Liftoff: New lab alerts

Learn about early-career scientists starting their own labs.

Are you a new principal investigator? Email Francisco J. Rivera Rosario at [email protected]. Selected new labs may be featured in our Launch monthly newsletter.

Interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

April 2025

Thomas Elston, assistant professor of neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin
Lab start date: January 2025

What do you study? What part of your research are you most excited about?

My lab leverages decoding and multisite Neuropixels recordings to understand how the frontal lobe regulates the striatum to enable self-control and how it modulates sensory systems to enable feature-based attention. I am particularly excited about our ability to decode cognitive processes in real time. We hope to harness our findings to develop the next generation of brain-computer interfaces, which will improve the lives of people living with disorders of cognitive control, such as addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

What about opening a lab has surprised you so far? What do you wish you had known beforehand?

The most surprising thing has been the fundamental shift from individual achievement to team development. As a postdoctoral fellow, success came through communicating and executing my own ideas, but as a new professor, I find that understanding and nurturing others’ intellectual growth is the key challenge. I wish I had known earlier how to more systematically evaluate and develop potential in lab members, rather than assuming research direction alone would drive success. The transition from being valued for my ideas to being valued for my ability to cultivate others’ thinking requires an entirely different skill set—one I’m still actively developing alongside my scientific questions.

Are there any traditions or practices (scientific or otherwise) from the labs you trained at that you will bring over and implement in your lab?

We have whiteboards everywhere. It is amazing what this does for communication within the lab both because people are sharing their ideas but also because they are refining their ability to articulate them. We also have a weekly event called Scientific Cinema, where we close out the week by watching a science documentary or movie. It’s something to look forward to each week. People from lots of other labs join, sometimes even other principal investigators, which has added to a growing sense of community in our department.

Tayler Sheahan, assistant professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin
Lab start date: October 2024

What do you study? What part of your research are you most excited about?

My lab studies how our nervous system senses and responds to dangers in our environment—in particular, things that are itchy or painful. These are meant to be protective sensations but can go awry and cause unbearable diseases such as chronic itch or chronic pain. We study how these sensations are typically encoded, what changes occur in disease states and how to reverse them. I am especially interested in how neuropeptides—small proteins that neurons use to communicate with one another—shape itch and pain signaling. In the past five years, we’ve seen an explosion of new technologies to study neuropeptides, such as sensors that report when a neuropeptide binds to its receptor. I am excited to use these new methods to ask questions that we could not answer using previous approaches.

What about opening a lab has surprised you so far? What do you wish you had knownbeforehand? 

In my experience, opening my lab has felt a lot like the first months of parenthood! No matter how much advice you get about what it will be like, it’s hard to appreciate the challenges until you are in the thick of it. There are highs, and there are lows. I am finding that it’s important to be flexible with goals and timelines.

What is the best advice you received from a mentor or colleague before opening your lab?

Several mentors have given me the advice to “be selfish with your time” when first opening a lab. As a new faculty member, there are so many opportunities to get involved in new research directions and collaborations—not to mention institutional service, such as serving on animal study review committees, for example. But it’s important not to spread yourself too thin while trying to get your lab up and running. This advice has helped me learn to say no to potential opportunities that don’t align with my current goals.

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