Life as a postdoc
Susana Godinho 'peers' into the future in Dana-Farber laboratory role
By Saul Wisnia
Photos by Sam Ogden
Susana Godinho
She arrives inconspicuously each morning, and leaves just as quietly after many staff members have already gone. As one of the about 400 postdoctoral fellows at Dana-Farber, Susana Godinho, PhD, is not making headlines for major breakthroughs in cancer research — at least not yet. What she is doing is working in a close-knit group of bright young scientists from around the world gaining experience and mentorship in a major Harvard-based laboratory.
Postdoctoral fellows, or "postdocs," have completed their doctoral degree, such as MD, PhD, or MD/PhD, and are training to become independent investigators. Along with another 50 or so graduate students based at Dana-Farber, they conduct experiments in the labs of seasoned researchers who serve as their supervisors and advisors. Godinho, who joined the lab of David Pellman, MD, in September 2005 after completing a doctorate in biochemistry in her native Portugal, is focusing on genetic abnormalities in cell division (mitosis) and the clues they offer about the development of cancer.
Western blot analysis, a technique for identifying specific proteins, is one of the research methods postdoc Susana Godinho, PhD, regularly employs. Here, she looks at protein levels in different samples.
It is, she says, "a great fit for me." Although she had no prior oncology experience, Godinho knew of Pellman's work because of her extensive background studying the mitosis process, his area of expertise. Like most postdocs, she went through several applications and interviews here and elsewhere before being selected by Pellman, and is now one of 11 postdocs and assorted laboratory technicians, graduate students, and undergraduates making up the "Pellman Group."
"Mitosis is crucial to cancer research, so there are always projects to work on that have a chance to make a real impact," explains Godinho, a petite 30-year-old with striking eyes and an easygoing manner. "David [Pellman] is available whenever I have new results to discuss, and the people in the lab have become my colleagues as well as my friends."
Here preparing cells for microscopic viewing, Godinho hopes her studies of mitosis will lead to a published research paper in a scientific journal - a big step toward securing a full-time academic position.
Close relationships are helpful when toiling in extremely close and unglamorous quarters. Godinho and her labmates spend most days in one large room of DFCI's Mayer building divided by several rows of countertops and shelves on which equipment, specimens, and reference books battle for space with each postdoc's small work area and computer. There are some personal touches — a plastic chicken pokes out of one cubbyhole, and cartoons and drawings are taped here and there — but otherwise it resembles the 100-plus labs spread throughout the Dana-Farber campus.
When Godinho ventures outside these walls, it's usually across the hall to the "microscope room," where she can study her latest findings and view them as simulations on computer monitors. Pellman's office is also close by, and his accessibility is one of the job's great perks. Pellman, principal investigator of his own Dana-Farber lab since 1995, is both the Ted Williams Senior Investigator at DFCI and a pediatric clinical oncologist at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care. Past recipient of a Graduate Student Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School, he is lauded by postdocs for his guidance.
Godinho and other members of the Pellman Group take turns tidying up the lab, a process they jokingly call "The Wonderful World."
"I look at the postdoc experience as a learner's permit to becoming a professor," says Pellman, who filled a similar apprenticeship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in nearby Cambridge, Mass., before coming to Dana-Farber. "Successful postdocs have their own sense of the direction they want to go in and ideas about how to get there. They also engage their advisors to refine their goals so they are achievable, and to make sure they arrive there safely by the end of their time here."
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