Welcome to BCMP.
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[LAUGHTER]
BCMP stands for [INTERPOSING VOICES]
BCMP stands for biological chemistry
and molecular pharmacology.
The overarching theme that brings our faculty
together is how the machines of biology work and the tools
that we use to shed light on these questions.
Out hope is through our studies that we really
get at the molecular origins of disease.
My laboratory works on gene regulation.
And that is how the genes of your body,
which is the information, essentially
gets turned into products that do things.
My lab uses single microscopy techniques
to try and really visualize the dynamics of proteins
working together in a complex.
So we go from individual molecules
to entire large, molecular complexes.
So I researching currently in the Johannes Walter lab.
And we study gene replication at a molecular level.
Our lab is working on a fundamental biological problem,
which is how molecules are moved across the membrane.
We can look at the detailed shapes of biological marker
molecules and relate those shapes to function.
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What makes for a really good day for me
is that if I have an idea, and I've planned out an experiment,
and then I do the experiment, and then
you see the results in front of you,
and you're able to interpret them
in the context of the original idea that you had,
and you realize that you've discovered something new.
Yeah.
There's a lot of joking around.
[INAUDIBLE]
I don't know.
And what was the question?
Do you want to talk about your own award, the teaching one
specifically?
Oh, nah.
No?
Johannes was the first person that when I started here said
don't call me Dr. Walter.
It makes me feel old.
Oh.
Johannes is good.
When I came here for interview, I had never
worked with frogs before.
And one of the postdoc actually brought me
into this frog room--
Oh, I haven't been in the frog room.
--and showed me those big frogs.
And I was actually quite scared.
And I came back at night to my wife,
and I said I don't think you can do this,
and I don't think I'm going to be able to work in the lab.
And I haven't been the frog room.
Also, so you were taping this?
No.
Were you taping this?
Yeah.
At the last spot?
OK.
Yeah, I'm OK .
I'm OK.
What I love most about Harvard Medical School?
The people here are incredible across the board.
So members of the administrative staff in my department,
they work hard.
And they're really serious about their work when they're here.
But they're also lovely, kind-hearted people.
What I like most about HMS is that I
am a positive contributor to the leading age of research
and HMS is doing.
The good thing about a lab is that it's really relaxed
but we're also really serious and committed to science.
So it makes the work really enjoyable.
I think the biggest advantages of being here
is that there's probably more science in the medical school
area of all types than really anywhere in the world.
No.
No, I think it's a good department.
It's fun working here.
I really like it.
I'm grateful to have a really great group of students
and postdocs.
And it's really exciting to see these people come together,
and learn new things, and teach each other.
What I like best about working here is definitely
be surrounded by really intelligent and great
scientists.
And although this could be really intimidating at first
because you feel that you're not smart enough to be here,
once you accept this and accept that it runs you,
there are people that are actually smarter than you are,
it becomes a really positive experience because instead
of being intimidating, you stop admiring,
and you start learning from them.
And this only makes you a better science.
Obviously, the faculty, the training,
the visitors who come to teach us about their research, it's
an extraordinary opportunity to be
right in the middle of an exceptional community
of scholars.
So for me, that's a special privilege.