Casual Conversation: NIH Staff Scientist / Scientific Review Officer - Nadine Samara, PhD and Jason Hoffert, PhD

Casual Conversation: NIH Staff Scientist / Scientific Review Officer - Nadine Samara, PhD and Jason Hoffert, PhD

Nadine Samara, PhD is a Staff Scientist at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who uses X-ray crystallography to study glycosyltransferases. Prior to joining NIDCR, Nadine was awarded a NIGMS-PRAT Fellowship as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the research group of Dr. Wei Yang at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the NIH, where she studied the catalytic mechanism of Ribonuclease H1. During that time, she was also involved with the NIDDK Fellows’ Advisory Board and was the Fellows’ Committee Basic Science Representative for NIDDK. Nadine was also a member of the Felcom Career Development Committee, where she helped to organize career panels for the Fellows at the NIH.

Nadine was born in New York City and grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Her family then moved to Beirut, Lebanon where she started high school at the American Community School (ACS), graduating with an International Baccalaureate diploma. She then attended the American University of Beirut and graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry in 2002. Following graduation, Nadine moved to the United States to work as a teaching assistant and study at Rutgers University for a year. She then spent 2 years working at Princeton University as a research assistant, where she used biophysical methods to study apoptosis (cell death) in the lab of Dr. Yigong Shi. Nadine went on to earn her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2011 in Dr. Cynthia Wolberger’s lab. In the spring of 2011, she received the Alicia Showalter Reynolds Young Investigator’s day award at The Johns Hopkins University for her thesis work, which centered on a multi-protein complex that regulates gene transcription. As a graduate student, Nadine served as treasurer of the Graduate Student Organization (GSA) and as vice-president of the Baltimore chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS).

Jason Hoffert, PhD As a scientific review officer, Jason's primary responsibility is to implement HHS regulations and NIH Policies and Guidance related to peer review of applications submitted in response to Funding Opportunity Announcements issued by the NIDDK and other Institutes and Centers at the National Institutes of Health. His duties include administrative review of applications, organizing peer review meetings to evaluate the scientific merit of applications, managing conflicts of interest, and preparing summary statements.

Jason's research interests include proteomics, mass spectrometry, bioinformatics, and systems biology as applied to the study of solute and water transport in kidney health and disease. Jason earned his PhD in Biochemistry from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2002, was a postdoc at NHLBI from 2002-2003, and worked as a Staff Scientist at the NIH from 2003-2014.

The PDCO/BCI Casual Conversations Series is a monthly career exploration event where career professionals share their career path and answer any questions you might have. YOU drive the conversation and content.