Nathan Haywood is a 26 year old first year PhD student in Dr. Michael-John Dolan’s lab in the School of Genetics and Immunology at Trinity College. He moved to Dublin from Boston in August 2024, after spending three and a half years working in molecular neuroscience research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What are you currently doing in the lab?
“I am currently studying neuroimmunology, focusing on understanding the dynamics of how microglia respond to neurological insult,” he says. Neurological insults refers to any event or factor which causes damage or stress to the nervous system; this can include trauma, infection, stroke, or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“I am initially investigating transcriptional state changes (RNA expression) in response to different stimuli and am hoping to use the baseline information we learn to do Alzheimer’s Disease specific research in the coming years.” This involves looking at how microglia (immune cells in the brain) alter their gene activity when exposed to different conditions. The goal is to understand how these cells behave under normal circumstances before studying how this changes in diseases like Alzheimer’s.
What does a typical day in the lab look like for you?
“I work in both the wet lab doing the hands experimentation as well as the computational side of the lab, handling RNA sequencing data and analysis,” Nate explains. “Typically, I spend most of my time in the wet lab, doing cell culture and functional assays, but because I am still relatively early on in my studies of microglia, I have also been spending a significant amount of time trying to get up to speed on the published literature and the state of the field.”
What part of your day do you look forward to most?
“The progression from cleaning, organising, and setting up the lab space to now being able to run large scale experiments has run smoothly,” he says. “And while there are still a few aspects of the lab that are being finalised, almost everything that we need has been established.”
“I think that one of the more rewarding aspects of this work is also what makes it challenging”
What is the most satisfying part of your day?
“I think that one of the more rewarding aspects of this work is also what makes it challenging,” he reflects. “[Dr. Michael-John Dolan] started his lab only a couple of months before I moved over here to join so we have been building things from the ground up. It has been an incredible experience to work through getting the lab space up and going and helping with the logistics of establishing a new research team in a new setting.”
“I think that one of the nicest things about my transition into being a PhD student is the autonomy over our time that we have”
Has your day-to-day life changed much since starting the PhD?
“I think that one of the nicest things about my transition into being a PhD student is the autonomy over our time that we have,” he says. “I have been able to more actively pursue all of my interests and balance that with making sure that we are making efficient progress in the lab and worthwhile contribution to science on the whole.”
What do you usually get up to after work?
Outside of the lab, Nate enjoys a quieter pace. “I like to cook, read, and exercise,” he says. “A buddy and I are training for a triathlon which has started taking up more and more time, but is rewarding to see the progress and start to feel like it will be achievable.” He’s also been working his way through some sci-fi in the evenings. “I’ve almost finished reading The Three Body Problem trilogy and am looking forward to finding the next book to tick off the reading list.”
What’s something people might not expect about the day-to-day life of a PhD student?
For Nate, it’s the team dynamic and the sense of shared purpose. “Fortunately, the lab is also growing in personnel, and I am incredibly lucky to have such a talented group to work with,” he says.
Whether he’s running experiments, sequencing data, or cycling through Dublin in preparation for a triathlon, Nate’s day-to-day is a careful balance of structure and self-direction. As the lab continues to grow and his research deepens, he’s enthusiastic about what lies ahead, both in the pursuit of scientific discovery and in the everyday routines that keep it all moving forward.
