are more experienced than you and mentors who are less experienced than you. You can learn something from everyone at every stage. I learn from my students all the time. In a way, they challenge me to learn as much as I challenge them, which is what a good mentor does.