Focus on Faculty
November 2007
Heddwen L. Brooks, PhD
Assistant Professor
Physiology
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
Cardiff, Wales. I was there until I was 18 years old, and went away to Aberystwyth for College. My family is still in Cardiff.
Tell us about your background and where you traveled to work and received your education
In Britain you tended to go away from home because it was free to go to University so I went to Aberystwyth to study Zoology, and specialized in Parasitology, Immunology and Marine Biology. After graduating I went to Ghana, West Africa for a year of voluntary work overseas, and I taught 11 through 18 year olds biology. I traveled throughout Ghana during the school holidays and saw first hand the extent to which parasitic diseases crippled life for children and adults in villages across Ghana. While I was out there I visited an Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) research field station and realized I missed the research element of education. On return to the U.K. I pursued my Masters at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. That led to a PhD at the University of London, Imperial College in the Wellcome Centre for Parasitic Infections.
My PhD was in Molecular Immunology and Epidemiology with Dr. Don Bundy, who is now Director of Human Development and Education at the World Bank, Washington DC. My first fellowship was at the University of Southampton, working in an invertebrate neurobiology group, cloning nicotinic receptors in C. elegans and parasitic nematodes, before I came to the US to get my BA (Been to America qualification). Scientists in the U.K. were encouraged to come to the U.S. to develop their careers. Thus after being awarded a scholarship to attend a molecular neurobiology course at Friday Harbor Labs in the Puget Sound, through the University of Washington, I moved to the U.S. in 1997 and completed a two year post-doctoral fellowship here at The University of Arizona. I came to work on potassium channels but ended up working on water channels, aquaporins. And hence the move from parasites to the kidney! Once here I loved the U.S. system, which is very open to opportunity and collaboration; and very different from the U.K. system at the time I left, thus I was in no hurry to return. Scientifically I had focused on molecular techniques for so long (cloning and moaning) that I wanted to move to a systems biology laboratory to apply molecular techniques to physiological problems. I was lucky enough to be accepted for a two year fellowship at the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda with Dr. Mark Knepper, who was and still is an excellent mentor for my career. Thus I went to one of the best kidney labs in the country and became a renal physiologist. In 2001 I applied for an Assistant Professor’s position in the Department of Physiology here at the University of Arizona as I loved the environment here. It was interactive, collaborative, and most importantly sociable; colleagues actually liked each other and socialized together whether on the golf course, at the lab or over a beer!
And how and when did you become interested in science and medicine?
We used to spend our summers on the beach in Wales, and from the age of three I would find dead fish on the beach and I would stick things into the fish’s mouth and then open the fish up to see where it had gone. My mother remembers vividly that I would borrow her sewing scissors without her knowing, pretty gross! That was very much how things progressed as I grew up as I was inquisitive. Then from middle school through high school I had a fantastic Biology teacher and that became my favourite subject. However even in high school I always thought I’d be someone who was working in Africa with leprosy patients or studying infectious diseases.
What interested you in becoming a renal physiologist and working with functional genomes?
I wanted to get from the molecules back to, well, I guess these days you would call it translational biology! I wanted to study the whole organism rather than just a single molecule or protein. Once I started working on water channels, which at the time were novel, the roles that were being discovered for them in the kidney and the brain were so fascinating and I went to an outstanding lab and was totally enthused. But as you now know I have a very broad background and training, so I am still interested in maintaining a broad perspective as a scientist. This has helped my career as I now have developed many collaborations, not just with renal physiologists, but with neuroscientists, cardiovascular researchers and with reproductive toxicologists. It’s the science that I find really fascinating, not the organ and specifically the disease mechanism. I am currently working on diabetic issues and my new projects are looking at how diabetes progresses across the transition of hormonal changes that women experience as they go from peri-menopause to menopause. Similar to cardiovascular disease, women have less kidney disease than men until they go through menopause. In collaboration with Dr. Pat Hoyer, using her mouse model of menopause, we are addressing scientific questions behind these health issues that women face.
Did you have a teacher or mentor who shaped your career?
I think my high school biology teacher shaped my career because every lesson was just fascinating and amazing. It was just my favorite lesson of every week. That course was definitely my passion in school. Then when I was in college, in Britain, I had to focus very early to the area of biology, specifically zoology. I was fascinated by parasites and the professor who taught the biochemical parasitology/immunology course was just outstanding. If it had been the marine biology professor that was outstanding then I would probably be a marine biologist.
Why did you choose to come to the UA?
I came because of the atmosphere, the collegiality and the collaborative nature. I had already been here as a post-doctoral fellow before leaving to work at the NIH. It’s very inter-disciplinary and for someone like me with such a broad background that’s important.
What kinds of professional opportunities or advantages does being a faculty member at the UA provide?
Interesting question……I was able to attend an AAMC course for junior faculty (women) and that was absolutely excellent. It was an outstanding experience and it has prepared me for the future and potential leadership roles, from running meetings to organizing my career plan. I’m a big believer in doing service and many faculty here are involved in service at both the national and local level. This is especially important when working in a state university as we as faculty need to express to the community how we are working in our research and teaching to improve the treatment of diseases relevant to our local population and make the public aware of health issues.
What about the challenges of being a faculty member at the UA?
Finances and salaries are the negative challenges but I think we are progressing towards a more stable environment on that front. As I mentioned as a state university you have to address important issues in the state and I think we need to do a better job of that. For example, what are the diseases in the state that we’re addressing? I’ve always been interested in disease orientated science and my research in the last few years has moved into the diabetes area which is such a huge issue in this state. We are state funded and we need to do a better job of telling the public what a great job we do as a university. I do a lot of service for an assistant professor but any advice I’d give to new assistant professors is to be selective and only say yes to something you will enjoy. And I do enjoy everything that I do.
Can you describe your professional interests?
Diabetes, renal physiology, functional genomics. Research and training students in the lab. I also enjoy teaching the old fashioned way, standing up to lecture.
In terms of your research, what is the most exciting thing that you’re working on right now?
Our most exciting research focus right now is the novel model of metabolic syndrome that our lab is working on with Dr. Pat Hoyer using her mouse menopause model. We are addressing gender differences in how diabetes and resulting disease processes progress across perimenopause and the transition into menopause.
What are some of your outside interests? Outside work?
I have a four year old. She’s a pistol. We enjoy traveling with her (she has already been to Australia, Canada, Mexico and of course Wales) and getting her involved in sports. She loves the Desert Museum and visiting zoos. During my undergraduate studies and during graduate school I was a college athlete. I played two sports for the University, field hockey and netball. In hockey I represented the University of Wales in the British Universities Sports Federation Championship and we won the gold medal. We were the first Welsh team to ever win a gold. I can’t play field hockey anymore but I play tennis and golf and t-ball (with the four year olds!). I was playing softball on a team here in Tucson until I had my daughter. Now I don’t really have enough time. I love watching baseball and college basketball; I am a Diamondbacks fan.
Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your professional work?
Yes, I think it’s really important to be well prepared and efficient. Be efficient with your time and prepare well for meetings. Prepare your lectures well when you are teaching and seminars well when presenting your research. Enjoy your work. Enjoying your work is the key. If you’re not enjoying something then you have to assess it and change it.
If you could change one thing about the world or the world of medicine what would it be?
I think I would take away old school thinking and hierarchy. I try to run my lab in a very socialistic or tier-less way. All the students, post-docs and graduate students go by first names. I try and treat everybody equally. I allow undergrads to go to meetings if they have data and I put everybody on papers. I think it’s important to keep it equitable. Titles don’t impress me. I grew up in a country with a royal family and a class system, so what can I say? If you’re not the queen then it doesn’t really matter what title you have, does it!!
What’s the biggest change you have experienced in your field since you were a student?
Technology and rapid technological changes. It has been huge. We regularly do microarray analyses in our lab in our physiological genomics projects. But when I was doing my PhD your project might be to clone and sequencing a gene, a small gene, and now you can do that in a week. Rapid technological advances means you can address problems quicker which also means you have to try to be an expert on everything; which is why good collaborations are necessary as you cannot do every technique in your lab.
What piece of advice would you give to today’s students?
Be selective; make sure you do something you enjoy; be adventurous as well. Don’t be narrow minded in your science. You should attend your graduate program seminars regardless of whether it’s in your area of interest. You never know when you will meet someone who’s going to have a big impact on your career. Networking is huge! You may learn something that will suddenly set off a light bulb in your own research. You have to be organized and manage your time well. Organization and perseverance is key. As a friend once told me, one small piece of data a week and you will soon have a thesis.
What do you see as the future of medicine?
I think it will be in imaging. We all talk about translational research and I heard a great talk by someone the other day who said you’re doing translational research if you have to shake someone by the hand when you start your experiment. So most of us are not doing translational research, but I think we have to interact with clinicians better to progress the technology. I think the biggest difference there will be is diagnostic imaging and targetive treatments. With this in mind I am working with Dr. Raghunand to try to develop techniques to look at kidney function in the whole animals, using contrast MRI in mice with altered kidney function; hopefully soon we can start to look at changes in renal function in diabetic mice, as one third of diabetics die of kidney damage and failure.
In what ways are you engaged with the greater Arizona public? Give some examples here of population based research, mentoring high school students, sharing your leadership with organizations or their causes, speaking engagements, and other things like that.
I served on the Committee of Eleven for two years which was an excellent experience; I learned a lot about the University and it opened my eyes to what we need to do in the community. I’m trying to do a better job of telling my friends and neighbors about the research we do here at the U of A and why it’s important. Next year our Department is going to participate in the American Physiological Society’s Physiology Understanding Week (PhUn) where we will work in state schools with science teachers to raise awareness of physiology’s role in health. We have a really good Physiology undergraduate club and they are going to help us with this. I am trying to get more involved in both the American Heart Association and the JDRF, and our family recently walked with Olivia’s Angels to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. |
