Incoming Heme/Onc fellow - research 101 question

[Co-organizer]

Hello all, I matched into Heme/Onc at a solid academic program a few days ago (which I'm thrilled about!), and am now idly thinking about what I want my career to look like. I have a strong interest in academic Hematology, and would like to enter fellowship with a solid understanding of the research landscape. Unfortunately, I don't have a great deal of research exposure beyond some time spent in basic science research labs (where I didn't accomplish much of anything), and some retrospective/chart review work.

I find the concept of translational research to be fascinating. I have little interest (or technical abilities) to be a career bench researcher, but do think it would be great to collaborate with bench researchers and their pre-clinical work and launch early-phase clinical trials with them. I think this could potentially be something to build a career around. The program I am going to is certainly no Dana-Farber, but there are a good amount of opportunities, and plenty of support.

Trouble is that I find it very difficult to find information online explaining the kinds of translational research roles that MD's can realistically pursue in Heme/Onc. Honestly, I'm not even sure I 100% understand the concept of translational research, nor do I understand grant mechanisms. I search online but no one actually explains anything, it all seems so specialized. Where can I become educated on these topics? Of course I will reach out to my new program, but I'd like to at least do my own research first and get the basics down to avoid wasting everyone's time.

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[gutonc]

Start by identifying a mentor and go from there. You can ask your new PD now for some help in identifying one, get in touch with them and see what thoughts/ideas/opportunities they have for you. You're not expected to create a research career, or even a project, by yourself out of whole cloth.

 

[CatFactorial]

Hello all, I matched into Heme/Onc at a solid academic program a few days ago (which I'm thrilled about!), and am now idly thinking about what I want my career to look like. I have a strong interest in academic Hematology, and would like to enter fellowship with a solid understanding of the research landscape. Unfortunately, I don't have a great deal of research exposure beyond some time spent in basic science research labs (where I didn't accomplish much of anything), and some retrospective/chart review work.

I find the concept of translational research to be fascinating. I have little interest (or technical abilities) to be a career bench researcher, but do think it would be great to collaborate with bench researchers and their pre-clinical work and launch early-phase clinical trials with them. I think this could potentially be something to build a career around. The program I am going to is certainly no Dana-Farber, but there are a good amount of opportunities, and plenty of support.

Trouble is that I find it very difficult to find information online explaining the kinds of translational research roles that MD's can realistically pursue in Heme/Onc. Honestly, I'm not even sure I 100% understand the concept of translational research, nor do I understand grant mechanisms. I search online but no one actually explains anything, it all seems so specialized. Where can I become educated on these topics? Of course I will reach out to my new program, but I'd like to at least do my own research first and get the basics down to avoid wasting everyone's time.

Ask your senior cofellows who the good mentors are. If there are any who are physician scientists, you should consider working with them. You may not want to start a lab but learning basic science relevant to your intended clinical area within heme/onc would be invaluable if you wanted to be a translational researcher (e.g. early phase trials working with preclinical folks). But that’s just one option.

The key in fellowship is the quality of the mentor, not necessarily what s/he does (some may disagree with this).