Nathan T. Fried

MY GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Obtaining a faculty position that allows me to explore many of the interests I’ve developed over the course of my scientific training. Not only do I get to continue my research on chronic pain, but I’m also exploring new ways of teaching undergraduates to become scientists with a particular focus on helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is near and dear to my heart because I grew up in a low-income family and recognize that the biggest discoveries are made by teams filled with scientists from diverse backgrounds with diverse experiences.

HOW DREXEL HELPED: When I first arrived at Drexel, I had no idea what being a scientist meant. I immediately found a mentor in Senior Vice Provost for Research Aleister Saunders, who is also interested in the study of Alzheimer’s. He helped me navigate academia to become competitive for a neuroscience doctoral program at Thomas Jefferson University studying migraines. The co-op program was also key to this because while so many students at other universities were only learning course material, I was in a lab, learning pharmaceutical industry techniques, making myself immediately competitive for the job market.

WHERE I’ll BE IN FIVE YEARS: My research program will hopefully pioneer new ways to ask questions about how sleep affects chronic pain, by studying fruit flies. I hope this will help us find new non-addiction alternatives to opioids for pain relief. Key to this is that I’m developing “bite-sized authentic research experiences” for undergraduates to be the main drivers of this research. In five years, hopefully we’ll be one step closer to understanding pain, one step away from relying so much on opioids, and multiple steps of my students entering graduate programs.