Dr. Fontana is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine Emeritus in Cardiovascular Diseases at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. This interview took place during the American Physician Scientist Association Midwest Meeting on March 8th, 2025 in a session entitled "Interview with an Icon."
Dr. Fontana completed her BA, MD, Internal Medicine Residency, and Fellowship in Cardiology at The Ohio State University Hospital (she’s only spent one year away for her internship at UNC Chapel Hill).
After all of her training at OSU, she decided to stay. She became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in 1971 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1976. Although OSUCOM students know her primarily as an educator, she is also a clinician scientist, publishing many papers on valvular disease, ranging back to as early as 1970 with a paper entitled “The Varying Clinical Spectrum of the Systolic Click” in Circulation.
To speak to her background as an educator. She became the director of the ACLS program in 1991 until 2004. She also became the Director of the Independent Study Program in 1992, which was one of the educational paths for preclinical medical students at Ohio State at the time. Notably, she has been the Cardiopulmonary Block Co-Director for Preclinical Education since 2011.
She has won at least 35 Teaching Awards in the College of Medicine, including the Ohio State University Lifetime Teaching Award, and is deeply intertwined with this institution.
Today's conversation is with Dr. Rahul Damania, a Pediatric Critical Care physician and founder of HyGuru, a fantastic platform structured to prepare medical students for high stakes exams. After completing his medical degree at Northeast Ohio Medical University and pediatrics residency at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Damania pursued his fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine while simultaneously earning a Masters in Medical Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Damania began his journey in medical education while still a medical student, teaching his first USMLE course and later developing HyGuru, an innovative approach to medical board exam preparation. His teaching methodology, which emphasizes the integration of basic sciences with clinical practice, has helped countless medical students navigate high-stakes exams.
In our conversation, we explore the changing landscape of medical education, including the recent transition of USMLE Step 1 to pass/fail, strategies for exam success, and the role of emerging technologies like AI in medical training. Dr. Damania shares insights from his unique perspective as both a practicing intensivist and medical educator, discussing how to balance clinical duties with educational innovation, and offering advice for aspiring medical entrepreneurs.
Dr. Derek Lowe is a highly respected figure in the pharmaceutical industry, known for his deep expertise in drug discovery and development. Derek got his BA from Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University on synthesis of natural products, before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship. Dr. Lowe has made significant contributions to medicinal chemistry, working on various stages of drug research, from target identification to lead optimization. He has worked for both large pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech firms, providing him with a broad perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the field. He is currently a Director at Novartis.
In addition to his professional work in the laboratory, Dr. Lowe is perhaps best known as the author of the popular blog In the Pipeline, which he has been writing since 2002. The blog offers insights into the world of drug discovery, covering scientific advances, industry trends, and the realities of pharmaceutical research. In the Pipeline has become a go-to resource for scientists, investors, and enthusiasts who seek to understand the complexities of drug development.
Dr. Lowe’s unique combination of hands-on experience in medicinal chemistry and his ability to communicate complex scientific ideas to a broad audience has made him a prominent voice in the scientific community. In our conversation, we discussed how he arrived at the position he currently holds, as well as how to think about academic science versus industry science. I continue to want to understand the similarities and differences between practicing these two types of science, and I believe Dr. Lowe gives a great pitch as to why one might want to become a scientist and how you can consider whether academics or industry may make more sense for you.
Useful Links:
Today’s conversation is with Dr. Zihai Li, Founding Director of the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Li completed medical school at Zhengzhou University, his PhD at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Internal Medicine Residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Medical Oncology Fellowship at University of Washington. He moved his professorship from the Medical University of South Carolina to Ohio State in 2019, when he was brought in to lead the PIIO. Today’s conversation surrounds Zihai’s long experience in the field of immuno-oncology, which is a wing of cancer medicine that is quickly and drastically shaping treatment for many cancer types. Within a decade, immunotherapy has become a hallmark of cancer treatment, with hundreds of new drug approvals and indications from the FDA.
My conversation with Dr. Li focuses on explaining some of the tenets of immunotherapy, as well as how he came to be a leader in this field. I was interested in learning about his training pathway, as I personally am considering a career in academic medical oncology. Beyond talking about his pathway and about the exciting development of the PIIO, we discuss his own personal motivations as a physician and scientist. For anyone on the research campus and in the cancer hospital at OSU, Dr. Li’s presence can surely be felt. He is extremely passionate, thoughtful, and motivated, and his energy truly brings the community together toward advancing cancer care.
Dr. Laura Chambers is a gynecologic oncologist and principle investigator at The Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital. Laura graduated from Midwestern University Chicago with her DO and completed residency in OBGYN and fellowship in Gyn Onc at the Cleveland Clinic. She now practices at OSU and studies the effects of the microbiome on gynecologic cancer outcomes. As a fun aside, Laura and I work together on many research projects, and we recently published a commentary in Cell Host and Microbe on exciting stage 1 clinical trial data supporting the use of Fecal Microbiota Transplant to improve immunotherapy response in patients who previously did not respond.
In this conversation, I wanted to talk with Laura to learn more about the unique clinical capabilities of a gynecologic oncologist. This continues my recent interviews with folks who practice different types of oncology, specifically from the academic perspective. Gyn Onc as a specialty is unique as it not only serves a very important clinical purpose, but it is the only oncologic specialty in which the same physician can complete a patient’s surgery and also manage any kind of systemic therapy they may receive. We discuss these details as well as how Laura balances this busy clinical career with her research goals and personal life. As a physician scientist who balances time with her family extremely well, I wanted to pick her brain on how she is capable of doing it all. I respect Dr. Chambers a great deal for many reasons, but one of the most pertinent is how much she cares about all aspects of her life, and how great she is even in the face of tough times and adversity.
Dr. Justin Sanchez is a Battelle Technical fellow, a member of the senior leadership team for Battelle’s Life Sciences and Biotechnology departments, and world-renowned expert in biotechnology. Prior to joining Battelle, Dr. Sanchez was the Director of the Biological Technologies Office (BTO) at DARPA. He earned his Masters in Engineering and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida. Major accomplishments include developing foundational human neurotechnology for the United States BRAIN Initiative, delivering the world’s most advanced prosthetic arm to military Veterans, accelerating gene editing techniques for national security/human health, and forming partnerships to deliver countermeasures in the African Ebola crisis. He was responsible for starting 31 new DARPA programs and investing more than $1.65 billion at national labs, industry, and academic institutions.
In our conversation, we discuss some of his exciting areas of expertise including the development of neuroprosthetics and novel drug discovery methods including non-viral gene delivery. We also explain Battelle, which is an independent nonprofit that conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. We use the example of Battelle to then dichotomize industry science and academic science. Finally, we reflect on what makes a good scientist, what makes for a good scientific question/a worthwhile scientific issue to invest in, and how researchers can be good leaders and mentors.
Dr. Jason Ryan is a Board Certified Cardiologist and the Director of the University of Connecticut Heart Failure Center who is very well known amongst medical students for his educational platform that helps prepare for the USMLE STEP1 board exam called Boards and Beyond. Dr. Ryan earned his MD and MPH from the University of Connecticut in 2001 and completed postdoctoral training and a cardiology fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Dr. Ryan has been a clinical educator for several decades now at UConn Health, and he started Boards and Beyond as a widely accessible resource for medical students in 2014. Subsequently, Boards and Beyond has generated video recorded lectures that can be purchased by subscription to assist with STEP1 prep - this is a resource myself and virtually all of my friends in medical school used in our prep for the STEP1 exam. Outside of B&B, Dr. Ryan recently released his first book entitled “The Gunner,” which is a satire of some of the hilarities and difficulties of medical school training.
In our conversation, Dr. Ryan and I discuss what Boards and Beyond is, how he prefers to teach (including tips on why he believes students find his style of teaching to be effective) details on his recent book The Gunner, and other hot and debatable topics in medical education. This was an extremely enjoyable conversation for me, as I have been listening to Dr. Ryan’s lectures for hours and hours in preparation for Step1. Definitely a meet your hero (and all my friends’ hero) moment. Further, getting to discuss Dr. Ryan’s book and his recent sale of Boards and Beyond was extremely interesting. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Jason Ryan.
Useful Links:
Dr. Ryan’s Instagram and X (twitter) handle: @jasonryanmd
In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Itai Yanai, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Scientific Director of the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratories at New York University Langone Health. Outside of his very accomplished academic career, Itai hosts the awesome podcast Night Science with Dr. Martin Lercher, in which they interview guests about their own styles and methods of thinking about science. Night Science, as Itai describes here, is the aspect of research involving the pondering, the processing, and the development of testable hypotheses. This is compared to Day Science, in which researchers are actually executing experiments, writing code, and generating data. Itai’s own research spans several fields, including making sense of the human transcriptome, single-cell analysis, gene expression profiling, and gene regulation and development.
What sticks out to me about Itai is his ability to truly think deeply about biology. I believe this stems from his detailed appreciation for the scientific process itself, which includes building out time to think about science and the topics he studies as opposed to simply doing experiments and analyzing data. We discuss tricks to become better thinkers and the importance of having collaborators that we can bounce ideas off of for the sake of improving our projects. We also discuss his experience as a science communicator through the Night Science Podcast as well as his book, Society of Genes, and blog for Genome Biology.
Useful Links:
Night Science Podcast Website
Dr. Raphael Pollock MD, PhD is an internationally renowned surgical oncologist and Director of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2013. In our discussion, I talk with Dr. Pollock about what makes him passionate about cancer medicine, what goes into running and building the OSUCCC, and how to build great teams. We also discuss what makes the OSUCCC special, and how interdisciplinary cancer care most effectively treats a patient’s disease. Further, we discuss the details of surgical oncology as a specialty, and Dr. Pollock provides his insight on how a medical student may know if a surgical specialty would suit them.
Before his tenure at Ohio State, Dr. Pollock was the Chair of the Department of Surgical Oncology and Head of the Division of Surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Pollock received his Medical Degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine, completed his General Surgery Residency at University of Chicago and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s, and his Surgical Oncology Fellowship and PhD at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Useful Links:
Dr. Lisa Corwin, Dr. Sandhya Krishnan and I discuss the psychology of how students can internalize and maximally leverage perceived failures in academics/research to grow and become more resilient. Dr. Corwin is an Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Dr. Krishnan is a postdoctoral research fellow, both at the University of Colorado Boulder. These researchers investigate students’ experiences of failure in course-based undergraduate research experiences. In this episode, we talk about their research in STEM education, the experience of failure in STEM students, and the exciting opportunities FLAMEnet has to offer.
Lisa, Sandhya and I discuss what falls under the definition of an academic failure and how students positively or negatively change based on a perceived failure. The purpose of discussing failure leans into a major problem facing STEM students, especially students interested in research: great science and learning doesn’t happen without mistakes, but undergraduate and graduate education often prioritizes perfection over learning.
Dr. Corwin is the Principle Investigator for the Research on Ecology and Evolution Education for Action and Change Lab. https://www.colorado.edu/ebio/lisa-corwin
REACH lab website: https://www.thereachlab.org/people
FAIL is Not a Four Letter Word: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6757216/#:~:text=PMID%3A%2030821602-,FAIL%20Is%20Not%20a%20Four%2DLetter%20Word%3A%20A%20Theoretical%20Framework,Failure%20in%20STEM%20Learning%20Environments
The SBS Podcast is back! In this intro episode, Dennis reintroduces the goals and direction of the podcast and shares a few highlights of episodes that are soon to be released! Guests included in this intro include:
Drs. Lisa Corwin, Assistant Professor, and Sandhya Krishnan, Post-Doctoral Scholar, at the University of Colorado and administrators at FLAMEnet
Dr. Raphael Pollock, the Director of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Itai Yanai, the Director of the Institution for Computational Biology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Cohost of the Night Science Podcast
Dr. Jason Ryan, Founder of Boards and Beyond and Associate Professor of Medicine and Hear Failure Center Co-Director at the University of Connecticut
For more SBS Podcast content, check out our Substack (sciencebehindscience.substack.com) and X/Twitter (@scibehindscipod).
Thank you, as always, and we hope you enjoy the return of the Science Behind Science Podcast!
Dennis and Ann recap Season 2 of the Science Behind Science podcast by sharing personal highlights and illuminating a few common threads they identified in the conversations recorded thus far. Finally, Dennis shares some of his future plans for season 3 and provides information for how you can connect with the podcast!
Science Behind Science Substack
Twitter: @SciBehindSciPod
Email: sciencebehindsciencepodcast@gmail.com
Dennis tells us about his experience writing his first real scientific paper, which was published in Human Molecular Genetics in 2021. Our goal in this conversation was to establish what goes into making a peer-reviewed scientific article, including everything from crafting ideas and hypotheses to how to submit a full manuscript to a journal for review. Dennis shares his highlights and advice from the publishing process, as well as the lessons he learned regarding writing techniques, collaboration tips, and the importance of setting internal goals and deadlines. We also discuss the logistics of how to format a manuscript for scientific publication in a medical research journal, as well as how the peer review process occurs at academic journals including general timelines for submission and publication.
Dennis is a current second year medical student at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and earned his Bachelor’s of Science in Biology with Honors from Haverford College in 2020. After college, Dennis worked in Dr. Charis Eng’s lab at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, where he studied the regulation of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN as well as the impact of microbes on cancer therapeutics. He continues to study the tumor microbiome at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s James Cancer Hospital in Dr. Daniel Spakowicz’s lab, specifically focusing on the role of gut and intratumoral microbes on radiation therapy response for several internal and external fellowships.
Some Useful Links:
Scitable Article from Science on Writing Manuscripts
Nature Publishing Options Website - Costs of Nature Open Access Publication
“Open access: The true cost of science publishing” by Richard Van Noorden
Dr. Michael Para tells us about his experiences working on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS pandemic when it first hit the USA. Dr. Para is a physician specializing in Infectious Diseases; a Professor Emeritus in Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics; and Co-Principal Investigator of the Infectious Disease Clinical Trials Unit at Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. From him we learn about the initial set of cases, how the disease developed, how it affected patient care, and how treatment plans for this disease evolved into what they are today. Dr. Para gives a heartbreaking description of what the social implications were for those diagnosed with HIV, and his instrumental role as a doctor in providing hope when there was no cure is explored. We also learn about HIPAA and how that grew out of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Dr. Justin Lathia is the Director of Faculty Development and the Vice Chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. He also holds a co-captain role on the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute’s Velosano Team. Dr. Lathia has been riding in Velosano since its inception 10 years ago, and he is a wonderful advocate for the importance of fundraising in cancer research. We wanted to sit down and talk with him to discuss why fundraising is so important. Particularly, Dr. Lathia notes that early career researchers and extremely innovative ideas are often blocked from funding from canonical funding sources due to reasonable risk-mitigation strategies from large institutions. Therefore, organizations like Velosano, he argues, allows for crazy ideas to launch and young scientists to earn a chance to succeed.
Links from our Conversation
Velosano Impact Site (How the Funding has Facilitated Discoveries at CCF)
CCF LRI Velosano Team Fundraising Site
Dr. Justin Lathia’s Velosano Fundraising Site
Dennis Grencewicz’s Velosano Fundraising Site
Matthew Marquardt, a third-year medical student at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and pro-triathlete in Ironman and Professional Triathletes Organization competitions, spills his secrets for successfully managing his time in arguably one of the busiest seasons of his life. We hear stories from Matt about how he first got into sports, what swimming at Princeton was like for him, and how he biked across the US in less than a month. He delves into how he prepares for his Ironman competitions, why he loves competing, and how his rigorous training schedule has benefitted his life and mentality. On the other side of things, we hear from him about his passion for medicine, how he studies for med school, and maintains relationships that matter to him. He covers deep-work philosophy, prioritization, the benefits of approaching life with a scientific mindset, and how to live with intention. Finally, he humbly shares with us the challenges of this lifestyle while encouraging us to pursue the things that are meaningful to us and valuable.
Some helpful links:
Professional Triathletes Organization
Christian Essman is the Senior Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and host of the amazing “All Access: Med School Admissions” podcast. He holds an in-depth discussion with us about the admissions process for entry into allopathic medical school in the US and the role of an admissions committee member. We pour over the different components of the application, detailing what prospective applicants can start doing now to build a strong application and how current applicants can leverage who they are and their experiences to stand out as they apply and interview. Christian speaks to the importance of extracurriculars in the application, the transferability of skills gained from research experiences to the medical field, and how one can prepare for the interview. He shares the responsibilities and unique privileges admissions committee members have and addresses some misconceptions about the committees and the admissions process. Throughout the conversation, we also hear from Dennis about his experience applying to med school and matriculating to The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Both he and Christian also share their number one pieces of advice for current applicants.
Helpful links:
Dr. Sylvain Ferrandon, a research scientist and lab manager at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, shares his immigration story as a scientist from France coming to the US for a postdoctoral fellowship. We learn from Sylvain about the structure of the French education system, the factors that led him to look for research opportunities outside of France, and the qualities that make the US such a desirable place for scientists to work. He describes how he looked for and landed a job in the US and he paints a vivid picture of his first week upon arrival in Cleveland, Ohio. Through his story, we are introduced to some of the very real challenges international researchers in the US face, including meeting visa/work authorization renewal deadlines, overcoming language barriers, and building a credit score. Sylvain also explains how he found and created community. We discuss the benefits of diversified backgrounds in science, and the trends we predict for international researchers in the US. Interwoven in this conversation are Sylvain’s unwavering love of learning, his tangible excitement to explore the world, and his deep admiration and respect for the sacrifices made by international scientists to do research in the US.
Some helpful links:
Dr. George Fox, Emeritus Professor and Research Professor at the University of Houston, relates the remarkable story of how he and his late mentor, Dr. Carl Woese, discovered the biological kingdom Archaea. He explains how they realized they had identified a new kingdom, how this discovery was initially received by the scientific community, and how their work has shaped medicine and research to this day. We get an excellent overview of the science of 16S rRNA sequencing, background on Dr. Fox’s journey to become a scientist, and career advice for those who are uncertain about what to pursue. As he relayed his story, we were struck by Dr. Fox’s accomplishments, but even more so by his humility. We hope his legacy inspires you and the next generation of researchers for years to come.
Some useful links:
Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms
Scientists Discover a Form of Life That Predates Higher Organisms
Dr. Electra Paskett has a conversation with us on the field of epidemiology broadly, with a special focus on behavioral cancer epidemiology. She is the Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control in the College of Medicine, an epidemiology professor in the College of Public Health, the Associate Director for Population Sciences and Program Leader of the Cancer Control Program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Ohio State University, and the Director of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at the James Cancer Hospital. We discuss the subdisciplines of this field, how research is conducted, the impact of the social determinants of health on medical care, and the value of epidemiological research holistically. Dr. Paskett enumerates the factors that strongly associate with disparities and addresses misconceptions and challenges she faces in her work, while providing examples of some of her initiatives that are currently underway. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Paskett shares her passion for understanding why certain people get cancer and for designing interventions to prevent or reduce the risk of cancer.
