Emily M. Mace, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Immunology at Columbia University, got started in science unintentionally, after she was inspired by a PhD scientist who taught her college cell biology course. Now, years later, she says she considers herself an aspirational biophysicist, “but I am highly motivated to understand how forces and the physical environment influence single-cell behavior, and throughout my training I have been drawn to cross-disciplinary approaches that span cell biology, immunology, and biophysics. I was fortunate to be able to explore that as a postdoc and have established this as a deliberate trajectory now that I have my own research group.”
Emily M. Mace never pictured herself working as a scientific researcher. She does not remember quite what she did see herself doing when she was a child growing up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, but she says, “I know running a research lab wasn’t in the picture! I remember reading a book about the astronomers who work on the Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain when I was a teenager, and I do credit that as inspiration for some of my love of sitting in a dark room for long periods of time, with microscopes in my case.”
She left high school before graduating, but eventually returned to community college with the goal of finishing up her high school requirements and pursuing a nursing degree. “I realized pretty quickly that nursing wasn’t going to be for me, but I took a cell biology course taught by a PhD scientist who described her experiences in research,” Mace says. “I was hooked by both the fascination of understanding how cells and systems worked, and by her description of the excitement of bench science.”
She completed her undergraduate degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of Saskatchewan in 2003 and then moved to the University of British Columbia to pursue her PhD in genetics. She worked in Fumio Takei’s lab in the Terry Fox Laboratory - BC Cancer Research Centre.
From 2010 to 2016, Mace did postdoctoral work with Jordan Orange, first at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and then at Baylor College of Medicine. “I started my postdoc at the time that several exciting papers came out on asymmetric division of T cells being influenced by cell-cell contacts, and I started thinking about whether this process might be relevant for innate cells,” she shares. “I was also very interested in cell migration and development and decided to focus on trying to define how natural killer cells (an innate immune cell) interact with stromal cells and the extracellular matrix as they undergo differentiation.” She had joined Orange’s lab with the goal of learning quantitative imaging and light microscopy, so she had the opportunity there to do high-resolution and superresolution imaging, as well as develop live cell imaging techniques to measure and define complex modes of migration of NK cells on stroma. “I was fortunate to be at the University of Pennsylvania at the beginning of my postdoc, so I had the opportunity to participate in the Motor Club there with Erika Holzbaur, Michael Ostap, and others, and that and other experiences there really broadened my thinking. I was also lucky to have had a wonderfully supportive postdoc mentor and the opportunity to pursue many projects and ideas, so there were a lot of chances to learn and explore, especially in the fields of light microscopy and cell biology.”
Following her postdoc, she was an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine from 2016 to 2018. Mace is now an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Immunology at Columbia University. Her lab focuses on innate immune cell migration and differentiation. “We have three main lines of investigation in the lab. One is focused on cell migration and interactions between immune cells and complex microenvironments (tissue) and how those interactions affect NK cell differentiation. We are interested in how cell migratory properties are both acquired as cells develop and influenced by their immediate environments. Traditionally much of this work has been in two-dimensional, fairly artificial models, but we are trying to extend this into physiologically relevant 3D human tissue models. We also investigate the cytoskeletal regulation of NK cell migration and how integrins and other adhesion molecules participate in this process. Finally, we have a project on the role that cell cycle and proliferation play in NK cell differentiation.”
Her big picture goal is to better understand how signaling and physical properties in the microenvironment influence human innate lymphocyte development and homeostasis. Mace shares, “Ultimately, I see each of the projects described above converging on better understanding of how human cells are both generated and function within tissue. How do they integrate both biochemical and physical cues to exert function and travel in their environment? I also am compelled by being able to link events across scales. Understanding how signaling on the single-molecule scale is connected to cellular and ultimately systems-wide responses, especially through the use of innovative imaging, is thrilling to me.”
As it is for many new PIs, her transition from trainee to independent investigator has been an ongoing challenge. “It really feels like flying the plane while you are building it,” she says. “As with any other challenge, I think the way I have faced it is by just putting one foot in front of the other. My approach has always been I will keep going until someone tells me I can’t anymore, which thankfully isn’t the case yet.” Her peer networks and senior mentors have been crucial to helping her to feel more comfortable and confident. “Groups like New PI Slack, folks on science Twitter, and being engaged in groups like the BPS Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women have made it a much less scary venture.”
In this period of adjusting to running her own lab, Mace has been learning how to balance and manage different lines of investigation. “I have a lot of interests and there are always a lot of things going on, so deciding how many collaborations to take on and how to structure time, energy and resources to multiple different projects can be difficult,” she shares.
On the other hand, the most rewarding aspect of her work is sharing the joy of discovery with her lab. “I am so grateful that I get to work with and learn from the amazing students, postdocs, and other trainees that have joined my lab. There is no greater feeling than discovering something, even something small, and to discover something and then get to run with that idea with a diverse and talented group of people is amazing,” she says. “I also love the challenges and flexibility of academic research. Having the freedom to pursue our ideas, to write, think, and seek knowledge, is a true privilege. I also still get a lot of satisfaction from doing bench science and having the chance to tinker on the amazing microscopes we have available to us is a great way to decompress and remind myself why I got into all this in the first place.”
In her leisure time, Mace likes to go hiking or bird watching, and to walk and bike around New York City.
Her advice to those just starting out in their careers is to “Pursue the questions that are most exciting to you and seek out the knowledge and techniques needed to approach them so you can build your own niche.”