“I found science interesting throughout school, but it was my high school science teacher, Ms. Bose, who really got me into biology,” says Ram Dixit, associate professor of biology and faculty fellow of the Center for Engineering Mechanobiology at Washington University in St. Louis. “The instrument that captivated my interest was a microscope, and I was fascinated by the frantic activities that seemingly simple organisms, like microbes displayed under the microscope.” Dixit’s father, an engineer, taught him the importance of science and quantitative thinking. “Even though he was an engineer by training, he had broad scientific interests and helped me cultivate my interest in biology,” he shares. He started his undergraduate degree in microbiology at Ruia College in Mumbai, India, where he had grown up.
It was here that Dixit was introduced to research by his professor Ravi Phadke: “I spent a year doing research ‘on the side’ and realized that one could make a living as a researcher!” He then transferred to State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he completed his bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 1993. Dixit entered Cornell University to pursue his PhD in biology. As a graduate student, he hosted Richard Cyr as a student-invited seminar speaker, which set him on a path toward his current area of specialization. “I was fascinated by his talk about how mechanical forces influence microtubule orientation in cells,” he shares. “His talk got me started on thinking about how nanoscale polymers organize into a rich variety of patterns to produce cell shape and orchestrate cellular processes.”
“As scientists, we are not trained to manage people and finances, yet this is precisely what this job demands most.”
- Dixit
After completing his PhD studies in 2000, Dixit worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Cyr’s lab at Pennsylvania State University, examining how noncentrosomal plant cortical microtubules organize into well-ordered arrays. “Using GFP technology and live-imaging, I quantified microtubule dynamics and behavior and uncovered rules of interactions that lead to their self-organization using computer modeling,” he explains. From there, he went to University of Pennsylvania for a second postdoc position with Erika Holzbaur. “I used single-molecule biophysics in collaboration with Yale Goldman to study how kinesin and dynein respond to obstacles in their path and to elucidate the mechanism for plus-end tracking of human EB1 and CLIP170 proteins,” he says. Goldman fondly recalls working with Dixit during that time, “Ram was always very calm and exuded competence. His experiments were successful virtually 100 percent of the time, because he was so careful. Erika said of one of his data video stacks from our 2008 Science paper, ‘That’s going to win an Academy Award!’” Currently, the two are collaborating again after obtaining a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center grant between University of Pennsylvania and Washington University. “We are working together on a microtubule-associated protein (MAP) in plants, termed MAP65,” Goldman says. “We are doing the specialized fluorescence labeling and his colleague Matthew Lew will do sophisticated orientation-sensitive microscopy on the MAP-microtubule interaction.”
“My postdoctoral work on the cytoskeleton steered me into combining cell biology and biophysics,” Dixit shares. Now, in his lab at Washington University, he has done just that. “We use a combination of genetics, cell biology, single-molecule biophysics, and computational modeling to study how multiple microtubule-associated proteins work together to shape the architecture of the microtubule cytoskeleton. We are also interested in force-generating mechanisms within cells and how cells sense and respond to mechanical stimuli,” he says. “Currently, I am most excited about how mechanical stimuli affect molecular and cellular processes. I hope that our work under the auspices of the NSF-funded Center for Engineering Mechanobiology will elucidate how plants and animals sense and respond to mechanical perturbations at the molecular and cellular scales. My lab is particularly interested in understanding the role of the cytoskeleton in mechanosensing and mechanotransduction.”
Getting his independent laboratory started and fully operational nearly ten years ago — while exciting — proved challenging, and made for a busy and stressful few years. “As scientists, we are not trained to manage people and finances, yet this is precisely what this job demands most. I was able to cope because of a lot of help from my family and mentors,” he says. “Watching my bench time shrink precipitously was also difficult for me. Thankfully, I was still able to do microscopy, which helped me stay sane and feel productive.”
These days, achieving work-life balance is still the most challenging aspect of his career. When he does have leisure time, Dixit enjoys reading, cooking, and practicing taekwondo, which he does with his son. He admires and enjoys the work of Aldous Huxley — best known for his 1932 novel Brave New World — whose books he has read for many years. “He was a true visionary, a great writer and philosopher,” he says. “I was hooked on his books since my school days! They are very much relevant to our current times.”
Dixit joined the Society in 2011. “The Biophysical Society connects me to the wider biophysics community, which helps me to learn about the most exciting current questions and about the latest tools and techniques,” he says. “I have particularly enjoyed being an editorial board member for Biophysical Journal. It allowed me to contribute to advancing my field and also boosted my career as a junior scientist.”
“Work on problems that truly excite you, because only then will you stay motivated when the going gets tough.”
-Dixit
Dixit advises early career scientists, “Work on problems that truly excite you, because only then will you stay motivated when the going gets tough. Find your niche where you can make an impact and seek out good collaborations that can enrich your research and provide you with a support network.”