Lab Spotlight: Patel Lab

 

Patel 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 Patel Lab out of the University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Institute, USA.

Can you introduce yourself briefly?
I am a physician-scientist in the Division of Hematology and Hematologic Malignancies at the University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Institute. I see patients with chronic myeloid neoplasms in clinic once a week and also attend on our inpatient leukemia service. I am originally from the Boston suburbs and was in the Chicago area for a long time for my undergraduate degree, medical school and internal medicine residency at Northwestern University. I never thought I would end up in Salt Lake City, Utah, but my husband and I have been here over 10 years now and we absolutely love it! I have a 3-year old son and another kiddo on the way!

How long have you had your lab?
My lab just celebrated its 2-year anniversary! 

What made you want to have a lab instead of just seeing patients?
Unlike a lot of physician-scientists, I don’t have a PhD and really became interested in bench research during my clinical fellowship as I realized how important understanding the molecular biology of hematologic malignancies was to my ultimate goal of developing novel therapies and improving the lives of those affected by leukemia. If I can effectively translate findings from my laboratory into the clinic, then there is potential for me to broadly impact the lives of many more leukemia patients than I am able to see as a single provider in clinic. Physician-scientists are uniquely placed to understand and respond dynamically to the needs of patients and I enjoy operating at that interface, challenging as it may be at times.

What was the hardest part about starting a lab?
Learning how to manage what is essentially a small business! We don’t receive much training on how to hire people, navigate staff conflicts, oversee financial accounts, etc, and have to figure things out in real time. The administrative component of being a lab-based principal investigator has a steep learning curve. I also think finding the right people for your lab can be challenging and it takes longer than you think, so you have to be patient and figure out what fits for your group.

What was the most rewarding part of starting your lab?
Seeing the excitement and enthusiasm that members of my lab have for the research we are doing is incredibly meaningful. I love seeing people grow and gaining confidence. As my lab forges collaborations and synergizes with other research groups, I find myself inspired and enriched by all the cool science going on around me. 

What are the most challenging things you see when treating a cancer patient?
One thing I really focus on when I meet a patient is understanding what their priorities are and who they are outside of the clinic. This really allows me to deliver the best care I can to an individual patient. When I was first starting out as an attending, I had a more fixed mindset regarding what the “best” therapies were based on clinical evidence. Sometimes the most efficacious therapies don’t always make sense for a patient due to their circumstances, and overcoming that cognitive dissonance to arrive at the conclusion that you are still delivering beneficence through your recommendations can be difficult. Finding the balance between being an informed guide for patients while simultaneously avoiding paternalism is challenging. And unlike many deliberately designed preclinical and clinical studies, real life always throws you the craziest curveballs. So, you have to adapt and occasionally compromise.

When was your first ISEH meeting?
My first ISEH meeting was in Brooklyn, NYC in 2023. 

What was the best take-away from this meeting?
ISEH was one of the first smaller hematology conferences I had been to and I really enjoyed how many opportunities there were for networking. I felt like I could have meaningful interactions with leaders in the field. I also appreciated that there were many physician-scientists at the meeting, because it can be isolating at times.

What do you think we as a a society can do attract more physicians and physician/scientists?
I think we need to incorporate more bench science exposure into MD-only training – perhaps during residency or fellowship. I think a lot of MD-PhDs burn out by the time they are ready to be PIs. It’s a long, grueling training period, and by the time MD-PhDs decide on a medical specialty and complete their clinical fellowship training, there may be minimal to no relevance to the PhD work they did during medical school and techniques may be outdated. I think we are missing people out there like myself who are inspired by patients and specific disease biology to get involved in laboratory research. But these people often think it’s too late for them and it’s actually not! 

What is your best, most nerdiest moment that made you realize you were a scientist at heart?
We are making steady progress toward the very first publication from my laboratory. I was looking over some data that had been generated for this project the other day and drew what is essentially a visual abstract – a pathway, a story. I remember being an undergraduate studying cell biology and being fascinated by figures of signaling pathways depicted in textbooks. I always wondered who discovered them and how. And now I’m doing it! It’s incredible what you can do once you start to believe in yourself!

Ami Patel, MD

Division of Hematology and Hematologic Malignancies

Huntsman Cancer Institute/University of Utah, USA

@AmiBPatelMD

@AmiBPatelMD.bsky.social

Blog post contributed by Adrienne Dorrance, PhD (@Dorrance_Lab, @DorranceLab.bsky.social) 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.