Mentoring Success Stories
Barry London, MD, PhD, and Ryan G. Aleong, MD
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine
School of Medicine
According to Ryan Aleong, a second-year clinical and research fellow
in cardiology, "Becoming a clinician/researcher is not a defined
career path. You really need someone to show you how to do both." 
Luckily,
his mentor, Barry London, director of the Cardiovascular Institute,
chief of the Division of Cardiology, and professor of medicine, agrees
wholeheartedly.
London believes that clinician/researcher mentors need to not only guide mentees on how to carry out the actual research in their fields but must also serve as models for how to balance the two roles. "What type of physicians trainees become is based largely on the type of exposures they have in the lab and the clinic," he says. "When they go out into the world and do well, it's a nice thing." London and Aleong are currently researching the genetic basis of sudden cardiac death in both heart-healthy (Brugada syndrome) and heart-damaged patients.
