Looking Back on Six Years of TripLab

As 2024 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting not just on the past year but on the last six years since I started the Tripathy Lab. It’s been a wild, rewarding, and sometimes unpredictable journey. I really wanted to do one of these reflection pieces last year, but I couldn’t find the time or energy as I was preparing the lab and myself personally for a baby (more on that below). Here’s a look back at where we’ve been, how we’ve grown, and what I’ve learned along the way.

Lab Evolution and Culture

Looking back, the lab’s trajectory has had its natural ups and downs—some weeks and months have felt much tougher than others—but over the last six years, the overall arc has been incredibly positive. I’m really proud of the projects we’ve chosen to pursue, the collaborations we’ve developed, and the culture we’ve built together.

Post-pandemic, the lab has settled into a great groove. My lab has a clear identity where we’re social, kind, hard-working, and smart. We have a lot of in person meetings—probably around three or so group meetings a week, plus weekly one-on-one meetings with me and smaller project meetings. It’s a big time commitment for everyone (myself especially), but I think it works for cultivating a collaborative environment where we’re constantly sharing ideas, offering feedback, and supporting one another as we grow as scientists. My lab isn’t the place for people who want to work on their own in isolation, and I’m okay with that.

One hallmark of my lab is the fast pace of research. Through our meeting structure, lab members get frequent opportunities to present their data and receive constructive feedback from the lab. I find this helps projects evolve quickly, while also giving trainees frequent opportunities to hone their data and oral presentation skills. At the same time, the lab is built on a shared commitment to excellence. We take on ambitious, challenging projects, and everyone works incredibly hard to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Whether it’s developing new computational methods or tackling complex datasets, I’m really impressed by the dedication and creativity of my lab. I believe the structure we’ve built—focused meetings, open communication, and a collaborative mindset—has allowed us to consistently produce impactful work.

Research Focus and Collaborations

My lab’s research has evolved in some unexpected ways. When I started, I didn’t think we’d become so focused on neuropsychiatric diseases or that we’d be as genomics-heavy as we are today. But broader trends in neuroscience—like the dominance of single-cell sequencing and the availability of large public datasets—have defined the direction of our work. These resources have pushed us toward an approach that is more directly centred on the use of datasets from human subjects, which I think makes our work more impactful. At the same time our work on mice and other non-model organism projects (like pigs!), often have a major element of technical innovation, like using new spatial transcriptomics technologies or finding cool new uses of Patch-seq in the examples above. I personally get a lot of joy out of understanding the ins and outs of new technologies and learning how to best extract meaning out of these.

Another defining feature of the lab is the diversity of our projects. We tackle everything from detailed genomics, like splicing regulation, to integrating neuropsychiatric genetics with brain imaging and epidemiology. It’s a lot, and sometimes I wonder if lab members even fully understand what their labmates are working on. But I’ve seen firsthand how detailed, foundational work can inform the more human and clinical projects—and occasionally, how the reverse happens too.

A major strength of the lab is our collaborations. We work with experimental collaborators who have access to incredible datasets, but more importantly, they bring the right questions. These partnerships guide our work and make it more impactful. I like to think that when we collaborate, it’s not about generating more papers—it’s about making the papers better. By analyzing big, complex datasets in ways that cut to the heart of what our collaborators care about, we help turn good ideas into great publications. And in the process, we learn a ton, which often inspires our own ideas and grant applications.

Reflections on Leadership and Mentorship

One of the most rewarding parts of running the lab has been working with incredibly bright, budding scientists and watching them grow into superstars. I think one of my strengths as a mentor is that I’ve learned to spot people with immense potential—those who are curious, social, and a little type-A—and help them level up. It’s deeply satisfying to see them thrive in the lab environment we’ve created.

The other aspect of mentorship that I’m so proud of is my lab’s graduates. Many of my undergrads have been inspired to go on to grad school, my former post-docs have landed in well-paying jobs in the biotech/pharma industry, and I’ve even had one superstar postdoc, Michael, go on to start his own lab. I’m the lucky one here in getting to work with such talented individuals but I’m really proud to have played even a small part in their journeys.

Personal Reflections

This past year (2024) has been particularly significant for me on a personal level. Having a baby in April has completely changed my relationship with the lab and my work. Parental leave gave me the chance to step away for a bit, and while it was hard to let go, I’m proud that the lab mostly thrived in my absence. Of course, some projects with hard deadlines—like grant submissions—were impacted, but the time away was transformative for me.

I’d never changed a diaper before my daughter was born, but I dove in completely into helping care for my daughter. I’m really proud of the hands-on role I played in those early months. That said, I couldn’t have done it without my amazing wife, who took on the lion’s share of child-rearing tasks, especially after I returned to work and made it possible for me to stay productive in the lab this past year.

Balancing work and home life has been a huge challenge, but I’m on my way to finding a happy balance. I do a lot more at home compared to my dad’s generation (though frankly, this is a pretty low bar), but there’s always room to improve. One goal for the coming year is to be home early enough in the evenings to help get dinner ready and so I can spend quality time with my daughter before she goes to bed. I’m so excited to see the person my daughter grows up into and it’s important to me to be present for the small, important moments in her life.

ChatGPT to the rescue: balancing work, parenting, and life (yes chatgpt wrote this)

When I came back from parental leave, I felt waves of anxiety about opening my inbox. A lot of those emails dated back to the toughest stretch of early parenting—when our daughter was less than a month old. The backlog of emails and admin tasks felt massive, and on top of that, there were a couple of projects I hadn’t been able to wrap up before my daughter’s birth that still needed attention.

At one point, I even asked my partner if her parents could come stay with us for a weekend or two just so I could carve out time to catch up on work. But then I started using ChatGPT, and it completely changed how I approached my workload. As I got the hang of using it, I realized how powerful it could be—it helped me quickly work through tasks that had felt overwhelming.

I’m still amazed at how smart these tools are when you know how to prompt them well. These days, I use ChatGPT to help with nearly all my writing—grants, papers, some emails (especially the hard ones) and even this reflection piece. If you know me, you’ve probably heard me talk about how transformative large language models are, and I really mean it. They’re already incredibly useful, and I think their role in our lives is only going to grow.

Looking Ahead

As I think about the next six years, I’m filled with gratitude and excitement. Gratitude for the incredible people who’ve supported me along the way—my partner and our friends and family, and, of course, my lab members. You’ve all shaped this journey in ways I couldn’t have imagined, and I’m so thankful for that.

I’m also excited about what’s ahead. The lab has grown into something truly special, and I feel so proud of the work we’re doing and the culture we’ve built together. There’s so much potential in the work we’re doing and the ideas we’re exploring. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.