Simon Lab Spotlight! Jacob Mischka

Jacob Mischka, Associate Researcher, from Westchester, NY 
B.S. in Biology from the University of New Hampshire 

Q. Cats or Dogs or Other? 
A. I grew up as a big dog person, so I would say dogs. 

Q. What sparked your interest in virology research or led you to join the Simon and Mulder Lab? 
A. I would say the pandemic really shaped and impacted my college career, and it led me to have an interest in virology research. 

Q. What is the most interesting part of your job? 
A. I really enjoy working within the Pathogen Surveillance Program, which Dr. Simon co-directs. When a patient comes into a Mount Sinai hospital with a respiratory infection, we get a sample of it and perform genomic testing on it and see what variants are circulating throughout NYC! 

Q. What is your favorite spot in all of New York? 
A. I would have to say Central Park! I have recently moved to the Upper East Side, and I love being close to the park and the reservoir. 

Q. How did the Pandemic impact your position on research and virology? 
A. The pandemic hit right while I was in college, and I took a lot of Microbiology and Pathogenic Microbiology classes. I really enjoyed the research side of it all and saw the value of pandemic preparedness in real time. After college, I decided that I wanted to continue working in research labs and in virology specifically. 

Q. What does a day in the lab look like? 
A. One of things I really like about this job is that no one day is the same. Working in the Pathogen Surveillance Program means we need to make sure the samples get through the pipeline. That includes tracking all the samples that come into our lab, aliquoting those sames and performing a ton of RNA extractions, and qPCRs. From there those viruses get selected for culturing and experiments. It is a very interesting process that I enjoy doing. 

Q. Aside from being a great associate researcher, what would you describe as your personal superpower? 
A. I would say that I enjoy and actively try to learn new things constantly. 

Q. If you could share one piece of advice with people interested in research, what would it be? 
A. I would say it is important to be as well rounded as possible. Having the lab skills to generate interesting data is important, but it is also very important to know how to make sense of the data that you generate. 

Jake and the Simon Lab at the Center for Vaccine Research and Pandemic Preparedness (C-VaRPP) retreat!

Thank you Jake for sharing your story and also Aidan Vera for helping with the Spotlight Series!