Natali Minassian did not grow up with scientist parents, but they did teach her some skills early on that continue to serve her today in her life as a scientist. Her father received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Texas, Austin. He hoped that at least one of his children would follow in his footsteps, so he encouraged Minassian and her sisters to take physics classes and taught them how to code programs. This was her first introduction to physics, and it clearly made an impression.
Minassian’s mother had her Masters’ degree in architecture and worked in the planning commission for the City of Austin before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Minassian would watch her mother make blueprints, and would use her mother’s drafting desk, writing utensils, and geometric instruments to make her own designs for school projects. “This is a habit I’ve continued as a scientist. I still make detailed blueprints of my experiments when trying to design something new,” she says.
In high school, Minassian began to excel in calculus, physics, and chemistry classes, and realized that she thoroughly enjoyed studying these topics. This convinced her to pursue biology at Santa Clara University. After receiving her BS degree, she began working at Xenoport, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company “focused on utilizing ion channels and transporters as means to optimize drug uptake through the GI tract or blood brain barrier,” Minassian explains. This was her first experience working with membrane proteins, which drew her into the field of biophysics. She became interested in voltage-gated ion channels, and knew that to work in this area, she needed to fine tune her techniques and learn how to determine which questions to ask as a research scientist. In order to gain this skill set and experience, Minassian decided to apply to graduate school.
She attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and worked under the supervision of Diane Papazian. As a graduate student in Papazian’s laboratory, she learned the tools necessary to become an electrophysiology researcher and also gained experience with the biophysical techniques needed to answer the questions she would pose in her hypotheses going forward. She received her PhD in Biophysics from the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology program at UCLA.
“Before you become saddled in dogma and what you can’t do, just try to do what no one may have ever done before. Assume the rules are just suggestions.”
– Natali Minassian
Minassian wanted to transition back into industry after receiving her PhD, but the reality of this move proved more difficult than she had anticipated. Even though she had worked in industry prior to receiving her PhD, transitioning back was “the biggest career challenge I have faced so far,” Minassian says. To make matters worse, her job search was taking place in the midst of the US’ recession in 2010. Though she was having difficulty finding a postdoctoral fellowship in industry, she was able to secure a postdoc position at UCLA under the supervision of Igor Spigelman. She stayed in this position for only three months, but while there, she did some preliminary research “on the effects of alcohol and radiation on GABA activity via electrophysiological slice recordings,” she explains. The knowledge she acquired and the expertise of the people she worked with in Spigelman’s lab made her, as she says, “a more well-rounded scientist, with an expanded skillset and stronger foundation.”
Following this position, Minassian started an industrial postdoc fellowship at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, as part of the ion channel group in the neuroscience team. At Janssen, she worked under Alan Wickenden on drug discovery for central nervous system disorders, ranging from disorders of mood and cognition to pain. “My mechanistic focus was on ion channels as targets for treatments of the nervous system, utilizing electrophysiology, cell-based assays, radioactive binding assays and cell culture as tools for investigation,” Minassian says. She also collaborated with onsite teams from other therapeutic areas, including Centocor Biologics Research and Computer-Aided Development and Design (CADD), as well as external partners.
After finishing up her postdoc at Janssen, Minassian recently started as a senior scientist at Pfizer, in the Integrative and Circuit Neuroscience group in the Neuroscience Research Unit. At Pfizer, she will be evaluating how compounds affect single cell and networking activity. In this position, as in any research position, she will face difficulties when experiments do not go as planned, but she knows that these challenges serve as a great source of inspiration. “There are times I will try to patch cells all day and not get a successful electrophysiological recording until the end of the day. It can get frustrating,” she says, “ However, the fantastic reward comes when the experiment works, when you get that beautiful recording from a neuron or a transfected cell, when you see an effect from a treatment added to a cell or get a beautiful image on a confocal microscope. That is the reward that keeps me motivated to keep trying and troubleshooting and working…..this fascinating result. That result opens the path for multiple pathways of exploration and you keep finding new ways to investigate a scientific question.”
Yi Liu, Minassian’s mentor at Janssen, admires the dedication Minassian has demonstrated inworking through frustration in order to progress in her research. He recalls a time when Minassian was developing a particular experimental method for a project, and “despite numerous attempts she had made under various conditions, no significant progress seemed in sight. Several times, it was suggested, quite reasonably, that she move on to other assay formats.” Minassian was convinced that this method was of critical importance to the project, and that her approach was sound, so she refused to change tactics. Liu remembers, “She continued to experiment, ‘stubbornly’ expanding into conditions previously dismissed as being unlikely to work. Sure enough, that is where she eventually found the answer.”
When she is not working hard in the lab, Minassian tries to take advantage of her new home in the Boston area by trying out local restaurants. According to her former colleague Amy Shih, Minassian had a great depth of knowledge in this area when living in San Diego, “Natali always knew of the best places to eat. At one point [during our postdoc at Janssen] she emailed out a listing of some top restaurant choices, and I still occasionally refer to that list for dining options.” Minassian also enjoys seeing live music, and indulging her creative side by making jewelry and painting.
Minassian wants to remind those just starting out in their careers to engage with their own creativity in the lab. She says, “Pursue your crazy ideas. Before you become saddled in dogma and what you can’t do, just try to do what no one may have ever done before. Assume the rules are just suggestions.”