Transonic is known in the life science community, not only for its quality products and hallmark customer service, but also for the depth and breadth of the application support it offers its customers. Not only do we provide impressive amounts of technical information, but our research team includes scientists who are experts in their respective fields, and who are a phone call away from lending customer application support. Since Transonic’s inception 35 years ago, calls that began with a single inquiry have blossomed into collaborations that have lasted for decades.
Filip Konecny, PhD, DVM, Scisense, London, Ontario, Canada
After finishing veterinary school in the Czech Republic, I was eager to start my veterinary career in a local pet-hospital. During client visits and after-hour surgical work, I realized that we lacked so much knowledge in treating these pets. That stimulated my desire to pursue post-graduate study at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
There I learned tons about how to prevent blood from clotting in critical disease states such as ischemic stroke and myocardial infarcts. My fantastic team leader, a Chinese MD, taught me how to perform a complete cardiac bypass in farm pigs in order to answer questions about how to prevent post-bypass strokes. This spurred my interest in surgery.
After graduation, I went on to perform more surgeries at the University of Toronto. There, I realized we lacked proper physiological assessment of cardiac function, so I attended a Scisense presentation. After studying pressure-volume technology at Dr. Feldman’s lab in San Antonio, TX, I came to Transonic, where, for the last seven years, I am still learning about the beautiful discipline called hemodynamics.
One day a call came from a mechanical circulatory support (MCS) company developing a new percutaneous ventricle assisted device (pVAD). They wanted to test their new device while performing hemodynamic assessment in swine. The collaboration that arose to test their device was amazing and instructive. Other calls followed: to teach surgery in Asia; and to establish an Asian learning lab to teach surgeons from the region to use Transonic products. My greatest enjoyment, however, remains providing direct support to customers. The data we get is incredible! It is most exciting and rewarding work!
Astrid Haegens, PhD, Transonic Europe, the Netherlands
As an 18-year-old, entering university, I fell in love with all there is to learn, to see, and to do in a biomedical laboratory. My last year as an undergraduate was spent in a wonderful research lab at the University of Vermont, where I was fortunate to have a strong, motivating woman who was a leader in her research field and a principal investigator, as my supervisor. In this lab, I conducted my first animal experiments, while being surrounded by many other inspirational people: academics in various stages of their career, and application specialists for equipment who would visit our lab and teach us how to use our new equipment. There I realized that I wanted the freedom to write and conduct my own research! A PhD was my pathway.
While studying for my PhD, I learned about translational research where biomedical science solves clinical problems. Physiological studies try to unravel processes in living organisms, often humans, in order to either improve or repair these processes. This pathway continued when I started my post-doctoral studies. I was part of a collaborative project between academia, the nutritional industry and the government. This was, at that time, a completely new look at life science for me.
During the past eight years, I have had the pleasure to work for Transonic, first as an Application Specialist, and now as International Research Distributor Manager. I’ve helped my former colleagues in academia design and execute their blood flow and heart function studies, analyze their pressure volume loop data and troubleshoot, where needed. One of my favorite types of customers are bioengineers working in the medical device industry who are designing better functioning heart pumps or artificial heart valves to again improve the lives of those in need. All of them are using Transonic’s Perivascular or Tubing Flowsensors. The thing I like most about my position is that I’m involved in so many wonderful projects and I learn from all the key opinion leaders in their respective scientific fields.
Danielle Senador, PhD, Transonic, Detroit, Michigan, USA
During elementary school, although some subjects required less effort than others, no subject really sparked the elusive “thirst for learning” in me. It wasn’t until 5th grade where a lesson on the cardiac cycle taught by a fantastic biology teacher changed that. Biology became a true passion and started answering the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up.
After years of undergraduate, graduate and post-doc study, working with animal models of hypertension, heart failure and diabetes, I found my particular expertise to be cardiovascular pathophysiology. In addition, the opportunity to have both small and large animal research experience has been key in my career.
My previous experience, not only performing surgical procedures, but also being responsible for the logistics of complex research has given me a deep appreciation for the challenges most projects can pose. Anticipating issues and solutions, especially for experimental design provisions and surgical planning, identifying and evaluating new opportunities for equipment and services, and assisting customers with a product they can trust are some of the things that I enjoy most about working for Transonic as an Application Specialist.
What’s Next for Transonic?
These talented scientists are Transonic’s Application Specialists and this blog represents the start of our ongoing Life Science and Research series. Through this series, our Application Specialists and Product Managers hope to provide stimulating discussion and webinars that matter to you and our community. To accomplish this, we would love to hear from you! Do you have a question about flow, pressure-volume loops, funding challenges, careers outside of the research laboratory or anything else? Please click the comment tab on this or any of our blogs to let us know what interests you. We will be posting several blog topics per month, so please Subscribe and check back frequently for new content. As social distancing and remote work are quickly becoming the norm, we will strive to bring people and their ideas together. We look forward to hearing from you!