{"id":3891,"date":"2009-07-20T11:01:38","date_gmt":"2009-07-20T11:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2009\/07\/20\/pnas-patricia-crotwell-sanford\/"},"modified":"2009-07-20T11:01:38","modified_gmt":"2009-07-20T11:01:38","slug":"pnas-patricia-crotwell-sanford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2009\/07\/20\/pnas-patricia-crotwell-sanford\/","title":{"rendered":"PNAS: Patricia Crotwell, Sanford Genetics Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"i-bb841fa0d10ab922d23bf82c190d2dec-cyto_logo.jpg\"(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers<\/a> with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Dr. Patricia Crotwell of the Sanford Cytogenetics Laboratory<\/a>.)<\/i><\/p>\n

1) What is your non-academic job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am the director of a clinical cytogenetics laboratory. In the lab, we
\nculture prenatal (amniocytes, chorionic villi) and postnatal (blood,
\nsolid tissue, bone marrow) specimens for chromosome studies. The lab is
\nnot a research-focused lab. Instead, we used established practices to
\nensure reliable, accurate results for the patients and the providers who
\norder the tests. Patients range from adults with cancer to children
\nwith congenital heart defects to women who are pregnant who want or need
\ninformation about the baby they carry, among many others. We do not
\ntypically see patients in the lab, instead, we see and work with the
\nspecimen that was collected from the patient.<\/p>\n

2) What is your science background?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a BS and MS in Marine Biology (now a hobby), a PhD in Biology,
\nand completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical
\nCytogenetics. To be a lab director in Cytogenetics or Molecular
\nGenetics, either a PhD or an MD (or both) degree is required. To work
\n*in* a lab like this, technologists typically need a BS, often in
\nBiology or a similar field. Training and experience are always
\npreferred, but in a small state like South Dakota, we often have to
\ntrain our technologists from scratch.<\/p>\n

3) What led you to this job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I came to this position in a round-about way. I studied marine biology
\nas an undergrad and MS student. My PhD was in biology, where I worked
\non the development of the skeleton. The fish skeleton, that is. But
\nthere is a huge amount of overlap with the human skeleton, since the
\ngene networks that drive development are highly conserved across the
\nanimal kingdom. Many of the genes I worked on in zebrafish are involved
\nin well-described human skeletal dysplasias, so that is an area of
\ninterest to me still. I was asked by the former director of this lab if
\nI’d be interested in taking over the lab when she retired. I enjoy the
\nwork, and the people I work with are wonderful. Overall, it was a lot
\nof work to get here, with some timely luck thrown in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4) What’s your work environment like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lab is a few interconnected rooms, which are devoted to tissue
\nculture (sterile technique required), slide preparation and microscopy,
\nand computer analysis. A good technologist can move from doing bench
\nwork to the microscope to the computer, and back, with pauses to answer
\nthe phone as necessary. We get all sorts of phone calls, and see all
\nsorts of things at the ‘scope. Not everyone is suited for lab work, but
\nin my lab, we all feel fortunate that we work well together and enjoy
\nwhat we do.<\/p>\n

5) What do you do in a typical day?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write up and sign out cases, attend meetings, read cases at the
\nmicroscope, ensure that the lab remains compliant with state and federal
\nregulations, discuss abnormal results with pathologists, geneticists,
\ngenetic counselors, etc., and cover the lab when the technologists are
\nout for lunch, among other things. I do not do very much bench work
\nthese days, but the technologists do, from setting up specimens to
\nharvesting them, preparing the slides, etc. A typical day also involved
\npreparing and validating solutions, and even autoclaving biohazards (all
\nhuman specimens are considered to be biohazards) so that they can be
\ndisposed of safely.<\/p>\n

6) How does your science background help you in your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A strong foundation in science impacts every part of my day. From
\nwriting a clear and understandable description of an abnormal result, to
\npreparing a 10% solution for use in tissue culture, I use what I learned
\nin classes ranging from chemistry 101 to biochemical genetics daily.
\nAlso of great use are the research skills I picked up over the years!
\nGoogle is helpful, but knowing how to use other information databases is
\nimportant as well.<\/p>\n

7) If a current college student wanted to get a job like yours, how
\nshould they go about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First decide if you’d like to run a lab, which requires a PhD or an MD,
\nor if you’d like to work in one. Touring a lab is a way to see a lab
\nand its people in action, to get an idea if it is something that appeals
\nto you. Lab work often requires close attention to detail, and precise
\nmethods. If that seems constraining or boring, lab work might not be
\nfor you . . . There are training programs for cytogenetic technologists.
\nTry http:\/\/www.mayo.edu\/mshs\/cytogen-career.html<\/a> or
\nhttp:\/\/www.mshealthcareers.com\/careers\/cytogenetictechnologist.htm<\/a> for
\nadditional information.<\/p>\n

8) What’s the most important thing you learned from science?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Question everything. It is the people who ask questions such as “But
\nhow do you know that?” or “How does that work?” or “Why is that so?”
\nthat have made differences large and small in our understanding of the
\nworld around us. Critical thinking skills are important to your success
\nin science, regardless of your field. I also learned ‘don’t give up!’,
\nwhich was and is very important when I encounter obstacles.<\/p>\n

9) What advice would you give to young science students trying to plan
\ntheir careers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be flexible! I of course respect people who decide on their course in
\nlife early, and stick to it to the end of a long and productive career.
\nHowever, as much as I love marine biology, it was not a career that
\nactually suited me. I would never have dreamed when I was an
\nundergraduate student that working in a lab would be so satisfying,
\nfascinating, and productive.<\/p>\n

10) (Totally Optional Question) What’s the pay like? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Cytogenetic technologists (BS, some MS, and occasional BA) make ~30K to
\n50K, with an average of ~42K. Lab Directors (PhD and MD) make ~80K to
\n160K+, with an average of ~120K, and with MDs making more than PhDs in
\ngeneral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This… Continue reading PNAS: Patricia Crotwell, Sanford Genetics Lab<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,57,58,59,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-jobs","category-non-academic","category-pnas","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}