Oh, the Places You’ll Go: A Year of Practical Advice

Gastroenterology and Hepatology started the Paths and Places for gastrointestinal (GI) Research Success column. Devoted to providing researchers with advice tailored to different research settings and career paths, Paths and Places complements the basic and translational science focus of Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology and, we hope, fosters the research of a diverse group of American Gastroenterological Association members. O ver the past year, we have highlighted successful scientists who perform GI research in different places. Our columnists come from a variety of settings, including academic medical centers (Mark Donowitz), 1 universities without medical schools (Pamela Tuma 2 at a private teaching-intensive university and Naomi Ward 3 and colleagues at a large land-grant university), the pharmaceutical industry (Joshua Friedman), 4 veterinary schools (M. Sawkat Anwer), 5 and laboratories within laboratories (Jen-nifer Noto). 6 Although these authors emphasize 6 common and perhaps unsurprising general principles, it is notable that they approach these in unique and deliberate ways, targeting their strategies to the resources and limitations of their specific institutions. Mentorship plays different roles in the careers of different investigators. Drs Noto 6 and Donowitz 1 specifically identified mentorship as critical to career success. Their relationships with their mentors, however, were different. For non–tenure-track scientists such as Dr Noto, the laboratory mentor defines the broad shape of the research, nonresearch responsibilities, funding, and publication, whereas for academic medical center faculty such as Dr Donowitz, 1 mentors ideally are a source of inspiration, involved more in the breaking of boundaries than the structuring of a career. For many scientists, providing rather than receiving mentorship is a particularly important component of success, yielding research as well as career dividends. Overall, our columnists approached mentorship with clear, although often different, goals in mind. Collaborations are critical to performing successful, efficient, and exciting research, regardless of the setting, but the specifics of successful collaborations will vary depending on the nature of the research institution. In the pharmaceutical industry, collaborations fall under the heading of large-scale organizational dynamics, and are an integral part of the enterprise. On a different scale, collaborative work—with mentors, mentees, and peers—is essential and, indeed, a key component of the job, for non–tenure-track research scientists working in larger laboratories. For Drs Parker, Gigley, and Ward 3 in semirural Wyoming, access to mouse models and human samples would have been impossible without a collaborator at a large academic medical center. Similarly, veterinary researchers …