Dr. Mike Tadross has always liked tinkering with things and looking to solve difficult problems. For his undergraduate years studied to become an electrical and computer engeerir at Rutgers. He liked electrical engeering because of viewing circuits as puzzles that he could solve.
After undergraduate he started his work on M.D. P.H.D in Biomedical engeering at Johns Hopkins. His P.H.D ended up taking three years longer than he expected because of a project that he could not get to work. This project has still yet to be solved. Following his P.H.D he started working on DART (Drugs Acutely Restricted by Tethering) before he had an established lab of his own. After the publication of paper with DART he was offered a faculty position at duke and to establish the Tadross lab. The Tadross lab focuses on making tools to study the brain whether that be chemical or electrical wiring. He believed that since the brain and computers are composed of circuits then one would be able to design computers to interact with each other. He came to the conclusion that one needs to be able to put all of pieces together to understand the brain. Dr. Tadross when putting together his lab embraced this. He brought in people that focused on the chemical, electrical and the biology of the brain.
His path has not been as linear as one would expect. At Johns Hopkins, he joined a lab that focused on a topic that was not particularly interesting to him. During his time in the lab, he would spend three years on a project that would never actually end up working out. Because of this he worked on a project that he was not particularly interested in, but this gave him the experiencing failure firsthand in the lab. After graduate school, he worked in a pre-faculty position where he was able to work on his own projects but did not have his own lab. This eventually led to him figuring out his greatest invention using halo tag technology to restrict binding for drugs nears the channels.
Talking with Dr. Tadross, I had learned that if you are flexible and are willing to work hard that you will eventually stumble upon success. That while diving deep into topics is important having a broader understanding of what is occurring at all levels is just as crucial. Overall, my talk with Dr. Tadross made me more comfortable and adjusted to his lab.