Month / Jun 2023

by Gabriele Feigelman

Breaking the Silence: A Call to Share Time Management Strategies for Parents Seeking Careers

As Seneca once said:

“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” 

Unfortunately, time is the only asset that cannot be recovered once lost. Unlike other material possessions, someone borrowing your time cannot return it to you. Even now, as a mother of a one-year-old, I find time management and productivity fascinating. My focus has shifted from seeking tips from productivity experts to finding inspiration from parents who work and study. Therefore, they are my current source of inspiration and true time-management champions, helping me utilize time efficiently.

Having a child completely changes your understanding of time. You feel its fragility more than ever. You chase it constantly. Becoming a parent means you can only fulfill your career goals with excellent time management skills. Finding parents who balance work with parenting and are willing to share their experiences is challenging.

The Need for Relatable Examples

First-time parents need inspiring examples of how to manage a career and parenthood. On social media, it’s easier to find realistic depictions of a stay-at-home parent’s day than examples of busy parents juggling both responsibilities. Parents rarely share the road to successful parenthood and a career. In many cases, they ignore the impact of their daily lives on reaching professional goals. Often, they don’t have time to share their experiences outside of their family. It takes time to find these parents so you can learn from them.

Students and parents can find practical advice at the university.

I found Technion’s mentorship group for mothers in academia very helpful. It helped me anticipate future challenges and provided solutions I may not have thought of otherwise. I could say more about this group, but it’s enough to say that every university should have one. There, I heard academic staff members’ stories and their children’s opinions about what it meant to see their mothers working. Seeing the struggles and achievements of these parents can be incredibly helpful.

The Missing Components in Efficient Management of Parenthood and Career:

  • The not applicable portrayal of parenthood in social media for working/studying couples
  • The importance of acknowledging and addressing feelings of guilt, exhaustion, and the need for help
  • Examples of how to use short periods of work/study while caring for a child
  • Not considering each family’s unique situation: workload, background, economic situation, and family support.

  • Dealing with guilt for not being present. Parents often feel guilty at work when they think about their children and at home when they think about their work. Living in the present is the first step to overcoming this. Bringing work home or dealing with home issues at work is pointless. Plan your day to accomplish your work tasks.
  • Feeling guilty for not spending enough time with your children. Parents often compare themselves with people living a completely different lifestyle. Working parents should not compare themselves with stay-at-home parents. They should consider examples with similar lifestyles or stop comparing themselves at all. I knew what it felt like to be raised by a working mother. My mother worked daily from 7 am to 9 pm. Despite everything, this did not damage our relationship. I still consider her one of my best friends and advisors.
    Even if I knew from experience that it was possible, I had to hear it from others. Thus, I was relieved to hear professors at Technion admit that their careers have not retroactively affected their family life. Hearing that they also felt guilty while raising their children was comforting too.
  • Fight productivity decline due to low energy levels. Parents and workers need to care for themselves to be productive. This involves asking friends and family for help and resting while the second parent is with the child. If you can share the load, do it. There is no need to do everything alone. Work from home when your energy levels and environment allow—in the morning or at night, depending on the parent. Many people use a weekend day to catch up on work while sending their partner and children to play dates or to family visits.
  • Seek help from alternative sources. I heard about a mother who paid her teenage neighbor to watch her toddler/baby during her maternity leave so that she could work. It’s a brilliant idea, one I wouldn’t have thought of myself. As she pointed out, she does not need a babysitter at home. She can feed and care for the baby but needs someone to occupy him while working. This is much cheaper than hiring a babysitter and gives parents additional flexibility.
  • Make time for your kids. Be present, close the phone, and enjoy the moment. Include your kids in family activities. Your chores might be the perfect game for them when they are small and want to get to know you. My baby found it funny that I threw wet clothing into the dryer. Although it takes more time to do the chore, it gives your children a sense of independence and time for bonding.
  • Make a plan for 20 minutes a day. Free time can pop up suddenly, so make the most of it by planning what to do. Parenting means you value those 20 minutes, and there is still much you can do. You can write an e-mail, pay the bills, exercise, read for fun, or clean a room. In 20 minutes, it’s challenging to do something creative, but other tasks requiring low creativity are doable.
  • Consider cost-effectiveness. If you can afford it, hire help rather than do it yourself. Ultimately, we choose what we work for. Instead of doing house chores you hate, you can work extra shifts at your preferred job. Your financial flexibility should guide your decision. For 60 EUR/66 USD, would it be worth spending four extra hours with your kid? By working from home or an extra shift, the cost of 4 hours of help for the family decreases, and you still have 2 hours for family interaction.

The career-driven parents: the real heroes of time management

After returning from maternity leave, many mothers report increased productivity at some point. Despite the new need to care for a baby, child sickness leave, on average, they have higher productivity than when they didn’t have children. As my Hebrew teacher said, all changes come gradually: “You are born as a mother or father when the baby is born. The amount of experience you have as a parent is similar to your baby. A two-month-old baby has a two-month-old parent.” The experience you gain in time management equals two months, but as time passes, the experience grows. Stories from many females confirm this, but science has limited data to back it up. It may be time for more research, for more voices to speak up.

Science emphasizes the importance of a support system for females that would allow them to pursue their carrier. According to a study by Matthias Krapf et al. 2014, motherhood boosts female researchers’ research productivity throughout their careers. But Matthias Krapf et al. also found that unmarried women, as well as women under 30, are negatively affected by parenthood. Thus, females need a support system that allows them to pursue a career. An effective support system can be a family member, a mentor from the university, or an example of successful parents who manage their careers and time while raising their children. The world needs more heroes to speak up about how they managed their time to pursue careers and maintain family ties.

Literature Source:

Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Groves of Academe Working Paper 2014-001A by Matthias Krapf, Heinrich W. Ursprung, and Christian Zimmermann. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.05.010

by Gabriele Feigelman

Planning Your First Laboratory Experiments: Unveiling the Process of Thoughts

Introduction:

Embarking on your first laboratory experiments can be both exciting and overwhelming. You can use this guide to ensure your experiments are well-planned and the planning process runs smoothly. We will use an example to explain how to plan experiments from the beginning. So let’s dive in and uncover the steps to successfully design your first laboratory experiments.

Step 1: Analyze the Research Question

Begin by clearly defining your research question. For instance, “Do macrophage-fibroblast interactions influence the metastatic spread of tumor cells?”

Step 2: Exclude Keywords from the Research Question

Identify the keywords in your research question and extract them. In our example, the extracted keywords are “interaction” and “metastatic spread.”

Step 3: Determine Descriptive Characteristics

Think about what characteristics could describe the keywords you excluded. In this case:

– As a result of interaction, things overlap, but they don’t exist separately in the same way. Thus, this cooperation can diminish, amplify, or even generate new effects.

– The metastatic spread has several amplified characteristics, depending on its stage. There is increased proliferation, angiogenesis, transcription of proliferative genes, and decreased transcription of dormant genes.

Which assays can you use to measure separate characteristics of the keywords?

ProliferationCCK-8, BrDU
Gene ExpressionPCR
Extracellular Proteins (secreted)ELISA
Intracellular Proteins and their distributionIF
Intracellular proteinWB

Step 4: Explore Existing Literature to Shape Expectations

Research what is known in the literature about your research question to shape your expectations. In our case, macrophages and fibroblasts should interact to promote metastasis.

Step 5: Define the Desired Outcome

Decide what effect you want to observe in your experiments. This will further refine your focus and guide your experimental design. In our case, the desired outcome is a change in the metastatic spread.

Step 6: Determine the Cause

Consider how you will prove the cause of the observed effect. In our case, we know that metastatic cells spread due to the interaction between macrophages and fibroblasts. We wonder if this interaction occurs directly with tumor cells or indirectly through soluble messengers. We are not interested in tumor cell-macrophage or tumor cell-fibroblast interactions. Thus, we will focus on an indirect approach that prevents other combinations of cell-cell interactions.

We will test this through different experimental setups.

Experimental Design:

Part 1: Examining the Effect of Interaction on Tumor Cells. Test tumor cells with and without supernatant derived from macrophages grown with fibroblasts. Identify if the change in the metastatic spread is present.

Part 2: Identifying the Source of the Effect. Identify whether the effect is caused by macrophages, fibroblasts, or their interaction. Investigate what drives the impact.

– Group 1: Tumor cells treated with supernatant from macrophages grown with fibroblasts.
– Group 2: Tumor cells treated with supernatant from macrophages alone.
– Group 3: Tumor cells treated with supernatant from fibroblasts alone.

Optimizing Experimental Conditions:

To ensure reliable results, consider the following factors:

1. Type of media and its volume. Choose a medium type and volume that supports cell growth and viability during the experiment.

2. Decide on Main Control. Part 1: Tumor cells without supernatant. Part 2: Tumor cells treated with supernatant from macrophages grown with fibroblasts.

3. Number of cells and incubation time. Ensure that the cell density allows proliferation without overcrowding. Adjust the number of cells and the incubation time accordingly. Some genes and secreted proteins may need longer incubation times. Follow color changes in the cells’ media throughout the experiment, as they could show overcrowding.

by Gabriele Feigelman

The Importance of Hormone Therapy in Preventing Breast Cancer Recurrence: What Oncologist Didn’t Tell You.

Image Source: Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik

It was early morning in 2020, and I was an intern sitting on the spare chair at the oncologist’s office. My biggest concern was that the doctor I would be working with would ask me a question I couldn’t answer. Yet, I instantly forgot the fear when the first patient arrived.

The patient greeted us. She sat down on the opposite side of the table and looked tense. The doctor and I skimmed through the data on her computer. “The surgery was a success,” the doctor informed her. “There is no evidence of breast cancer.” Immediately, a wave of relief washed over the patient, and I also felt calm. “Our next step is to take hormone therapy for five to ten years,” the doctor continued.

“Why should I take these medications for five years after my tests and surgery went well?” the patient asked. The patient appeared confused, and so was I. I felt confronted by the cold logic of this question. As a trainee, I held my breath, contemplating my response. But none of the answers that came to my mind satisfied me. I hate not knowing what to say.

“This treatment would prevent the cancer from returning,” the doctor replied. It was an acceptable answer, but I was dissatisfied since the risk of cancer returning seemed more like a possibility than a threat. It made me feel worse to remember that compliance with long-term therapy is low [1]. In particular, if a patient experiences side effects like joint pain. Knowing all this made me feel worse. As I drove home, these concerns plagued my thoughts, wondering whether the patient would adhere to her hormone regimen.

Years of research and my Ph.D. led me to the answer I sought. It is now clear why hormone treatment is so vital after successful surgery. This is due to disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) posing a considerable challenge. These cells spread from a patient’s tumor, even in the cancer’s early stages [2]. In some cases, before resection. Thus, DTCs are already there, waiting for favorable signals to multiply unrestrictedly. Hormonal therapy, however, can prevent cancer recurrence by controlling these signals [3]. This realization motivates us to take action daily since it is not based on vague threats from the future.
Using hormone therapy, we can suppress the growth of these dormant tumor cells, which are undetectable by imaging. While the therapy does not eliminate disseminated tumor cells, it prevents cancer relapse. Thus, ensuring high levels of compliance is very crucial for long-term success.

Dear patient,

I hope you have the strength to stick with your therapy. It is a challenging task over the long haul. Your therapy doesn’t focus solely on preventing what may or may not happen after successful surgery. Your medications empower you to keep disseminated tumor cells in check today and every day. And it will be worth it as long as it outweighs the risks.

Literature Resources:

1. Hershman DL, Kushi LH, Shao T, Buono D, Kershenbaum A, Tsai WY, Fehrenbacher L, Gomez SL, Miles S, Neugut AI. Early discontinuation and nonadherence to adjuvant hormonal therapy in a cohort of 8,769 early-stage breast cancer patients. J Clin Oncol. 2010 Sep 20;28(27):4120-8. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2009.25.9655. Epub 2010 Jun 28. PMID: 20585090; PMCID: PMC2953970. Accessed via Internet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953970/ [2/6/2023]
2. Braun S, Pantel K, Müller P, Janni W, Hepp F, Kentenich CR, Gastroph S, Wischnik A, Dimpfl T, Kindermann G, Riethmüller G, Schlimok G. Cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow and survival of patients with stage I, II, or III breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2000 Feb 24;342(8):525-33. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200002243420801. Erratum in: N Engl J Med 2000 Jul 27;343(4):308. PMID: 10684910. Accessed via Internet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953970/ [2/6/2023]
3. Buschhaus JM, Humphries BA, Eckley SS, Robison TH, Cutter AC, Rajendran S, Haley HR, Bevoor AS, Luker KE, Luker GD. Targeting disseminated estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer cells in bone marrow. Oncogene. 2020 Aug;39(34):5649-5662. doi: 10.1038/s41388-020-01391-z. Epub 2020 Jul 16. PMID: 32678295; PMCID: PMC7442734. Accessed via Internet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7442734/ [2/6/2023]