Igniting My Curiosity Posted on October 19, 2007 Lauren B. Marangell (bio) describes the path that led her to study bipolar disorder.

Gosh, my interest in bipolar disorder was really very serendipitous. I became interested in the brain and psychiatric disorders through my medical school rotation, and seeing the disorders and seeing people get better was just such a human experience, and it really ignited my curiosity about what would be happening in the brain.

And as I started to pursue a research career, I realized that I needed more training, and so I looked into opportunities and wound up going to the National Institute of Mental Health and staying there for three years with Bob Post, and his area was bipolar disorders, and I, at the time, was not committed necessarily to bipolar disorder, but figured I could take those skills and apply it to another disorder, and, lo and behold, I became fascinated by bipolar disorder and really enjoyed working with the patients and found it very stimulating and very personally rewarding, and so I’ve kept my career in mood disorders.

For me, the biggest decision juncture was following my fellowship and deciding among academic possibilities, and I think here, it’s really important that the person take into account their own personality because there are true benefits to going to a large program with an established infrastructure.

I actually took the other path and I went to a program at an excellent medical school in a very large urban area, but without an infrastructure for what I wanted to do, and so it was, in some ways, re-inventing the wheel, but I got to do it my way, and that just fit well with my personality.

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