Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Mitchell Fane
In this edition of our Faculty Highlight, we are thrilled to shine the spotlight on Dr. Mitchell Fane, Assistant Professor in the Cancer Signaling and Microenvironment Research Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Dr. Fane brings a remarkable track record of discovery and dedication to Fox Chase. During his postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, he explored how the aged microenvironment influences metastatic reactivation from tumor dormancy, an area of research with profound clinical impact. Over the course of his career, he has authored multiple peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Nature Reviews Cancer, Clinical Cancer Research, Nature Genetics, and Cancer Discovery.
A rising leader in cancer research, Dr. Fane has received numerous accolades for his contributions. He is a proud recipient of the prestigious K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Cancer Institute. His postdoctoral achievements were further recognized with the Larry Grossman Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research at Johns Hopkins, the Best Abstract/Travel Award at the Society for Melanoma Research Virtual Congress (2021), and a travel award with a proffered talk at the AACR Annual Scientific Meeting (2020).
Dr. Mitchell Fane's Lab (from left to right):
Dr. Kelly Coutant (postdoc associate), Dr.Mitchell Fane, Pulkit Datt (graduate student), Anastasiia Burtseva (graduate student), Christopher Price (former technician I), Jhon Pasamonte (graduate student)
Pictured from left to right: Jason Puza (Empower Program summer student 2024), Dr .Mitchell Fane, Pulkit Datt (graduate student), Jhon Pasamonte (graduate student), Dr. Kelly Coutant (postdoc associate)
What does a typical day look like for you as a faculty member?
"A typical day in my life involves waking up and walking my wiener dog (Hank) and then driving 15 minutes to the lab. Once I arrive, a typical day usually involves a ton of grant writing and admin tasks (non-stop), but I still make sure I spend a good portion of my time meeting with trainees, helping them troubleshoot experiments, refine their ideas, and prepare for upcoming presentations or papers. I also try to attend all seminars in person at Fox Chase to show my support to other PIs, trainees and visiting faculty to try and learn about their projects and come up with ideas for potential collaborations. While I’m rarely at the bench myself anymore (my team is far more skilled at running experiments than I am), I still enjoy helping with complex mouse experiments when needed. My role now is really about guiding the science, mentoring, and making sure the lab has what it needs to succeed. After that, I go home, walk my wiener dog, and then go to sleep."
What is your next project in your lab that you’re particularly excited about?
"In terms of new projects, I have worked on melanoma and aging for most of my career, but we are now branching out to other cancers such as Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and breast cancer and how age alters immune responses to drive metastasis and I am excited to see how that translates. We are also interested in intermittent fasting and whether it can help slow the aging process and decrease reactivation from dormancy, so that has been very exciting to prepare."
How do you balance your time between research, mentorship, grant writing, and other responsibilities?
"I’m very fortunate to have such a strong and independent team that handles the bulk of the day-to-day research, including training new members and mentoring rotating students, undergraduates, and even visiting high schoolers. That support takes a huge amount of pressure off my plate, and I’m genuinely grateful for it.
Because I benefited from excellent mentors early in my career, I try to make mentorship my top priority. My door is always open, I host weekly lab meetings, and I often wander around during the day to check in, talk through experiments, and brainstorm ideas.
The rest of my time is usually spent in my office writing grant applications and helping prepare manuscripts. As an early-career PI, the focus is very heavy on securing funding, which is quite different from my postdoc days when manuscripts took center stage. Balancing the two has been a challenge, but after working through several different funding schemes, I’ve gotten more efficient at dividing my time between them.
Other responsibilities like reviewing manuscripts and grants for other PIs or journals, and sitting on committees get fit into my schedule wherever possible. It’s definitely a juggling act, but having a talented, collaborative lab and support from others in the institute makes it possible."
Pictured from left to right: Anastasiia Burtseva (graduate student), Dr. Kelly Coutant (postdoc associate), Dr. Mitchell Fane, Jhon Pasamonte (graduate student), Christopher Price (former technician I)
Pictured from left to right: Dr. Kelly Coutant (postdoc associate), Anastasiia Burtseva (graduate student), Constanze Viehmann (Empower Program Summer Student 2025), Jhon Pasamonte (graduate student), Pulkit Datt (graduate student)
How can early-career scientists better navigate the transition from trainee to independent researcher?
"The transition from trainee to independent researcher is tough because you go from doing all of your own experiments and generating all of your own data to relying on others to do this, while most of your time shifts toward grant writing and managing. One key step during training is to take advantage of every opportunity to learn different techniques and protocols. Having detailed knowledge of all experiments you run in your lab or plan on running becomes invaluable when troubleshooting once you’re no longer at the bench and also opens your lab up to collaboration with other labs.
Equally important, and something I wish I did even more during my trainee years, is networking and collaboration. Introduce yourself to PIs, attend conferences, give talks and posters, and connect with visiting scientists. I would go as far as to say never turn any of these opportunities down. Nearly all of my job interviews came through someone I had met or collaborated with in the past, and those same connections now open doors for collaborations that fill in expertise or resources I don’t have as a junior PI. Having a large network also increases the likelihood of having people reviewing your grants and manuscripts who know you as a person and a scientist which will likely allow a more favorable review. It will also increase the chance of being invited to give talks at other institutions or at conferences.
Finally, apply for grants as early as you can and share your drafts widely with PIs, postdocs, and peers. Doing this alongside formal writing courses will put you at a dramatic advantage early on when you go to write grants and will also allow you to experience the negative feedback that comes with most grants, which can be deconstructed by your current PI so you learn not to take it personally as it is tough initially to face constant rejection and sometimes harsh criticism."
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during your postdoc and early faculty years, and how did you overcome them?
"I was terrified of public speaking during my PhD and postdoc. Particularly in my early years, I would not be able to eat properly in the week leading up to a talk. Even something as small as lab meetings or answering the dreaded “tell me about your research” question when sitting at a simple round table with a visiting PI or with other postdocs made me extremely nervous. The nerves would go away once I was up speaking but the initial stage made me feel awful, to the point where I wasn’t sure if this was the right career for me. To overcome it, I simply immersed myself in opportunities. If I had a talk coming up, I would practice in front of everyone I could, even friends outside of science. I would volunteer to give presentations wherever possible, and eventually the fear faded and I no longer feel overly nervous. I am still early in my faculty career (two years), but one of my biggest challenges was leaving the bench. I was described as a “micromanager” when I used to mentor PhD or undergraduate students, as I would always make sure I was there to watch them do something and had to have it done my way no matter what. Thankfully, I have a great lab now who I trust completely and just ensuring that for every experiment performed, they have been properly trained initially and there are appropriate positive and negative controls that have allowed me to step away and focus more on grant writing."
What’s one piece of advice you wish you had received as a trainee?
"Networking and collaboration is the single most important thing you can do as a successful scientist. You, as an individual, only have the resources and bandwidth to do so much. Relying on the expertise of others is crucial to doing rigorous and innovative science and, as I mentioned earlier, it is key for landing opportunities such as job interviews, grants, manuscripts, and even being invited to speak at conferences and give invited seminars."
Outside of the lab, what hobbies or activities help you recharge?
"I am a big football fan (go Birds) and live for football season. I try to travel back to Australia once a year to see all my family and friends. As a side hustle, I actually build and sell gaming computers. It takes my mind off science when things are very stressful, is very fun and rewarding, and also earns a bit of extra cash. I also used to race cars when I lived in Australia and have a sim racing machine in my basement that I hop on whenever I have free time to race against other people. Also my sausage dog Hank is my life."
