Dr. Marina Picciotto
Full professor Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Yale University
Postdoctoral Fellow Institut Pasteur
PhD in Molecular Neuroscience Rockefeller University
Looking at Dr. Marina Picciotto’s prominence within neuroscience, one might assume she carefully strategized each step of her career. But, behind her success lies no master plan, no single moment in which she knew she wanted to have her own neuroscience lab. In fact, she didn’t even know that was a career until her curiosity in biology, a heavy dose of luck, and adolescent procrastination dropped her into a research lab her senior year of high school. While other students had diligently planned their required senior internships, Marina had put it off to the last minute. When a friend walked into the cafeteria and shouted to her classmates that the lab she worked in was looking for her replacement, Marina was the only person in the room who still needed to find a position. So began her journey into neuroscience, which ultimately led Marina to her current positions as Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Marina’s high school internship at the Rockefeller University lab developed her skills to stay on top of projects and better manage her time, which she then applied during college. As a freshman at Stanford she was looking for a paid position, and found a “technician to a technician” role in a neuroscience lab and later joined her undergraduate advisor’s laboratory. This job not only fulfilled her work-study program requirements, but she also found real joy as she worked to clone genes from nerves in the sea slug aplysia. “[The lab] would take me away. I neglected classes in order to go back and do another experiment.” Marina thought that her interest in biology would lead her to medical school, but when the time came to apply, she found herself filling out applications for PhD programs instead. “I was thinking, I just don’t want to leave the lab.”
Marina returned to Rockefeller University for a PhD in Molecular Neurobiology, where she joined the lab of Dr. Paul Greengard. Given her technical cloning experience from undergrad, she was tasked with cloning the gene for synapsin 1, a protein that coats synaptic vesicles and is believed to be critical for neurotransmitter release. Marina’s initial idea for her project was to clone synapsin out of Drosophila and create mutant animals without the gene. However, because her lab didn’t work with flies she started to collaborate with another lab. After spending 5 fruitless years trying to isolate synapsin 1 in flies, she had to change direction. “One of the best things I learned in graduate school is when you’re supposed to stop,” she explains. Fortunately, Marina was able to piece together side projects from over the years, which included work on a chloride channel — cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Even though she spent the majority of her PhD trying to create a fly without synapsin 1, her thesis was on the regulation of CFTR through phosphorylation. Once finished, Marina was excited for a shift and moved to France for her postdoctoral work.
It all makes sense now, looking back at a career that links the role of molecules to behavioral changes in animals. Marina’s transition from trying to find Drosophila lacking a specific gene knocking-out nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchR) in mice during her postdoc seems like a logical progression in her research. At the time, however, Marina’s main reason for joining Dr. Jean-Pierre Changeux’s lab at the Institut Pasteur was to live outside of the US. When hearing warnings that she wouldn’t be able to get a job in the US when she returned, she remembers saying, “I don’t care. I want to live in Paris. I’m doing something that I’ve chosen to do for now, not as an investment in the future.” Unbothered by the warnings, Marina went to France taking on another risky project – knocking out nicotinic receptors in mice.
At that time, the early 1990s, knockout mice were only starting to be created for the very first time. Over and over, Marina was warned not to take on this project because it was so unpredictable. It was unknown if nicotinic receptors were essential for survival. If Marina took the time to create the knockout mice, it would be a huge loss if the mice turned out to be severely impaired or developmentally compromised. Instead of heeding their advice, Marina stayed the path; the project was exciting, she was learning something new, and she was in France!
After carefully combing through literature and having conversations with every lab mate asking which nicotinic receptor they would knock out and why. She decided on the 𝛃2-subunit of neuronal nicotinic receptors, the most widely expressed nicotinic receptor and with the highest affinity to nicotine. Choice in hand, Marina set out to create a mouse without 𝛃2. And it worked. Without 𝛃2 the mice showed no developmental or physical deficits. “Frankly, these are the most normal looking mice you’ve ever seen,” she remembers. Marina was able to perform a windfall of experiments with the mice and confidently say the differences induced by nicotine came from 𝛃2. This line of work went on to highlight the receptor’s role in initiating nicotine addiction.
Scientific success wasn’t the only thing gained during her postdoc. Marina also learned to create a healthier boundary between her work and personal life. As a graduate student Marina worked any hours that she needed to, often working the “night shift” that further displaced her from any life outside of the lab. Upon arriving in Paris, Marina’s way of living through her work was quickly called into question. On the weekend she would see her lab mates come into the lab for a few minutes, but they’d soon be off to enjoy the museum, the sunshine, and all the leisurely comfort Paris had to offer. Seeing her toiling away, they’d shake their heads at the “poor stupid American”. Falling into an American trap, Marina realized that she defined herself by what she did in the lab. Tethering her identity to each experiment meant that when one failed, it didn’t only slow the science, but it cut her deeply. “That wasn’t just an experiment going wrong,” she explains. “That was my identity being broken.” Surrounded by a culture that focused on having a life beyond science, Marina learned to define herself by who she was outside of the lab.
Knowing that she could still be a competent and respected scientist with a life outside of research, she made sure to draw time boundaries when starting her lab at Yale School of Medicine. In fact, except for extreme cases, Marina hasn’t worked weekends since starting her lab in 1995. After her postdoctoral research in Paris, she continued to use genetic and pharmacological manipulations in mice to understand how they affect behavior. After another deep dive into literature, Marina initially chose to focus her research on galanin, a neuropeptide co-expressed in cholinergic neurons. With her lab starting to ramp up, it soon became clear that galanin had an important role in stress-related behaviors and addiction. At the same time, Marina grew her postdoctoral work into a full-fledged research program of her own that now focuses on how single molecules influence brain circuits and complex behaviors like addiction, depression, and learning.
Marina never intended to carry her postdoctoral work with her into her own lab. She didn’t make a ten point plan to get a tenure position. Instead of focusing on a singular outcome, Marina followed her data and her own interests as they evolved. At every turn, Marina invested in her life, her research, and what makes her happy. Because of this she’s been able to successfully lead a research team, raise a daughter, and serve the entire field of neuroscience as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroscience. Instead of trying to live solely through science, Marina has fostered her identity as a whole, which has clearly outgrown the four walls of a lab.
Check out Nancy’s full interview with Marina on December 4th, 2020 below or wherever you get your podcasts!
