Page 5 - SFRBMdot July 2015

funding for research and low morale, what is the best advice?

There is always room for optimism, and recent reports are that NIH

may get a long-needed boost in support from Congress. Newt Gingrich

recently wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times (Apr 21, 2015) calling

for another doubling of the NIH budget, and in mid-May, the U.S. House

of Representatives released a draft bill that aims to increase the NIH

budget by $10 billion over 5 years. These shifting winds mean that

investigators should stay tuned for additional evolving opportunities.

Your Society leadership is trying to bring awareness to the ield of

redox biology and medicine at the NIH and other federal granting

agencies by bringing scientiic review administrators and program

oficers to the annual meetings to hold workshops for our members

and highlight recent trends and funding opportunities in our ield.

DOT: Being a mentor, you have shaped many students (graduate and

postdoc) to enter academic and industry research, any tips how to

shape individuals for these scientiic ields?
Past members of Domann’s Lab who started with SFRBM as student members and have transitioned into

their academic and industry research.
There is no substitute for assiduity and a solid work ethic; being present (From L to R) Kimberly Krager, Michael Hitchler, Rick Domann, Adam Case, Trent Place, and Collin Heer

is the greatest part of success. Beyond that, astute observational and
there is inally a realization in the community that redox sensors have
critical thinking skills are required in a scientiic profession of any kind. In
been frequently misconstrued as antioxidant defenses when in many
addition, organizational, time management, and effective interpersonal
cases they are in fact signal transducing modules. All major disease of

communication are all key elements to success in science. I believe
mankind possess an oxidative stress component to their pathologies,
that proposals and reports need be compiled in a technically accurate
and so in order to cure these disease a deeper understanding of the
manner and written in cogent prose in both academic and industry
redox signaling relays evolved in life in oxygen is needed.
roles, so I think at least at the graduate training level there is little

difference in how I would prepare them. At the post-doctoral level, a DOT: And in the other direction, translational research.

postdoc interested in industry may test the waters irst by doing an
Translational research utilizing basic knowledge learned from redox
industry post-doc or internship.
biology is growing exponentially. The role of free radicals and redox

DOT: What do you think is the direction the Oxidative Stress ield is biology in inlammation, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and pulmonary

diseases is well appreciated. Now, pharmacological control of certain
heading?
of these systems is well in hand and drugs that mimic SOD activity are

Interesting question. I think that life is stress, especially life in an
in clinical trials. Also, the paradoxical pro-oxidant effects of high dose
oxygen rich world. Thus all living organisms are in a non-steady state
vitamin C are making a big comeback in cancer clinics nationally with
equilibrium that oscillates around various levels depending upon
promising results using high C as an adjuvant for traditional therapies
physical, biological, and environmental cues. A normal state of existence
with no notable toxicity. Also, the role of redox couples that sense and
might be thought of as “eustress”, which is a normal and good part of
signal oxidative stress, such as NADH/NAD+ are found to be vitally
life that is hormetic and that allows for rapid adaptive responses in
important for aging and cancer by altering the activity of sirtuin family
either direction to maintain cell and tissue redox balance. Additionally,
enzymes, and oral nicotinamide was recently found to provide signiicant

SFRBM Newsletter // July 2015 // Radical View • Dr. Rick Domann

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