About the PI
Hi, I’m Michaela. I was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. I am a mother to two young children and wife to a fellow scientist. When I’m not in the lab, I love to be outside with my family - hiking, gardening, discovering new parks, and sledding in the winter.
Pedigree & Timeline:
2001-2005 - BS, Bates College, Lewiston, ME
2005-2007 - Research Technician, Harvard Medical School - Lab of Ole Isacson
2007-2012 - PhD, University of California, Los Angeles - Lab of William Lowry
2012-2018 - Postdoc training, University of Southern California - Lab of Henry Sucov
Sept 2018 - Opened Patterson lab at MCW
Mentoring Philosophy
I love science. I want others to love science, too. As a mentor, I have 4 main rules I follow:
I want my lab to be an inviting place; respectful and accepting of all people and their viewpoints.
This is your career. It is imperative that your experience matches your personal goals.
Not everyone learns the same way. I try to tailor my mentoring style to a trainee’s needs as best I can, but I am also not perfect and my style may not match with every individual.
Always seek the perspectives of current and past lab members. I encourage all my trainees to be open and honest about their experiences, both good and bad.
Science Education
As a graduate student at UCLA, I was inspired by a novel teaching pedagogy and curriculum being initiated there by three tremendous educators - Drs. Utpal Banerjee, Ira Clark, and Rafael Romero. I am trying to bring one of their pedagogy, Research Deconstruction, to the state of Wisconsin while also expanding on its utility. If you’d like to learn more about the pedagogy and my partners’ collective efforts in Science Education please visit the Wisconsin Science Education & Research Consortium’s webpage.
Contact
Michaela Patterson
Associate Professor
Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy
Member, MCW Cardiovascular Center
Office: MEB4575, Lab: MEB4579