Lab Spotlight: Derecka Lab

Derecka Lab

Each month, Simply Blood spotlights a lab contributing to the fields of hematology, immunology, stem cell research, cell and gene therapies, and more. Get to know groups doing cutting edge research from around the world! This month, we are featuring the Derecka Lab out of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA. 

How long have you had your lab?  
I started in November 2020, so it’s almost 5 years. Time flies, really. 

How many members make up your lab? 
Currently, we are 5 people: I have one postdoc, a scientist, a research technician, an undergraduate student, and me.

What is the major research theme of your lab?
We are trying to understand how bone marrow microenvironment affects hematopoiesis at steady state and blood malignancies. We have a very specific interest in identifying key transcription factors regulating stromal cells biology.  

What is the most exciting project in your lab right now?
That’s a tricky question since I think all our projects are exciting, of course 😊 But maybe I will do a bit of advertising of ISEH meeting in Kumamoto, where I’m going to present our latest work on mechanisms that drive bone marrow fibrosis in the context of myeloproliferative neoplasms, or more specifically, myelofibrosis. It was an exciting journey for us because we started this project with a typical biological question: how bone marrow becomes fibrotic in certain diseases, and we ended up with a potential new therapeutic target/strategy for myelofibrosis in our hands. Since this is the first time in my career to work on a more translational side of research, it’s quite fun. We continue this work, so hopefully we will have even more exciting results in the future.

What's the biggest accomplishment your lab has had recently?
Submitting our first manuscript from the lab! We are waiting for the reviewer’s comments, so keep your fingers crossed! Moreover, my postdoctoral fellow received the Best Poster Presentation Award at St. Jude’s Annual Comprehensive Cancer Center Postdoctoral Symposium after being in the lab for only one year! Also, getting the invitation to speak at ISEH this year and a few other meetings, which of course is thanks to the hard work of my team. They are really a great group to work with.   

What is the key to running a successful lab?
I really wish I knew a magic recipe for running a successful lab. If someone has it, please share with me 😉 For me personally, it’s a constant work in progress as the lab dynamics changes with new people joining and people finishing their tenure in the lab. I think it always helps to have a friendly lab environment where people respect each other, bring different types of expertise, learn from each other and help each other since at the end of the day science is a “team sport”. I’m trying to be flexible and adjust my mentoring style based on the needs of a particular lab member since we are all different and have distinct strengths and things we need to work on, including myself. At the same time, I do my best to be clear about my expectations. To summarize, I constantly keep learning how to actually run a successful lab. 

What facilities or equipment does your lab absolutely depend on?
Flow cytometry, animal facility, sequencing and pathology cores. We would not be able to do our work without these resources. I should mention that we are truly fortunate to have a departmental flow core facility, on top of the institutional flow cytometry core, with fantastic people who help to move our projects forward every day.  
  
What has been your greatest challenge in managing your lab?
I am very fortunate to have a great lab team. However, since I started my lab in the middle of world-wide pandemic, it took me a while to hire my lab members, which was the biggest challenge. I am also very lucky to have great colleagues in my department who had been very helpful during the challenging times.
   
What advice do you have for new investigators just opening their lab?
Trust your gut feeling/intuition when hiring people! Talk to your peers and seek advice from your more advanced colleagues because they are an amazing source of knowledge and hopefully your support system. 

Does your lab attend the ISEH annual meeting?
We are doing our best to attend the ISEH meetings since these are one of the best conferences in hematology.

What is the most beneficial aspect of ISEH membership for your lab?
Catching up with the latest advancements in the hematology world, networking and connecting with friends and colleagues.  

How do members of your lab celebrate accomplishments?
We have a bit of a collective sweet tooth in the lab, so we like to celebrate with baked goods 😊 Now, when I think about it maybe we should think about some healthier alternatives.

Does your lab have any fun traditions?
Departmental craft competitions and winning them! Apparently, we are quite creative and handy with pumpkin carvings and gingerbread art etc. I should add here that usually I just do what I’m told then since my artistic skills are not the greatest unfortunately. Since we are relatively a new lab, we are still developing our fun traditions. 

Blog post contributed by Katherine MacNamara of the ISEH Publications Committee.

Please note that the statements made by Simply Blood authors are their own views and not necessarily the views of ISEH. ISEH disclaims any or all liability arising from any author's statements or materials.