New cohort of bioscience students dons lab coats, sets sail toward PhDs

Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at Stanford University, punctuated the ceremony by telling the new doctoral students to heed not only the importance of the adventure they’ve set sail upon but also to recognize the key to staying its course.

“In order to discover new oceans, you have to have the courage to lose sight of the shore,” he said, quoting the mantra often attributed to Lord Chesterfield, an 18^th century British statesman. “Each of you has already made the decision to lose sight of the shore. Each of you has shown that courage.”

Stories built on candor

A Stanford tradition for doctoral scholars that began in 2010, the donning of a lab coat signifies the beginning of a scientist’s road. Sorted by their field of study, they walked onto stage already sporting their crisp white coats with names embroidered across the chest as family and friends cheered them on via Zoom feed.

By bringing together multiple focuses — from genetics and stem cell biology to neurosciences and health policy — from three separate Stanford entities — the School of Medicine, the School of Engineering and the School of Humanities and Sciences — the bioscience program epitomizes the interdisciplinary nature of Stanford’s research community.

At the event, Sheri Krams, PhD, Senior Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, introduced a new mentorship initiative called TILE (Team for Inclusive Lab Environments), aimed to give students crucial points of face-to-face support. The faculty and staff who make up the mentor group — some four decades into their career; others far less — shared their own vulnerable experiences as PhD program rookies.

One lamented that “he’d suffered in silence for far too long” rather than just asking for help on a topic that perplexed him; another admitted not knowing the importance of reading for scientific research until she started observing others in the lab; yet another said he never asked for feedback on a lab experiment, either from collaborators or principal investigators, because he assumed it was a sign of weakness.

“I hope you see the candor in these stories — the choices we made choosing faculty members was very intentional. You didn’t hear a bunch of ‘Rah-rah, you can do it,’” said John Boothroyd, PhD, emeritus faculty member and part of the TILE group. “Always remember this: Seeking advice and seeking help is a sign of strength.”

As is having the courage to fail. Not all hypotheses will prove true, many lab experiments will fail, Boothroyd said: “Make sure you’re willing to take risks. Fail early, fail often.”

And after you do, he said, engage in the important, difficult conversations that help you understand why. One incoming student perfectly characterized those challenging moments where direct, to-the-point feedback is essential: It's called having "Awkward, honest dialogue.”

“Have lots of that,” Boothroyd implored the students.

‘Doing it for all of us’

Alyana Granados smiled widely as she was introduced with her cohort of 10 immunology students. The Southern California native and former collegiate soccer player said she feels fortunate to have landed in a place that will embrace her competitive spirit.

“It’s cool to do things I never dreamed of. I didn’t think as a child, ‘I’ll be at Stanford, doing research at a high level,’” she said. “I watched my parents work hard so I could do something like this to help others. I’m really doing it for all of us.”

Despite its complexity, Granados fell in love with immunology during the COVID-19 pandemic. She hopes to better understand B-cell biology at the protein level to develop more targeted therapeutics. Stanford Medicine’s interdisciplinary approach made the school an easy choice, she said.

“Here you have the ability to ask questions that aren’t being asked by a wider audience because of their level of difficulty,” she said. “This is where hard questions get asked.”

Folks who like ‘the nitty-gritty’

Growing up in Chicago, David Wilkerson-Lindsey said his was one of the few Black households he knew of that gardened. He would get mad at his mom, who taught horticulture, for making him “pick rocks out of the soil in the backyard rather than play video games inside.”

But a love of agriculture was sowed and now he is pursuing a biology PhD on an ecology and evolution track. He said Stanford held geographical appeal to match its obvious educational allure.

“California is one of the hot spots for agriculture,” he said. “There is crazy diversity of landscapes from north to south. There are massive orchard systems throughout the Central Valley, and I want to see how those work and how people are working to make them more resilient.”

Like many who end up at Stanford, a multidisciplinary approach was a major draw. “I’m glad to be around the folks who are getting into the nitty-gritty of things like gene expression, not just in plants but also in people. Here, those with very different ideas can still have conversations because the approach is to go broad. That allows you to put your head in different spaces.”

‘Keep plugging, keep pursing’

At the end of the ceremony, the lab-coat-clad students stood as Minor led them in reciting the Stanford Biosciences Affirmation. But just before that, in his closing remarks, the dean told the new students what a remarkable time it was to begin a career in life sciences and biomedical research. “It’s nothing short of a renaissance in terms of discovery-based science,” he said.

Behind the science, though, remains a single humanistic virtue, he told them: courage.

“As you pursue your graduate studies, as you decide upon a thesis project, as you deal with the inevitable failures of experiments or thoughts that seem great when you pursue them but don’t pan out, never lose that courage to lose sight of the shore,” he said. “Keep plugging, keep pursuing, keep looking for the accomplishment that’s going to be fulfilling both for you and the world.”