Establishing an Academic Laboratory: Mentoring as a Business Model

Valentina Greco, who won the 2014 ASCB Women in Cell Biology Junior Award, shared her experience in setting up a successful academic laboratory at Yale Medical School in 2009, focusing on the importance of mentoring as a business model. Her lab, which aimed to understand cell orchestration in tissue growth and the role of hierarchical organization in cell choices, overcame challenges in live imaging and made significant discoveries in stem cell biology, including findings on tissue regeneration and the role of the niche in hair follicle regeneration. Greco stressed the need for balance between business management and mentoring for a principal investigator, defining "business" as the creation and realization of ideas, and "mentoring" as guiding less experienced researchers. She pointed out the lack of training for new PIs and suggested institutional training and proactive knowledge acquisition as solutions. Greco's mentoring strategy involved engaging her group in various tasks, creating forums for brainstorming and data review, which led to earlier story shaping and enhanced project contributions, ultimately supporting the lab's business model and creating a productive and harmonious work environment.