Who Are We? Beyond Earth at the Intersection of Bioscience and Religion

From the December 16, 2022 issue of the Transformational Times

Who Are We? Beyond Earth at the Intersection of Bioscience and Religion

Annie Friedrich, PhD and Ryan Spellecy, PhD

In December 2022, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, and Viterbo University hosted its first seminar on ‘Big Questions’ at the intersection of bioscience and religion. A perhaps unlikely pairing of a theologian and an astronomer explored what it means for humans to be unique in the vastness of the universe…

A theologian and an astronomer walk into a room…while this may sound like the beginning of a joke, this was the scene on December 5, 2022, for the inaugural session of a new seminar series called "Big Questions," which explores the intersection between bioscience and religion. Moderated by MCW’s Aasim Padela, MD, this series aims to foster interdisciplinary humble and fruitful dialogue, build bridges of understanding, and spark curiosity at the juncture of religion and science. The series seeks to replace the question of science or religion with “where do science and religion find common ground?”

More than 50 MCW faculty, staff, medical students, and community members heard from Astronomer Jennifer Wiseman, PhD and theologian Jonathan Crane, PhD, MPhil, MA. Dr. Wiseman is the Emeritus Director of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr Crane is the Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar of Bioethics and Jewish Thought at the Ethics Center, and Professor of Medicine and Religion at Emory University.

The question that began this series is a simple one: if there is life on other planets, what does that mean for human significance? Dr. Wiseman explored this question in light of astronomical discoveries, while Dr. Crane offered a Jewish perspective on the question of human uniqueness in the context of life beyond earth. While these perspectives may seem to be at odds, Drs. Wiseman and Crane had more in common than one might think, which is perhaps the point of interdisciplinary dialogues such as these.

In the vastness of the universe, are humans significant?

As Dr. Wiseman approached the podium, the lights were dimmed as a breathtaking photo of thousands of stars filled the screen. Thanks to technology like the Hubble Telescope, stars are no longer just small pinpricks of light; the image on the screen showed bright flashes of red, blue, and yellow. According to Dr. Wiseman, there are more than 200 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, which may lead one to feel small and insignificant.

Astronomer Carl Sagan may sum up this feeling of insignificance: “Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” And yet, Dr. Wiseman did not find this insignificance or smallness deterministic or fatalistic. Rather, she saw this as an opportunity to be inspired. Space exploration provides an invitation to explore what we don’t yet know or have not yet encountered, and Dr. Wiseman accepts that invitation gladly.

Betzelem Elohim: A Jewish perspective on human uniqueness

At the end of her remarks, Dr. Wiseman offered a counter to Dr. Sagan’s quote in Psalm 8:3-4 which says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is the man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Dr. Crane picked up the Psalms, as well, acknowledging that Jewish tradition recognizes that things outside of this earth are significant because God created them.

Yet, their significance is not a threat to our own. Humans are particularly unique, according to Dr. Crane, because humans are betzelem Elohim, made in the image of God. But what if other beings who are also “made in the image of God” are discovered? Would human uniqueness and superiority fail? We may not be the exclusive owners of betzelem Elohim, but we were given revelation, and Dr. Crane notes that this dialogue with God is what matters.

The significance of human significance

While questions of human uniqueness and significance are surely important questions worthy of exploration for their own sake, one might well be skeptical of the importance of these questions when our pediatric hospital is at—or over—capacity due to a triple threat of COVID, RSV, and influenza. When pressing deadlines or clinical responsibilities overwhelm, taking time for philosophical reflection may seem trivial at best or irresponsible at worst.

But, as Dr. Crane argued, being “made in the image of God” provides a certain comfort that allows us to “take risks” about science, healthcare, and the pursuit of knowledge. Reflecting on human significance—whether from a religious or scientific perspective—encourages us to push forward in our research endeavors and to take risks in our teaching as we develop a new curriculum and employ teaching techniques and modalities that may stretch us. As we seek to transform medical education, surely, we could all use comfort and the permission to take risks, as transformation does not come without challenges and risks.

Perhaps some of us are already confident of human significance. When a learner comes to us for help, overwhelmed by the subject matter or stresses of life, we take time to listen because we know they are unique and significant. If we did not believe in human significance and the intrinsic value of human beings, perhaps we would not have chosen this field in the first place.

Yet this affirmation of human significance, whether from a scientific or religious perspective, reminds us to approach our work with a spirit of service and compassion that can transform the practice of medicine, medical education, and the biomedical sciences.

Annie Friedrich, PhD, HEC-C is an Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities in the Institute for Health and Equity at MCW.

Ryan Spellecy, PhD, is the Ursula von der Ruhr Chair in Bioethics and Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, at MCW.

Reimagine: It’s Easy if You Try

 From the 1/15/2021 issue of the Transformational Times

Reimagine: It’s Easy if You Try




Balaraman Kalyanaraman, PhD – Professor, MCW Department of Biophysics






This amazing, prescient essay was originally published almost three years ago! We hope you can sense Dr. Kalyanaraman's excitement about Katalin Karikó, PhD and her research. Dr. Kariko and her team were just awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work laying the groundwork for an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine ...

“Anything you do I can do better, but only if you do it first. That’s because I have no imagination, only a re-imagination.”
–Andrew Keith Walker

Right now, I bet you are telling someone, or have been asked, to reimagine some aspect of your work or life. Or perhaps you are reading about or watching an advertisement focused on reimagining. But what does reimagine mean? According to Merriam-Webster, the first use of the word was in 1825, and it is now among the top 1% of words that are looked up. I don’t know about you, but the word “imagine” makes me happy; hearing it frees up space in my brain. Conversely, the word “reimagine” makes me feel tense and anxious; it sounds task oriented and somewhat contrived! Well, the more I’ve pondered the word “reimagine,” the more I’ve realized I do not have to feel this way!

While trying to understand “reimagine,” I came across this anecdote about imagination from the book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson, PhD:

An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to a group of six-year-old children. At the back of the classroom sat a little girl who normally didn’t pay much attention in school. In the drawing class she did. For more than twenty minutes, the girl sat with her arms curled around her paper, totally absorbed in what she was doing. The teacher found this fascinating. Eventually, she asked the girl what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”  

Surprised, the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”

The girl said, “They will in a minute.”

The girl was making an image of something she could not feel with her senses but could feel in her heart!

Try to reimagine “Imagine” written by John Lennon and inspired by Yoko Ono:

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Hmm, the song is not the same when reimagined, right?

Clearly, reimagination requires a lot more imagination with a lot more passion!
In business, people “think outside the box” and reimagine everything from A to Z! (Do you have a novel idea? Sorry! Amazon already claimed it.) I considered synonyms for reimagine: reconceptualize, re-envision, reinvent, rethink, refine, re-create, reevaluate, or reinterpret imaginatively. It seems that “reimagine” is a word meant to inspire us; it captures the essence of what we need to do together or in collaboration that builds upon our strength.

Below, I’ve given my thoughts on reimagining a few aspects of research and life that are personal to me, but I know there are plenty more that you can reimagine. Some of these also could be applicable to other areas, such as workplaces, social systems, communication, teaching, childcare, sports, and recreation.


Reimagining ideas in research

How does one reimagine research ideas? Here are some ways to get started:

• To find one good idea, you ought to begin with several ideas. It’s important, though, to work on only one idea at a time.
• Become obsessed with your idea. Believe in yourself but be prepared to modify your idea.
• Always be ready to talk about your research ideas passionately at different levels depending upon your audience.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to your colleagues about the grant that was not scored or did not score well enough to be funded, even if they are not in your field!
• Rejection happens to everyone, no matter your reputation in your field. Even Nobel laureates experience it. Ideas, new and old, are rejected all the time. What matters is how you respond to criticism and reshape your ideas!
• Even though you may have the most cutting-edge idea, your proposal may lack widespread approval in the study section and require tweaking. Sometimes you have not exactly read between the lines in the summary statement, and you keep resubmitting the same idea while expecting different results. This is when you really need to get out of your comfort zone and reimagine—consider a chemist/biochemist collaborating with an immunologist, a vaccine researcher (perhaps, an extreme example)!

A great example of reimagining - Katalin Karikó, PhD

Katalin Karikó, PhD, a Hungarian-born biochemist, first laid the foundation for the messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics that have been used to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Messenger RNA transfers the information from DNA to ribosomes to make specific proteins in cells. Karikó hypothesized that if a genetically coded synthetic mRNA was injected into mice, the cells in the body would make the specific protein instructed by the synthetic mRNA. In the 1990s, when she was faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Karikó submitted several grant proposals on this idea. The proposals were repeatedly rejected, as the reviewers’ thought this concept would not work because of the potential degradation of the synthetic mRNA in the body and the potentially dangerous inflammatory immune reaction.

Despite professional setbacks, Karikó believed in her idea and continued the work with little money. Karikó began collaborating with immunologist/mRNA vaccine researcher Drew Weissman, MD; together they came up with the idea to modify the structure of uridine, one of the four nucleosides of the building blocks of RNA. As they predicted, the modified mRNA encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle was taken up by cells; Karikó and Weissman then extended this technology to deliver the synthetic mRNA in mice.

They published a paper in 2005 and obtained NIH funding, and this new technology was patented by the University of Pennsylvania. BioNTech, a German company known for developing vaccines, licensed this technology, as did Moderna, a biotech company in Boston.

Karikó is now the senior vice president of BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals. The Pfizer-BioNTech partnership developed an mRNA vaccine designed to induce neutralizing antibodies against a portion of the SARS-CoV-2 “spike” protein that the virus uses to gain access into human cells. The antibodies against the “spike” protein recognize and neutralize SARS-CoV-2, thus preventing the infection.

Although Karikó encountered early setbacks in her research, she never gave up and always “imagined how the synthetic mRNA approach could treat so many diseases.”


Reimagining a work-life balance

Ideally, having a good work-life balance would give one satisfaction, fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and empathy.

During this pandemic, a barrier to optimal work-life balance exists for parents (more often mothers), particularly single parents, as they juggle work with childcare and home schooling.

People in the workforce are on different trajectories. Some just starting, some climbing up and trying to reach cruising altitude, some pushing the “reset” button, and some pushing the “rest” button. All too often, people (myself included) are too carried away in their work and give little attention to their life outside of work. Organizations conduct workshops to teach us ways to restructure our lives, which may not seem like rocket science, but it may be nearly as difficult. In what ways can we strike a good work-life balance?

I leave this to the experts to ponder. If we take the time to pause and contemplate it, we will be off to a great start.



Reimagining relationships

Professional advice on improving relationships is available everywhere, in workshops, talk shows, magazine articles. This is all well and good and may work for some people, but often we just need to reimagine the little things that are forgotten. Yes, I understand, “Physician, heal thyself,” and I think it goes well with “better late than never.” In his article, 10 Ways To Reimagine Your Relationship, Barton Goldsmith, PhD, says “doing new things together, and old things in new ways, makes your love stronger.” He proposes a number of ideas to reimagine relationships:

• Let go of the past. Learn to forgive and forget, and focus on the positives. Be grateful for each other and treat each day as a blessing. Write down at least one thing (daily or weekly) that you appreciate about your partner.
• Create your fantasy vacation. Daydreaming about your ideal vacation can be fun! During the pandemic, this may be hard to fathom, but things will get back to normal. And when you are able to take a vacation, you will be ready.
• Take a class together. Or do other activities with your partner: Take a virtual cooking class, learn CPR, learn a new language, take a walk through the park.
• Have lunch together once a week. This will help break the monotony.
• Ask your partner 20 questions. Show curiosity in your partner’s interests. What are some things you’ve always wanted to know about your partner but never took the time to ask?

To this list, I’ll add: Never be afraid to poke fun of yourself. Self-deprecating humor can ease those tense moments.

I am sure you can find many more fun things to add to this list.

Reimagining stress reduction through mindfulness

Emerging science convincingly shows that routine exercise, yoga, meditation, and mindful meditation can alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression. Herbert Benson, MD (Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital) pioneered the beneficial effects of meditation (e.g., lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and increasing brain activity). Functional MRI studies support the beneficial aspects of meditation to combat depression and anxiety.

Suzanne Westbrook, MD, a retired doctor of internal medicine, says, “our mind wanders all the time, either reviewing the past or planning for the future.” Mindfulness teaches the skill of paying attention to the present, and that life is in the moment. Mindfulness is not about trying to empty the mind; rather, it is about remaining present. It is a practice designed to improve brain health. Taking a slow deep breath through the nostrils (i.e., inhaling) and then slowly breathing out through the mouth (i.e., exhaling) will help you relax, reenergize, and reconnect. Repeat this inhalation/exhalation technique about 10 times. Use it as a “balance break” as needed during tense times (e.g., grant preparation). Mindfulness will improve your focus on the task at hand and face challenges with a healthy attitude, reduced stress, and increased energy. Mindfulness could be incorporated into many things—eating, conversation, listening. Some people practice 20–30 minutes of meditation that involves “mindful body scan,” during which one notices the sensations one is feeling without judgement. Indeed, mindfulness is presently at the top of the wellness universe as a stress reduction technique!


Let us imagine and then reimagine 2021! But not without first learning from 2020. Yes, hindsight is 20/20.



Balaraman Kalyanaraman, PhD, is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Biophysics at MCW.

When Science Isn’t Enough

From the March 31, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times - Women's History Month

When Science Isn’t Enough 

 

Stephanie Kellogg, PhD 

 

What do you do when your spark for a passion fades? Are you sure you fully understand your passion? My journey in biomedical research taught me to be mindful of my authentic self and to meet needs that are important for how I am wired... 

 

There was a time in my life when I would excitedly get out of bed, get to the lab before daybreak, and stay past dinner time. No one told me that was the expected schedule. There was no unseen or unspoken pressure to do that. I just did it, and I was happy doing it. 

But over time, the spark faded. It did not happen overnight. And looking back, it happened before I even noticed it. My unhindered steps to the lab turned into heavy, sticky steps that I had to force. Things were not as fun as they used to be. I still enjoyed my research projects and going to seminars and conferences, but something was missing. After much time and frustration wondering why “the science” was not enough for me anymore, I finally figured it out. For me, “the science” on its own was not enough.  I needed a social structure around science to fuel the spark. 

Of course, the pandemic has made this crystal clear. But to be honest, I was wrestling with these thoughts and feelings years before the pandemic. The experiences of funding droughts, moves, leadership changes, and poor work-life balance wore down my professional and personal social structures.

At the time, I didn’t have the maturity to recognize the importance of relationships while I had them. But they drove my training; they accepted my curiosity and enhanced my relationship with science. Without them, my passion for science would never burn as bright.  

When I first realized this, I felt a bit of shame. Why do I need others to help feed my passion? Maybe science is not my passion if I need others to help keep the flame going. Am I in the wrong field?

But then, the pandemic made us confront our realities, and I was able to find peace with these thoughts. It started with me accepting that I am a human being and part of the species Homo sapiens. Humans are wired to be social and are more successful with relationships and cooperativity. So, it made sense at a primitive level when my social structures wore down or disappeared, my flame went down, too. But why did it seem to affect me more than others? Pandemic aside, the examples I listed above are “normal” in research, so why did my fuel tank feel so empty? Is there still something wrong with me and my choice to be in science?  

After exploring my relationship to Homo sapiens, I took time to understand myself as a human being. My most insightful work has been with a strengths-based coach who helped me realize that I am highly attuned to the social and emotional needs of myself and others. This is how I am wired, and I should feel no shame in that. Meeting my relational needs opens the door for higher fulfillment, joy, and productivity. 

Not filling these needs impedes progress and fulfillment. My highs and lows in science and research finally made more sense. I now keep a stable social structure inside and outside of my profession and use my natural strengths to help develop resiliency in others who work in STEM and medicine. Although it looks and feels different than before, I feel like I have my spark back.  

How about you? Are you at a high or low point of your journey? Every twist and turn will help you grow into your authentic self. Listen to these whispers, be brave along the path, and stay connected with others. 

 

Stephanie Kellogg, PhD, is a Research Scientist in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. She supports research and administrative programs of the department with her scientific training and relational strengths. She enjoys connecting with others along their self-discovery journey and being a coach in our academic setting.  

 

Three Questions For Teresa Patitucci, PhD

 From the 3/5/2021 newsletter

Three Questions For Teresa Patitucci, PhD 

Assistant Professor Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy 

Medical College of Wisconsin

What was most beneficial about KINETIC3? 

The KINETIC3 Training Program was valuable for learning more about becoming an effective medical educator. This included various modalities that can be used for effective classroom sessions, like different active learning strategies, as well as how to assess learning from those sessions and provide feedback to learners. As a foundational scientist, it was hugely valuable to me to participate in these workshops with those engaged in clinical teaching to get a better understanding of where students are headed once they are finished with my courses. It was great to learn teaching tips from other participants in the courses! 

 How have you incorporated what you learned?

 I incorporate what I learned in KINETIC3 all the time! I had some teaching training experience prior to KINETIC3 where I learned nuts and bolts of writing learning outcomes and assessment questions, but really benefitted from learning more about adult learning theory, incorporating character into teaching, culturally responsive teaching, and turning education into scholarship. I regularly apply these lessons when designing courses and sessions, looking for “teachable moments” and ways to go over material that is engaging to an adult learner and trying to put the concept in context of how they will use it in the wider world with their patients. As an anatomist training learners for direct patient care, I find it important not just to talk about a structure on the body, but also how we as a culture interact with that region of the body and when a patient may need extra reassurance. 

What was your capstone and where has it gone? 

My capstone project focused on using critical reflection of strengths and weaknesses to develop character and emotional intelligence. Our project examined reflective writing pieces from M1 learners enrolled in Cliical Human Anatomy on the MCW-CW campus. We learned a lot about the student experience during their first 6 months adjusting to medical school, specifically analyzing comments in the domains of emotional intelligence, wellbeing, and teamwork. Students received feedback from a faculty member and completed self-assessments as follow-ups to the reflective writing activities. Since then, my capstone partner and I have continued working on this project, now with the help of a Transformative Initiatives (TI2) Grant from the Kern Institute. We are enrolling students from campuses other than MCW-CW, adding discussion sessions, and evaluating impact of repeated critical reflection on selfawareness and professional identity.

Reimagine: It’s Easy if You Try

From the 1/15/2021 issue of the Transformational Times

Reimagine: It’s Easy if You Try




Balaraman Kalyanaraman, PhD – Professor, MCW Department of Biophysics






Dr. Kalyanaraman takes a spirited look at the process of how we can reimagine many aspects of our lives, as well as our research (including the inspiring story of a COVID-19 researcher to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude), our relationships, and our health …

“Anything you do I can do better, but only if you do it first. That’s because I have no imagination, only a re-imagination.”
–Andrew Keith Walker

Right now, I bet you are telling someone, or have been asked, to reimagine some aspect of your work or life. Or perhaps you are reading about or watching an advertisement focused on reimagining. But what does reimagine mean? According to Merriam-Webster, the first use of the word was in 1825, and it is now among the top 1% of words that are looked up. I don’t know about you, but the word “imagine” makes me happy; hearing it frees up space in my brain. Conversely, the word “reimagine” makes me feel tense and anxious; it sounds task oriented and somewhat contrived! Well, the more I’ve pondered the word “reimagine,” the more I’ve realized I do not have to feel this way!

While trying to understand “reimagine,” I came across this anecdote about imagination from the book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson, PhD:

An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to a group of six-year-old children. At the back of the classroom sat a little girl who normally didn’t pay much attention in school. In the drawing class she did. For more than twenty minutes, the girl sat with her arms curled around her paper, totally absorbed in what she was doing. The teacher found this fascinating. Eventually, she asked the girl what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”  

Surprised, the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”

The girl said, “They will in a minute.”

The girl was making an image of something she could not feel with her senses but could feel in her heart!

Try to reimagine “Imagine” written by John Lennon and inspired by Yoko Ono:

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Hmm, the song is not the same when reimagined, right?

Clearly, reimagination requires a lot more imagination with a lot more passion!
In business, people “think outside the box” and reimagine everything from A to Z! (Do you have a novel idea? Sorry! Amazon already claimed it.) I considered synonyms for reimagine: reconceptualize, re-envision, reinvent, rethink, refine, re-create, reevaluate, or reinterpret imaginatively. It seems that “reimagine” is a word meant to inspire us; it captures the essence of what we need to do together or in collaboration that builds upon our strength.

Below, I’ve given my thoughts on reimagining a few aspects of research and life that are personal to me, but I know there are plenty more that you can reimagine. Some of these also could be applicable to other areas, such as workplaces, social systems, communication, teaching, childcare, sports, and recreation.


Reimagining ideas in research

How does one reimagine research ideas? Here are some ways to get started:

• To find one good idea, you ought to begin with several ideas. It’s important, though, to work on only one idea at a time.
• Become obsessed with your idea. Believe in yourself but be prepared to modify your idea.
• Always be ready to talk about your research ideas passionately at different levels depending upon your audience.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to your colleagues about the grant that was not scored or did not score well enough to be funded, even if they are not in your field!
• Rejection happens to everyone, no matter your reputation in your field. Even Nobel laureates experience it. Ideas, new and old, are rejected all the time. What matters is how you respond to criticism and reshape your ideas!
• Even though you may have the most cutting-edge idea, your proposal may lack widespread approval in the study section and require tweaking. Sometimes you have not exactly read between the lines in the summary statement, and you keep resubmitting the same idea while expecting different results. This is when you really need to get out of your comfort zone and reimagine—consider a chemist/biochemist collaborating with an immunologist, a vaccine researcher (perhaps, an extreme example)!

A great example of reimagining - Katalin Karikó, PhD

Katalin Karikó, PhD, a Hungarian-born biochemist, first laid the foundation for the messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics that have been used to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Messenger RNA transfers the information from DNA to ribosomes to make specific proteins in cells. Karikó hypothesized that if a genetically coded synthetic mRNA was injected into mice, the cells in the body would make the specific protein instructed by the synthetic mRNA. In the 1990s, when she was faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Karikó submitted several grant proposals on this idea. The proposals were repeatedly rejected, as the reviewers’ thought this concept would not work because of the potential degradation of the synthetic mRNA in the body and the potentially dangerous inflammatory immune reaction.

Despite professional setbacks, Karikó believed in her idea and continued the work with little money. Karikó began collaborating with immunologist/mRNA vaccine researcher Drew Weissman, MD; together they came up with the idea to modify the structure of uridine, one of the four nucleosides of the building blocks of RNA. As they predicted, the modified mRNA encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle was taken up by cells; Karikó and Weissman then extended this technology to deliver the synthetic mRNA in mice.

They published a paper in 2005 and obtained NIH funding, and this new technology was patented by the University of Pennsylvania. BioNTech, a German company known for developing vaccines, licensed this technology, as did Moderna, a biotech company in Boston.

Karikó is now the senior vice president of BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals. The Pfizer-BioNTech partnership developed an mRNA vaccine designed to induce neutralizing antibodies against a portion of the SARS-CoV-2 “spike” protein that the virus uses to gain access into human cells. The antibodies against the “spike” protein recognize and neutralize SARS-CoV-2, thus preventing the infection.

Although Karikó encountered early setbacks in her research, she never gave up and always “imagined how the synthetic mRNA approach could treat so many diseases.”


Reimagining a work-life balance

Ideally, having a good work-life balance would give one satisfaction, fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and empathy.

During this pandemic, a barrier to optimal work-life balance exists for parents (more often mothers), particularly single parents, as they juggle work with childcare and home schooling.

People in the workforce are on different trajectories. Some just starting, some climbing up and trying to reach cruising altitude, some pushing the “reset” button, and some pushing the “rest” button. All too often, people (myself included) are too carried away in their work and give little attention to their life outside of work. Organizations conduct workshops to teach us ways to restructure our lives, which may not seem like rocket science, but it may be nearly as difficult. In what ways can we strike a good work-life balance?

I leave this to the experts to ponder. If we take the time to pause and contemplate it, we will be off to a great start.



Reimagining relationships

Professional advice on improving relationships is available everywhere, in workshops, talk shows, magazine articles. This is all well and good and may work for some people, but often we just need to reimagine the little things that are forgotten. Yes, I understand, “Physician, heal thyself,” and I think it goes well with “better late than never.” In his article, 10 Ways To Reimagine Your Relationship, Barton Goldsmith, PhD, says “doing new things together, and old things in new ways, makes your love stronger.” He proposes a number of ideas to reimagine relationships:

• Let go of the past. Learn to forgive and forget, and focus on the positives. Be grateful for each other and treat each day as a blessing. Write down at least one thing (daily or weekly) that you appreciate about your partner.
• Create your fantasy vacation. Daydreaming about your ideal vacation can be fun! During the pandemic, this may be hard to fathom, but things will get back to normal. And when you are able to take a vacation, you will be ready.
• Take a class together. Or do other activities with your partner: Take a virtual cooking class, learn CPR, learn a new language, take a walk through the park.
• Have lunch together once a week. This will help break the monotony.
• Ask your partner 20 questions. Show curiosity in your partner’s interests. What are some things you’ve always wanted to know about your partner but never took the time to ask?

To this list, I’ll add: Never be afraid to poke fun of yourself. Self-deprecating humor can ease those tense moments.

I am sure you can find many more fun things to add to this list.

Reimagining stress reduction through mindfulness

Emerging science convincingly shows that routine exercise, yoga, meditation, and mindful meditation can alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression. Herbert Benson, MD (Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital) pioneered the beneficial effects of meditation (e.g., lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and increasing brain activity). Functional MRI studies support the beneficial aspects of meditation to combat depression and anxiety.

Suzanne Westbrook, MD, a retired doctor of internal medicine, says, “our mind wanders all the time, either reviewing the past or planning for the future.” Mindfulness teaches the skill of paying attention to the present, and that life is in the moment. Mindfulness is not about trying to empty the mind; rather, it is about remaining present. It is a practice designed to improve brain health. Taking a slow deep breath through the nostrils (i.e., inhaling) and then slowly breathing out through the mouth (i.e., exhaling) will help you relax, reenergize, and reconnect. Repeat this inhalation/exhalation technique about 10 times. Use it as a “balance break” as needed during tense times (e.g., grant preparation). Mindfulness will improve your focus on the task at hand and face challenges with a healthy attitude, reduced stress, and increased energy. Mindfulness could be incorporated into many things—eating, conversation, listening. Some people practice 20–30 minutes of meditation that involves “mindful body scan,” during which one notices the sensations one is feeling without judgement. Indeed, mindfulness is presently at the top of the wellness universe as a stress reduction technique!


Let us imagine and then reimagine 2021! But not without first learning from 2020. Yes, hindsight is 20/20.



Balaraman Kalyanaraman, PhD, is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Biophysics at MCW.