Meet the New PSTP Associate College Advisor for Sutherland-Watkins: Dr. Chelsie Sievers, M.D., Ph.D.
by Cassandra Atzrodt (M2)
Chelsie Sievers, M.D., Ph.D. is originally from Stillwater, MN, and attended Iowa State University where she majored in Genetics. Her undergraduate studies introduced her to the field of cancer genetics, which she would go on to study in graduate school. She received her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017 studying the genetics of colorectal cancer, then continued on to earn her MD from the same institution in 2021 after realizing she wanted to become a physician-scientist to connect her scientific understanding of cancer to patient care as a medical oncologist.
She is in her second year of her fellowship in the Internal Medicine-PSTP Residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and has joined Robert Coffey’s lab for her post-doctorate work.
What first led you to science, and how did you come to the decision to pursue a career as a physician scientist?
Dr. Sievers first became interested in science through a high school biotechnology course where she learned about techniques like gel electrophoresis. Teachers at her high school noticed her interest in science and first introduced her to the idea of a career in research – Dr. Sievers notes that as someone who did not have doctors or researchers in her family, it was important to have such mentors who noticed her scientific interests and could give her advice on how to pursue them. She took this advice and ran with it, studying during the height of the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, then shifting gears to study cancer genetics in Rich Halberg’s group for her PhD.
During her PhD, Dr. Sievers had several mentors who were physician-scientists, and she found it amazing that they could be in clinic helping patients in the morning, then come to lab in the afternoon with fresh insights to inform their research and advance the field. In her words, “The best of both worlds!” She notes with amusement that she ended up informing her committee during the third year of her PhD that she intended to apply to medical school after graduation, and had to study for the MCAT and do her volunteering and shadowing as a fourth year graduate student.
Have you had any “come to fruition” moments, where you saw your physician-scientist training bridge the gap between science and medicine in real time?
Dr. Sievers recently had a moment in clinic where she was speaking with a first-year fellow who was unsure how to approach the care of a patient with a new cancer of unknown primary diagnosis. This patient had multiple lesions throughout their body, including in the lumen of their bowel. The clinical data had shown that metastases to the bowel lumen were uncommon, but the pathology report did not find the biopsy to be consistent with a typical colon cancer, leaving the fellow unsure about how to proceed. Dr. Sievers was able to walk them through clinical and scientific evidence, and suggest that the next step in the workup of this patient’s disease should be to test the genetics of the cancer – if it was APC+, this patient likely had a colon cancer. She reflects that had it not been for her research background in cancer genetics, it would not have been as straightforward to engineer an approach to this diagnosis.
Navigating the intersection of clinical and research interests can be difficult for MSTP students, especially at transition points when we have to make those big decisions about what lab to join or what specialty to pursue. How did you navigate those choices?
As Dr. Sievers had already completed her PhD before pursuing her MD, she had a strong sense that she would end up practicing oncology. However, she made sure to approach her clinical training with an open mind and was actually surprised by how much she liked Surg Onc despite not originally intending to pursue a surgical specialty. To help her decide between medical and surgical oncology, she did back-to-back rotations in each during her fourth year of medical school to directly compare the day-to-day of each specialty. Dr. Sievers subsequently noticed that what she found the most rewarding in Surg Onc was the clinic day where she could talk to patients and build their understanding of their disease process.
Therefore, her advice for those navigating competing clinical interests is to think about what days you have felt most fulfilled after finishing clinical duties, and what was so rewarding about those days. For her, she realized how much she valued her role WITH the patient population, and thus decided that medical oncology would allow for more interactions where she could work alongside her patients throughout their disease course.
In terms of marrying clinical and research interests, Dr. Sievers summarizes that, “You can be someone who knows a lot about a few things or be more of a generalist clinically to broaden the scope of your research.” Especially in the early phases of training, she emphasizes the importance of trying to find the interesting and enjoyable parts of each clinical experience, even if it is one you don’t anticipate enjoying. She advises, “Don’t be too married to one technique or disease type,” as being flexible can help close the gap between clinical and research interests.
It seems like mentorship has played an important role in shaping your career. What is your advice to MSTP students who are looking to establish mentor-mentee relationships?
Find passionate faculty, people who are doing things that you want to do in your future career, people who are excited about sharing their experiences, and especially people who are excited about you and advancing your career. However, keep in mind that mentors can come in different flavors – not every mentorship has to be as formal as a PI-student relationship. For example, Dr. Sievers has a group of female physician-scientists at Vanderbilt that she can turn to if she needs a trusted ear to bounce ideas off, in addition to a core group of mentors who are more heavily involved in her career.
She also emphasizes that it is important to engage in self-reflection when looking for core mentors and consider what you need most out of their mentorship. For instance, when joining the PSTP, Dr. Sievers realized that she was a bit farther out from her PhD than her peers who may have come straight from a MSTP. Therefore, she was interested in a mentor who could be more involved and present in lab while she got back into the swing of doing research.
What do you envision your future as a physician-scientist to look like?
Dr. Sievers intends to launch an independent career as a physician-scientist, hoping to start the “Sievers Lab” and continue studying colorectal cancer. She describes that by having a clear idea of where she wants to end up, she can plan what she needs to do to get there – relearning and building new technical skills, applying for a K grant, working on preliminary data which could eventually be the nidus of a new lab’s research program. Therefore, she encourages current students to voice their goals and set expectations with their mentors from the outset, in order to best plan the steps it will take to get from point A to point B.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your training thus far?
Be flexible – things can surprise you, and what you get excited about might not be what you would’ve thought. In that vein, approaching every day with the mindset of “I’m going to learn something today” is not only great for expanding your horizons, but truly just important to your mental health while on this long and rigorous training path!
What do you like to do outside of the clinical and research setting?
Dr. Sievers has been married for 12 years to her husband, who is structural engineer, after meeting him during undergrad at Iowa State. Together, they enjoy taking care of their four horses, seven chickens, and two cats on their land a little outside of Nashville. She says that one of the factors that drew her to Vanderbilt was the ability to train at a top academic medical center while also being able to easily escape to nature and having the green space to house their horses. She and her husband were also pleasantly surprised by the running community in Nashville, as her husband competes in Iron Man and Ultramarathon races, and Dr. Sievers has a few marathons under her belt. She enjoys running with her running club every week, especially with the beautiful landscapes and trails that Nashville has to offer!