Post-doctoral researcher Kristin McNally works with Amyloid producing proteins. McNally is one of a group of researchers doing post-doctoral work at Rocky Mountain Laboratories - one of the country’s premier facilities for post-doctoral fellows. WILL MOSS - Ravalli Republic

Their hours are long. Weekends and late night visits to the laboratory are the norm. Complicated papers must be written. Expectations of accomplishing cutting edge research are high.

With all the work and pressure to perform, you’d think these young researchers would look forward to putting it all behind them and moving on to something bigger and better.

That’s not the story told by many of the scientists who’ve been fortunate enough to land a post-doctoral position at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton.

“This is a remarkable place,” said 31-year-old Kristin McNally. “It’s really unique to be able to do this kind of cutting edge research in a rural setting like this… my experience here has been nothing but great. I’d like to stay as long as possible.”

McNally hails from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She earned her Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology in 2005 with a dissertation that focused on the DNA damaging agents of UV radiation and chemical carcinogens.

For the past couple of years at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, she’s delved deep into the world of the prion protein - the cause of Chronic Wasting and Mad Cow diseases.

“The field of researchers studying the prion field is quite small,” McNally said. “The people working here are the best in the United States, maybe even the world.

“I’m fortunate in that I absolutely love my boss, Sue Priola,” she said. “She’s always looking out for what’s best for me and my future. She’s really great.”

Rocky Mountain Laboratories was recently rated as the 19th best institution in the United States for post-doctoral fellows by “The Scientist” magazine just below Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

At the laboratory, they’re simply called post-docs.

They come from all over the world hoping to gain the kind of practical research experience that will help them land a job eventually in government research or the private sector or perhaps someday as a research professor at a prestigious college or university.

The fellowships usually last somewhere between three to five years. Along the way, each one works to hone skills and publish research in order to build impressive resumes.

They’ve been called the worker bees in the research world. It’s not unusual to put in 50- to 60-hour weeks. They each work under the guidance of a senior scientist whom they call their principal investigator or PI for short.

Post-docs hope when it comes time to leave Hamilton, they’ve had the opportunity to make a name for themselves.

Ryan Rego liked his chances of doing just that so much that he was willing to travel half way across the world to work with scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories.

Indian by parentage, Rego was raised in Kuwait and earned his Ph.D. in the Czech Republic. A molecular biologist studying in the field of parasitology, Rego was thrilled to be accepted at a place with such a long history of studying the parasitical tick.

His research is currently focused on the genetic transformation of “Borrelia burgdorferi,” the causative agent of the tick-borne Lyme disease.

Over the last year, Rego has fallen in love with the valley.

“It’s really the combination of being able to live in this small wonderful community and being part of this vibrant workplace,” he said. “We really love being able to do all the outdoor activities. We love the people here as well… we’ve made such good friends.”

Rego has lived in much larger cities. He knows what it’s like to navigate through the throngs.

“You really just try to stay in a certain zone,” he said. “You don’t really get to know people. Here we know the first names of 50 percent of the people we work with. That is something that’s unique.”

The best way to make a name for yourself in the research world is to have a paper on your research published in a peer reviewed journal.

It’s not an easy task.

“You can spend five years doing research and come away without a single published paper or you could have 10,” said McNally. “It all depends on your research.”

Post-doc researcher Adam Kennedy has been fortunate to reach that lofty goal.

He was the lead author on a recent collaborative paper that documented groundbreaking research on the deadly MRSA infection.

Before the research team sequenced DNA from the bacteria that causes the staph infection, there were two different theories about what was occurring out there in the real world. One school of thought believed the infection was mutating from a single source. The other hypothesized different bacteria were converging and becoming more virulent.

The research showed the bacteria that caused the deadly MRSA infection came from a relatively small number of initial cases.

“You can always make educated guesses, but in the end all you have is a guess,” Kennedy said. “The only way to really figure it out is to do it.”

All researchers worth their salt want to continue to learn. They want to know how to operate the latest technological gizmos and discover new techniques for cutting edge research.

Researcher Amy Ballance said that’s one of the perks of working at the Hamilton laboratory.

“I can do cutting edge research here every day,” Ballance said. “I don’t have to wait for someone else to do sampling for me. I can do it myself.”

Scientists need to be multifaceted to survive in today’s world.

In an earlier time, post-docs aspired to a secure position at a university with their research funded by a five-year $1 million grant.

“That’s getting harder and harder to do,” said McNally. “Right now funding is slim and there’s a lot of competition for what there is out there.”

Currently about six percent of grant requests are being funded. Even just two years ago, it was closer to 12 percent.

“That means that of the 50 or 60 post-docs here in Hamilton right now, about three or four will get their research funded,” Ballance said. “All the rest will have to go find work in other places.”

For those lucky few who do end up on that tract, there’s a whole new set of skills to learn. Grant writing, managing people and budgets, and learning how to teach. Those are all skills that aren’t taught in graduate school.

“There’s a lot more that goes into being a scientist than just being good at science,” Ballance said. “It’s a very challenging field.”

Editor Perry Backus can be reached at 363-3300 or editor@ravallirepublic.com

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