Growing up in Tampa, Florida, Seth Weinberg, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Ohio State University, knew he wanted to be a professor. “From a very early age, I knew that I enjoyed both teaching and exploring science, and college professor was a natural fit for these interests,” he explains.
He attended Duke University for his undergraduate studies, where he was first exposed to scientific research. He worked in an ultrasound research lab, where he built and tested new designs for high-frequency transducers. He was also venturing into biophysics for the first time, through his coursework in modeling of excitable cell electrophysiology. “I took a course called ‘Bioelectricity’ taught by Roger Barr, in which I learned the basics of using mathematical modeling to describe currents through ion channels and cellular excitability,” he says. “This course was the first time that I really appreciated how powerful and elegant biophysical modeling could be, although it would be several years until modeling became my primary research focus.”
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 2006, with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in mathematics, he attended Johns Hopkins University for his PhD. He joined Leslie Tung’s lab, where he worked on defibrillation of the heart, strengthening his interest in cardiac electrophysiology.
Weinberg then joined the Biomathematics Initiative at the College of William and Mary as a postdoctoral fellow. He worked under the advisement of Gregory D. Conradi Smith on developing stochastic models of subcellular calcium signaling in cardiac myocytes.
Following his postdoctoral studies, he worked as a research assistant professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center at Old Dominion University for two years. The transition from postdoc to independent scientist was a challenging one for Weinberg, as it is for many people. “It is in general a very overwhelming time, brainstorming ideas for new projects, writing grants, and finding my way through a new department and university. It was personally challenging, because my twin daughters had just been born, so I had the additional challenge of being a first-time father,” he says. “Sleep was rare at this time in my life. I did not have one specific approach to facing this challenge, but just tried to take each day and task one at a time. I did my best to organize and prioritize the different tasks. I was fortunate to have great colleagues and mentors for advice on how to manage this challenging time.”
In 2016, he accepted a position as an assistant professor in biomedical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he remained until this fall. Weinberg has recently started a new position as an associate professor in biomedical engineering at the Ohio State University, and is also affiliated with the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State.
His lab has two main research areas of focus — computational cardiac electrophysiology and computational mechanobiology. “My interest in cardiac electrophysiology began with my early coursework under Roger Barr and continued with my PhD work on defibrillation of the heart with Leslie Tung. My interest in mechanobiology began with an early collaboration with my colleague Christopher Lemmon at Virginia Commonwealth University,” he explains. “Chris is an experimental bioengineer who studies — among other topics — cellular regulation of the extracellular matrix. Towards the end of my postdoc, Chris and I discussed an idea for modeling the assembly of the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin and how cells mechanically regulate this process.”
The Weinberg lab currently has several active and on-going projects. “On the cardiac side of the lab, we are building computational models to study the role of subcellular localization of the sodium ion channel in cardiac myocytes and how this localization is important for both normal electrical function of the heart and how it is altered in disease. This work is in collaboration with excellent experimental groups led by Steven Poelzing at Virginia Tech and Rengasayee Veeraraghavan at Ohio State. We are also interested in the interactions between electrical and calcium signaling in cardiac cells, in particular in the setting of heart rate variability,” he shares. “On the mechanobiology side of the lab, we are building new models and techniques to study and predict multicellular mechanical interactions in epithelial cells and how these interactions regulate signaling pathways during epithelial-mesenchymal transition, a key process in both normal development and pathological settings including fibrosis and cancer metastasis.”
“In particular for a computational modeling lab, the most challenging aspect of our work is determining the right level of detail to include in a model,” he explains. “With many of the problems and conditions we study, there is a plethora of experimental data, ranging from the kinetics of biochemical reactions to in vivo responses to pharmacological agents. At the same time, for almost any problem we study, there is a lot of data and information about interactions that we do not know, so it is a significant challenge to determine what proteins, reactions, cell types, spatial details, etc. to include in any model and simulation.”
The most rewarding part of Weinberg’s work as a biophysicist is training students, supporting them as they develop into full-fledged scientists. “I hope that one of my most significant contributions can be the training of the next generation. I am particularly motivated to promote interdisciplinary training and interactions. I firmly believe that the best solutions to scientific and biomedical challenges requires insights from people from a wide range of diverse backgrounds and training,” he says. “As the PI of a lab with a computational modeling focus within a biomedical engineering department, I encourage my students to be able to regularly talk to and discuss their work with experimental biophysicists and bioengineers, mathematicians, and clinicians, which can often be a challenging task.”
Weinberg offers two pieces of advice to students and early career scientists: “As you transition from a trainee to independent scientist, do not be afraid to move into new research areas. Using techniques and ideas from one field and applying them to a question or problem in another field can often lead to some of the most creative and innovative solutions and insights. Making a transition into a new research area is much smoother when you have strong collaborators in that new field, and that relates to my second piece of advice: Start establishing a network of mentors and peers early in your career. You will never know which relationships lead to new opportunities and avenues in your career. One of the easiest ways to form a new professional relationship is to just talk to your fellow scientists — and include those both earlier and later in their careers, not just your immediate peers — at as many opportunities as you can find, such as conferences, poster sessions, seminars, networking mixers, etc.” He knows from experience how important those connections can be for both career development and the furtherance of your research: “I first met someone who is now one of my closest collaborators at a conference poster session about 10 years ago.”