This month, we’re highlighting an alumnus of a QB3-Berkeley lab by speaking with Nicolas Altemose who was a graduate student in Aaron Streets’ lab. Nicolas Altemose is an assistant professor of genetics at Stanford University and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. The Altemose lab develops new experimental and analytical tools to study how chromatin proteins organize and regulate complex regions of the human genome.
QB3-Berkeley: What excites you most about your current research and field?
Nicolas Altemose: Long-read DNA sequencing technologies have opened up exciting new research avenues for some of the most challenging and mysterious regions of the human genome: highly repetitive DNA sequences. We finally have the necessary tools to resolve longstanding questions about the functions of these regions, which may have important implications for human evolution, health, and disease.
QB3: How did your experience at QB3-Berkeley in Aaron Streets’ lab shape your scientific perspective or career trajectory?
NA: During my PhD with Aaron Streets, I learned how to develop, benchmark, and rigorously optimize new research technologies. Thanks to this excellent training, I am well equipped to lead technology development projects in my own lab.
QB3: What were some of the most valuable lessons you learned while working in the Streets lab?
NA: I was Aaron Streets’ first PhD student and learned how to build a lab from scratch with him, which was immensely valuable for starting my own lab. Aaron was and continues to be an incredible mentor to me, and I try to emulate his patient, feedback-forward research mentorship approach with my own trainees.
QB3: If you could go back and give advice to your past self as a trainee, what would it be?
NA: I would tell myself to seek and solicit feedback as often as possible. It’s easy to get caught spinning your wheels without making progress towards larger goals, and often times, others can provide the perspective you need to reassess and pivot to a more productive approach. Following a similar rationale, I would also tell myself to seek out counseling and therapy far sooner than I did!