BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
3
APRIL
2014
Minassian with her parents at her
graduation ceremony.
having difficulty finding a postdoctoral fellow-
ship 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 pre-
liminary research “on the effects of alcohol and
radiation on GABA activity via electrophysiolog-
ical slice recordings,” she explains. The knowl-
edge 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 Phar-
maceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson,
as part of the ion channel group in the neurosci-
ence 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 treat-
ments of the nervous system, utilizing electro-
physiology, 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 Neurosci-
ence 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 trans-
fected cell, when you see an effect from a treat-
ment 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 trouble-
shooting 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 in-
working through frustration in order to progress
in her research. He recalls a time when Minas-
sian was developing a particular experimental
method for a project, and “despite numerous at-
tempts 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 previ-
ously 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, Minas-
sian 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 al-
ways 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 op-
tions.” Minassian also enjoys seeing live music,
and indulging her creative side by making jew-
elry 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.”
