Improving how we study neuroscience through a PhD

 

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Life after graduate research: Dr Erin O’Callaghan

Today, it is Dr Erin O’Callaghan’s job to ensure GSK promotes its medicines ethically. Her PhD in biomedical sciences helped her build strategic thinking and science communication skills. She learned initiative and resilience by being a world pioneer in applying new gene therapy technology.

Dr Erin O’Callaghan was one of the first people in the world to use new gene technologies and techniques in high blood pressure research. She completed a PhD in Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne in 2012.

“You're going into a project where there's an unknown space, and you have the potential to find new knowledge that no-one else knows,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

Her lab at the department of anatomy and physiology had “wall-to-wall equipment, machines and doodads” for her to experiment with.

I really liked that hands-on learning – being able to think about how you might use the equipment in different ways to ask different questions or to measure different things in your experiments. Dr Erin O'Callaghan
A cluttered desk with various technical equipment with various dials, wires and displays

Using viruses to understand how brains work

“We were trying to advance the field of how we could study neuroscience – and not just neuroscience within the brain, but how it affects the body and physiology,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

Her PhD used a new technology to study neural pathways that contribute to regulating blood pressure and kidney function. The technology used viruses to deliver microRNA-based gene therapies. MicroRNA controls gene expression – how the information in a gene is used by a cell.

Erin O'Callaghan, a white woman with long brown hair, beams while holding a copy of her thesis and a balloon with a University of Melbourne logo

“We were targeting a very specific gene in a very specific cell type, in a very specific part of the brain,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

In the brain, different systems are close together – they may even have similar cells – but different functions. That’s why finely targeted investigations are important.

“Professor Andrew Allen’s research group, where I did my PhD, were world leaders in this work,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

With the thrill of new discovery comes the risk of failure.

“You often get a lot of failures. And you don't really understand why things aren’t working,” says Dr O’Callaghan.

Yet it isn’t always the scientist’s fault when the science doesn’t work. In retrospect, Dr O’Callaghan wishes she had put less pressure on herself.

“I think cutting myself some slack would have helped by making sure that I let go of things sooner to be able to move on in other aspects of research,” she says.

Nobody likes to fail. But failing together can be a bonding experience.

“The community approach with people who are going through similar things that you're going through helps. Being in the trenches together, you form some really strong friendships,” she says.

Learn more about our graduate research options

How a PhD can help build international professional networks

International conferences are another way graduate researchers can form lasting connections.

During her PhD, Dr O’Callaghan attended a Gordon Research Conference in her field. The University of Melbourne offered her a travel scholarship.

Many international conferences host thousands of delegates. Graduate researchers may disappear into the crowd. At smaller conferences, like the Gordon Research Conferences, delegates interact more.

“You're actually eating your breakfast, your lunch, and your dinner with these eminent scientists who are driving your research field,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

The experience gave her insight into how senior researchers live and work.

An award from Hypertension Australia gave Dr O’Callaghan another opportunity to travel. She collaborated on research at the College de France for three months.

Where will a PhD in biomedical sciences lead?

A PhD prepares graduate researchers for roles that require strategic thinking. A PhD in biomedical sciences is especially useful in the pharmaceutical industry.

“You need the ability to think critically, to communicate your views, to communicate science well. You need to have the initiative and the resilience to drive projects to completion,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

An older Erin O'Callaghan smiles in front of a grand University of Bristol sandstone building
You need the objective approach where you know when to can a project or proceed with a project that is independent of your emotional involvement in it. Dr Erin O'Callaghan

Her supervisor Professor Andrew Allen’s international networks helped Dr O’Callaghan land a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Bristol.

“I got to be in the room for the first-in-human use of deep brain stimulation for the treatment of hypertension,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

At Bristol, Dr O’Callaghan and colleagues developed a new kind of pacemaker for people with heart failure. She co-founded Ceryx Medical, which owns the rights to the device.

Dr O’Callaghan was somewhat familiar with the commercialisation process thanks to a graduate certificate in commercialising research she completed at the University of Melbourne. The University still offers similar programs to set graduate researchers on their path to entrepreneurship.

But she had mostly been involved in the early stages of medical device development. Dr O’Callaghan became curious about what the later stages looked like.

After six years at Bristol, she returned to Australia and started a new career at global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company GSK, as a Medical Science Liaison. Today, she is a Scientific Advisor at GSK’s vaccines division.

“I make sure that the information that the company uses to inform doctors complies with the rules and requirements of the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct. The code makes sure companies can't promote medicines in an unethical way,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

These science communication skills have a grounding in her PhD too. Dr O’Callaghan had many opportunities to present her research at the University of Melbourne. Similar opportunities include initiatives like Visualise Your Thesis.

“You do have to challenge yourself to do these things. Being part of a PhD is having opportunities regularly to develop skills,” Dr O’Callaghan says.

“One of the good things that I did was to put my hand up for every opportunity.”

Learn more about a PhD in Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

First published on 13 August 2024.

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