“There’s a genuine excitement and hunger around the realization that recent technological breakthroughs—including in the area of heart disease—have unlocked a whole new world of opportunity to apply our discoveries to new areas of medicine. We’ve reached a point now where we can imagine being able to truly understand human genetics and the underpinnings of disease. This is something I still struggle to wrap my head around,” says Nioi. “We used to dream about this kind of thing. Now, we’re seeing how these concepts are actually changing the lives of patients, which is exactly why I wanted to go into medicine in the first place. We are living through a revolution in how we understand and treat human disease using genomics, and I think we’re going to see a huge explosion in that area in the next five years.”
A career in the field of drug discovery does not come without its challenges, however. “I always tell people—especially young scientists—be careful not to let others dissuade you from expressing or pursuing your ideas,” says Nioi. “All ideas started out as radical in one way or another. As scientists, it’s our job to ask questions and challenge the status quo. Inhibition is an important human instinct, but—particularly in this field—we must be cautious not to let our inhibitions hold us back.”