Coming from a family of engineers in Tehran, Sahar Tamadon wanted to find her own niche.
“We are very proud of our grades in math,” Atuka’s lab manager jokes. Sahar’s interests, however, tended more toward organic matter. “I enjoyed science, and I was good at it. I wanted to learn about living things, about medicine, and the things that impact people’s lives.”
After earning her undergraduate degree at Tehran’s Azad University, Sahar moved to Canada in 2007 to do her Master’s degree in nutritional neuroscience at Université de Montréal (UdeM), where her interests took a turn toward the pharmacological, studying the effects of anticoagulant medications on the cognitive function of elderly people. She followed that with seven years at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto as a research analyst, gaining a deeper understanding of how stress impacts drug-seeking behaviour, and identifying the corresponding neurobiological changes in preclinical research.
When Sahar joined Atuka more than four years ago, as a senior research technician, she embraced the challenge of learning another area of neuroscience that was new to her.
“Atuka can be a pretty fast-paced environment,” she says, “which is exciting. In the first six months I was learning multiple different models, many different techniques, things about animal behaviour, lab work, bench work, molecular assays. It’s a constant process of learning. Then once you start to feel familiar with everything it’s very satisfying.”
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Why did you choose to study neuroscience?
Because the brain is the most complex of organs. It controls everything from motion, movement, decision-making, memory—it’s just so interesting, and it challenges us with so many unanswered questions. Things like how aging affects the brain, especially later in life, but also neurological disorders, mental health issues, addictions. It’s my passion and there’s no end to the questions we can ask. I’m happy I picked it; it was the right path for me.
When you arrived at Atuka how much did you know about Parkinson’s disease?
It was very new to me, I didn’t know much more than what you’d learn from an undergraduate textbook or Google search. It was a different way of looking at the brain from my previous work, so everything I learned about Parkinson’s came while I was at Atuka. It was an exciting learning curve for me, it even made me go off and learn more on my own.
To be frank, at first I was kind of embarrassed, because although I was technically very good, with seven years’ experience, my understanding of the deep science behind Parkinson’s was limited. So, it drove me to read more. Fortunately, [Atuka founder and CEO] Jon and the rest of the scientific leadership are very knowledgeable and willing to share their expertise.
What do you enjoy about your role as Lab Manager at Atuka?
When I first joined Atuka, I was hired to help train new technicians because I had all this experience with the techniques you need to be able to execute. I also had experience from CAMH as a support person for graduate students. I really enjoyed training people and seeing them grow their knowledge so quickly. Becoming our lab manager and getting to combine my background in science with more of a leadership role really appealed to me.
Again, it made me go off and learn more about managing people, managing a lab, how I can create a lab where the technicians are able to do their best work. I enjoy the challenge of coordinating resources, streamlining processes, solving problems, making sure the studies we conduct are executed with the highest quality, and that our technicians are well trained. I love it.