Tips for Building Successful Interdisciplinary Teams, Part I

1. Tips for Building Successful Interdisciplinary Teams, Part I Plan, Select and Integrate Philip G. Haydon, Ph.D. Annetta and Gustav Grisard Professor and ChairDepartment of NeuroscienceTufts University School of Medicine Caveat – I present my perspective for my field. This may not be the only approach but it is one that I have found to be successful

2. Take home messages • Plan • Team grants can take years to develop • Select • If a faculty member does not have the will to provide total commitment to the project it will likely fail. • Select only the best and do not be frightened to exclude individuals as you develop the project. Without the correct project members you will fail. • Integrate • The word interdisciplinary is overused – do not trick yourself into believing you are interdisciplinary unless you truly are • Bring disparate approaches to a common problem • Projects must be seamlessly integrated

3. Components of an ideal team grant • Research groups with diverse approaches working together can perform unique research • It is not sufficient to have a number of projects from different faculty: the projects should have elements where the core faculty work together. Put another way, if it is possible to pull grants apart as individual RO1 grants then the center application will be less likely to succeed.

4. The ketogenic diet to stop seizures • Epilepsy affects at least 50 million people worldwide. About 30% of epileptics do not achieve control with drugs. • When drugs fail, other options include epilepsy surgery, vagus nerve stimulation and the ketogenic diet. • The ketogenic diet, which is very high in fats and low in carbohydrates, was first developed almost 80 years ago. It makes the body burn fat for energy instead of glucose. For children in particular, the diet has once again found a role in epilepsy management.

5. Reduced carbohydrate leading to reduced CNS glucose as an energy source Alternate metabolic source of energy Alternate energy source enhances synaptic inhibition Reduced seizures The ketogenic diet to stop seizures - hypothesis neuron astrocyte vasculature

6. Ketogenic diet and epilepsy: The team Reduced carbohydrate leading to reduced CNS glucose as an energy source Alternate metabolic source of energy Alternate energy source enhances synaptic inhibition Reduced seizures Pediatric neurologist studying metabolism Expert studying glia and synapses Expert studying synaptic inhibition Expert studying synaptic Inhibition and epilepsy

7. Project 1: Project leader – Dr…… Project collaborators – Drs……. Independent projects are not sufficient • Project 2: • Project leader – Dr…… • Project collaborators – Drs……. • Project …….

8. Inter-relation between sub-projects Project 2 Milestone 2.1 Milestone 2.2 Milestone 2.3 Milestone 2.4 Project 1 Milestone 1.1 Milestone 1.2 Milestone 1.3 Milestone 1.4

9. Demonstrate that your are a team • Preliminary data • Publications • Abstracts • A history of joint lab meetings

10. Bi-monthly lunches PI-presentations to one another What I do? What are the methods? What are my hypotheses? Visit one another and connect key lab members Develop grant hypotheses and share with one another Write together Making individuals a team Pediatric neurologist studying metabolism Expert studying glia and synapses Expert studying synaptic inhibition Expert studying synaptic Inhibition and epilepsy

11. Writing the grant • Develop sub-project aims well in advance of deadlines and share with the whole team for criticism and importantly to develop ways of enhancing the aims through joint research • Do not develop sub-project aims as individuals. Have project leaders and collaborators develop aims of project and present jointly to the team. • Develop and adhere to milestones • Write together

12. Polishing the grant – one example • Hired a hotel room with round table, projection system, internet • Food and drinks provided by hotel – project members not allowed to leave until grant was finished • At 6pm a professional editor was waiting to all receive all electronic materials to format for consistency across projects

13. Take home messages • Plan • CORRECT: Team grants can take years to develop ~ 2years • Select • CORRECT: Selected 10 faculty from over 50 for a team grant. Do not be afraid to upset the 40. If we truly have a collegial institution, they will understand why this is important. • INCORRECT: Included someone who did not respond to emails, and was always late for deadlines. As a consequence we did not get good integration. • INCORRECT: Included a weak project leader. This was immediately identified in the review. • Integrate • CORRECT: 2 years of planning to allow integration across projects. We became an exceptional team of investigators. • CORRECT: The team is only the correct team for that moment. Do not be afraid to foster new team members. In the end it is about great science.

14. How do you start a team grant? • Joint lab meetings • Joint journal clubs • Go out together and dream • Do not wait to be told what to do and when to do it • Shared efforts on individual grants (e.g. 5% effort of a collaborative colleague on an RO1)

15. A closing comment It has been said: “One can only carry a collaboration as far as a cup of coffee. In the age of the internet it is as easy to collaborate with someone anywhere in the world as it is with someone at a distance at your own institution.” Do not take for granted working with your institutional colleagues. It will take immense effort to bring them together, but it is possible and the rewards will be numerous.