Celebrating our School of Biomedical Sciences’ dads this Father’s Day
Sunday 1st September marks Father’s Day – a day to thank dad for all his pearls of wisdom, for making us feel safe, for teaching us how to drive, for fixing that cupboard door and for inspiring us to be us.
Having children is like living in a frat house. Nobody sleeps, everything’s broken and there’s a lot of throwing up.
— Ray Romano
In the lead up to Father’s Day, we spoke to some School of Biomedical Sciences Dads about the really important stuff...their best dad jokes!
- Why is dad like a mushroom? Because he’s a fungi!
- When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent!
- How do you organise a Father’s Day party in space? You planet.
- What did the buffalo say to his son when he dropped him off at school? Bison.
Queue the applause....
Dr Daniel Tan
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Mechanopharmacology Laboratory, Dept Biochemistry & Pharmacology
My research revolves around developing novel therapeutics for pulmonary fibrosis using precision-cut lung slices and understanding how mechanical cues in the environment can impact disease pathogenesis and response to therapeutics.
Father to Corrie, age 5, Ezekiel, age 3 and Beth, 10 months
The sun is out. The daughter is out too.
We enjoy watching Bluey together, as it speaks to us on many levels. The shows are thoughtfully crafted, and we often have very good discussions revolving around values and life.
As parents, we are always worried about our kids’ health, be it allergies or sickness. The occasional ambiguous diagnosis or untreatable symptom reminds me that health sciences research is meaningful and impactful in forging a future for our children to live better and laugh more. Because ultimately, we never know when our research will be directly beneficial to the generations after us.
A/Prof Garron Dodd
Head, Metabolic Neuroscience Laboratory, Dept Anatomy & Physiology
My lab researches the brain pathways that govern appetite, body weight and glycaemic control. Ultimately we are trying to identify new ways to treat metabolic diseases such as obesity and type-2 diabetes. We also research brain cancers such as glioma and glioblastoma.
Father to Lily, aged 6 months.
Why did the scarecrow win an award for his research? Because he was outstanding in his field.
My favourite thing to do with Lily is to give her a bath. We always have so much fun and share lots of laughs.
My journey into parenthood was somewhat bittersweet as my mum passed away a few months before Lily was born. From my personal experience, I feel that experiencing both ends of the life spectrum gave me a profound gift: a deeper understanding of the circle of life and just how precious it is. While I have always been very passionate about science and medicine, this experience reaffirmed my dedication to my work and highlighted just how special it is to be a contributing part of the biomedical community.
A/Prof Ben Parker
Group Leader, Metabolic Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Dept Anatomy & Physiology
Our group is focused on understanding how signal transduction regulates metabolism with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets to treat diseases such as insulin resistance. We are particularly interested in studying dynamic changes in proteins and their post-translational modifications, and understanding how these are regulated by genetic variants and metabolic insults to ultimately shape cellular physiology.
Father to Winnie May, 3 months.
Winnie is only a few months old so her favourite thing to do is, guess what, drinking milk! My favourite thing is sitting with Tiggy the Chihuahua on my lap and watching her slip into her milk coma after a big feed.
Being a new dad has reinforced patience and persistence - transformative discoveries and big impact take time!
Best Dad Joke? I’ve still got a few years before I bust out the dad jokes so this is work in progress. Rest assured they’re brewing!
Stephen Kaiser
Senior Administrative Officer, Dept Microbiology & Immunology
Jack of all trades helping researchers relieving their admin burden so they can focus on science.
Father to Maximilian, aged 2 ½ and Friedrich, 4 months
Just got hospitalised due to a peekaboo incident. They put me in the ICU.
My favourite thing is reading German books and thereby introducing them to their father’s culture. In a few years, hopefully playing some football (the European kind) together.
Just seeing the care newborns (and mothers) and babies receive from a holistic health viewpoint is amazing.
Pro Dad Tip - I highly recommend the podcast “How Other Dads Dad With Hamish Blake”, especially for expectant/new dads.
Dr Debnath Ghosal
Senior Lecturer & Head, Bacterial Nanomachine Laboratory, Dept Biochemistry & Pharmacology
We are a structural Biology laboratory investigating molecular details of host-pathogen interaction. Particularly, how bacterial and viral pathogens use complex molecular machines to inject toxins into our cells causing various disease.
Father to son Rishabhnath (Rishi) aged 5, and daughter Ritanya 4 months.
Best Dad Joke - I have many but let me tell you a recent one. I installed a software and was cleaning cookies from my computer. My son was with me. He loves making new jokes, so he asked -
Why did you clean your cookies? You could have eaten those instead.
Our son loves stories, so the deal is I need to tell him a story every night. Sometimes, it can be a struggle to find a new story everyday but there is no escape! We also love driving and listening to our favourite music together.
Research in health sciences ensures physical, mental, and social well-being of a child from infancy through adolescence. Being a parent of two, I now appreciate research in various areas of health sciences more than ever. Investing in child health research is an investment in the future. This will be ensuring that we have a lively, active and joyous society.
Head, Neuropharmacology Laboratory, Dept Biochemistry & Pharmacology
Our groups research is focused on the mechanisms of cell death seen in neural injury and the effect of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation in contributing to neural cell death, in acute and chronic neuropathologies.
Father to new university student Sam.
He’s fortunate to be studying science at UoM. My advice to him for uni is the same as it was for secondary school – have fun, follow your interests, say yes to opportunities and work hard!
If I bump into him on campus – I’ll buy him food, he’ll probably be hungry!
Wishing all our fathers and father figures a wonderful Father's Day on Sunday 1st September.