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Who is Andrea Gwosdow? From Researcher to Educator to Company President Andrea Gwosdow was born in Queens, NY. As a child she was always interested in animals. While she did not have many of her own, she belonged to 4-H and was able to work with farm animals that way. She also rode horses. As a high school student, Andrea was always intrigued by science experiments. She found the she liked doing experiments and learning new information. It was during high school that a good friend of hers, who was a DES (diethylstilbestrol) baby, died of cancer. That made her want to do experiments to try and understand how the body works. Consequently, she found an opportunity that would allow her to spend a summer doing research at Waldemar Cancer Research Center, Woodbury, NY. She spent another summer in a biology lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. College YearsWhen it came time for choosing a college, Andrea selected Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH. She chose it because it was a work-study college, meaning that students have the opportunity to live, work and learn in real-world settings through placement in a wide variety of jobs. She studied biology and environmental science. After college it seemed natural that she would think about going on to get a PhD so that she could be a researcher with her own lab. She chose to attend the University of Florida, Gainesville and studied endocrine regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during heat stress. She graduated in 1984 with a PhD from the Department of Metabolism in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Out on Her OwnDr. Gwosdow got her first postdoctoral position at the John B. Pierce Laboratory, which is associated with Yale University in New Haven, CT. While she was there she worked on a number of projects that studied the effects of different factors, such as exercise, clothing fabric, and work environment on metabolism and temperature regulation. In her search for that first job, she decided to look for a position that would combine her human and animal work in thermal physiology. She was hired by the Pediatric Endocrine Unit at the Shriners Burns Institute in Boston, MA as a research scientist in July 1987. She began her research program concentrating on the endocrine regulators of inflammation during stress, with particular attention to burn trauma. She included in her investigations the effects of cytokines, which were new at the time and for which the potential for application to human medicine was always present. The Research Grant GameIn 1990 she applied for and received a FIRST Award from NIH. However, she realized there would be challenges associated with conducting research as a PhD in a clinical department. She decided it would be best to move her lab to a more research-oriented department and so she became associated with the Endocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). While in that department, she expanded her research to include cellular, molecular biology, and biochemical techniques. She became interested in signal transduction and led her research in this direction. Partway through her FIRST Award, Dr. Gwosdow decided it was time to begin applying to NIH for her next grant so that she would have plenty of time to submit it more than once, if necessary. As she kept trying, she started to look for other types of jobs that she could do besides research. New ChallengesAs is often the case, networking paid off. A friend showed Dr. Gwosdow an article announcing that MGH had received a large grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to support its science education partnership with a local Boston public middle school, the Timilty Middle School. She soon discovered that the current coordinator of the program was leaving that position. While she had seen this program advertised, she always felt she was too busy to get involved with it. However, she had been volunteering as a scientist to kids through the Boston Museum of Science’s Science-By-Mail program and found that to be a great experience. She applied for the job and soon found herself the new Co-Director of the program. She was able to work in that position and still work in her lab half time. It went so well in the new job that the program won a national award and Timilty Middle School was recognized as a National School of Excellence, leading Dr. Gwosdow on a trip to the White House to receive the award. At this time she was also on the APS Women in Physiology Committee. While she was on the Committee, she helped start the Women in Physiology Mentoring Program (now the Career Mentoring Program in Physiology and open to both women and men). After her term on that Committee was finished, Dr. Gwosdow was appointed to the Education Committee. It was during her service on the Education Committee that she became very involved in outreach programs at the K-12 level. She worked with both children and adults, putting together science programs such as Science Career Nights and Family Science Nights. With these activities and the success of her job, Dr. Gwosdow began re-thinking her career and the larger goals she wanted to accomplish. She realized that the best way to use her interests in science education and her science background to bring science activities to a larger audience was to start her own company. After taking a business course and doing lots more networking, she launched Gwosdow Associates in 1997 and became its President. Her Own CompanyGwosdow Associates (www.gwosdow.com) is a science consulting firm that provides medical and scientific writing and editing and scientific support for educators, attorneys, and other industries. Having her own company enables Dr. Gwosdow to combine her skills as a scientist with her interest in science education. During the time she has been in business, Dr. Gwosdow has written manuscripts, review articles, abstracts, grants, continuing medical education programs and meeting summaries for health professionals, medical communications companies, medical device companies and pharmaceutical companies. She also works with schools on science education and interprets science for the general public and nonscientists. Because of that work, she was asked to be the first Chair of a newly established Communications Committee for APS. As Chair, she has helped to organize symposium at national meetings to help scientists learn how to explain their research and concern over funding to the general public and media people.
Dr. Gwosdow is still able to keep her academic appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor and teaches physiology to first-year medical students at Harvard Medical School. Free TimeDr. Gwosdow likes outdoor activities like hiking and biking. In addition, she loves to read and quilt. She is also active as a volunteer, training therapy dogs and bringing them to nursing homes to cheer up patients. In addition, she continues her work to bring hands-on science activities to teachers, students and their parents in her local school district. Recent Publications1. Gwosdow, A.R., E.L. Besch, and C.L. Chen. Acclimation of rats following stepwise and direct exposure to heat. J. Appl. Physiol. 59:408-412, 1985. 2. Gwosdow, A.R., and E.L. Besch. Effect of thermal history on the rat's response to varying environmental temperature. J. Appl. Physiol. 59:413-419, 1985. 3. Gwosdow, A.R., M.S.A. Kumar, and H.H. Bode. Interleukin-1 stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Am. J. Physiol.: Endocrinol. Metab. 258:E65-E70, 1990. 4. Gwosdow, A.R., N.A. O'Connell, J.A. Spencer, M.S.A. Kumar, R.K. Agarwal, H.H. Bode, and A.B. Abou-Samra. Interleukin-1 induced corticosterone release occurs by an adrenergic mechanism from the rat adrenal gland. Am. J. Physiol.: Endocrinol. Metab. 263:E461-E466, 1992. 5. Gwosdow, A.R., N.A. O'Connell, and A.B. Abou-Samra. Interleukin-1 increases protein kinase A activity by a cAMP-independent mechanism in AtT-20 cells. Am. J. Physiol.: Endocrinol. Metab. 266:E79-E84, 1994. 6. Mendrinos, A., A. Kumar, N.A. O'Connell, R.K. Agarwal, and A.R. Gwosdow. Interleukin-1a stimulates dopamine release by activating type II protein kinase A in PC-12 cells. Am. J. Physiol.: Endocrinol. Metab. 269:E1083-E1088, 1995. 7. Carlberg, K.A., B.A. Alvin, and A.R. Gwosdow. Exercise during pregnancy and maternal and fetal plasma corticosterone and androstenedione in rats. Am. J. Physiol.: Endocrinol. Metab. 271:E896-E902, 1996. 8. Torres, B., R.F. Harris, D. Lockwood, J. Johnson, R. Mirabal, D.T. Wells, M. Pacheco, H. Soussou, F. Robb, G.K. Weissman, and A.R. Gwosdow. A hospital/school science fair mentoring program for middle school students. Am. J. Physiol. 273 (Adv. Physiol. Educ. 18): S47-S54, 1997. |
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