Faces of SRAP: Alex and Heather

The Summer Research Apprentice Program has officially come to a close, but we will still be featuring a few SRAP participants on our blog. Stay tuned! 

Alex Mackiel and Heather Peters both enjoy science and getting their hands dirty while they conduct research.

“One of my favorite parts about my project is being in the lab,” says Alex, a senior from Minnesota. “I like doing things on the computer as well as being in the lab. I like being surrounded by science.”

Heather, a junior from Cheyenne, Wyoming echoes his thoughts, saying, “I like working with people, the hands-on activities and learning new stuff.”

Alex Mackiel (left), Dr. Gomelsky (middle)
and Heather Peters (right)

Alex and Heather applied their love of science this summer while working in the Molecular Biology Department under Dr. Mark Gomelsky.

In technical terms, Alex explains their research. “For our project, we are using near-infrared light to active a protein called guanylate cyclase,” he says. “We have to engineer a protein that can respond to light and produce the second messenger molecule. This messenger is able to do different things in the body.”

The research that Heather and Alex conducted could help to revolutionize the medical field.

“The near-infrared light penetrates deep into mammalian tissues and is completely harmless,” says Dr. Gomelsky. “If we implant light-activated proteins into engineered cells that are designed to cure medical conditions, we can control these cells inside an animal.”

After high school, Heather hopes to join the Air Force ROTC program and become a psychologist for the Air Force. Alex hopes to go to medical school to become a surgeon.

SRAP is a six-week, intensive research program for high school students. It is based at the University of Wyoming and is sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR. To learn more about the program, click here, or search “SRAP” in the archives.

By Robin Rasmussen

Photo by Robert Waggener

Faces of SRAP: Jason Edman

Jason Edman

When Jason Edman begins his classes this fall at the University of Wyoming, he will have an edge up on many of his peers.

 Over the last six weeks, Jason has taken part in intensive research in Dr. Grant Bowman’s lab in the Molecular Biology department, learning about the cell cycle and the specific function of a novel bacterial protein.

Dr. Bowman explains, “Jason’s goal is to discover the function of a novel protein. So far, it doesn’t look like anything that is in the published literature.” In order to accomplish this, “His job is to take the knockout strain, which means that it doesn’t produce any of this protein, and ask if it is defective in cell division or different in any way compared to normal cells.”

Jason is learning how cells grow and behave under different conditions, and how these characteristics are related to underlying cell structure. Jason and Dr. Bowman’s research is new and significant, and will provide new insights for the molecular biology field.

“We’re trying to break new ground here,” Dr. Bowman says. “Discovering new information about how bacteria grow and adapt to new environments has important implications for a wide number of scientific and medical fields.”

Jason has enjoyed his summer of research, and has learned a lot in Dr. Bowman’s lab.

“I like doing lab work a lot,” he says. “It’s been fun learning new things and meeting new people.”

SRAP is a six-week, intensive research program for high school students. It is based at the University of Wyoming and is sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR. To learn more about the program, click here, or search “SRAP” in the archives.

By Robin Rasmussen

Photo by Robert Waggener

SRAP Student Spotlight: Jesus and Jolie and Optogenetics

SRAPer: Jesus Yanez
Home state: Colorado
Year in school: Junior
Plans after school: attend college, undecided about what to study

 SRAPer: Jolie Nguyen

Home State: California
Year in school: Senior
Plans after school: Attend UCLA, possibly studying medicine

 Optogentics is a complicated field and one that Jesus Yanex and Jolie Nguyen knew little about when they started SRAP a month ago. Optogentics uses light and a combination of techniques from both optics and genetics to control the activity of cells in animals and, in the future, in humans. This summer, Jesus and Jolie are exploring how optogentics allows researchers to manipulate animal cells in specific organs and in real-time, and how this sort of manipulation might be helpful in treating illnesses.

“One potential application of light-activated tools would be to kill cancer cells,” explains Dr. Gomelsky, Jesus and Jolie’s head mentor. “For example, using a light, engineering cells designed to destroy certain cells could be turned on and off. Once turned on, the destroyer cell would kill the bad cells around it, causing no harmful side effects outside the lit area because, in the absence of infrared light, the destroyer cell is inactive.”
Jesus and Jolie are working with Rachel Schaefer and Jesse Hinshaw, undergraduate students in molecular biology and chemical engineering, respectively, in Dr. Mark Gomelsky’s molecular biology lab. Although they have only been working on their project for a few weeks, Jesus and Jolie have a deep understanding of their research project.
In highly technical terms, Jesus explains, “We’re trying to make an enzyme whose activity can be turned on by infrared light. We are doing it by adding a light switch, call bacteriophytochrome, to an enzymatic part. The cyclase makes a small molecule, cGMP, that activates a transcription factor that can turn on a gene of our desire. We use the LacZ enzyme as a marker because it produces blue E. coli colonies on Petri dishes, so we can monitor how well our cyclase works.”
In other words, the tool that Jesus and Jolie are working on will act as programmed antennas that can detect light and respond to it in a predicted manner. The function of the light-activated antenna is to make a small molecule that can turn genes on or off. In the future, doctors could place gene coding for these antennas into patient cells. Antennas could then be programmed to perform certain functions inside a patient’s body. Then doctors may simply shine an infrared light at the desired places in the body at the desired time to activate these antennas.“Infrared light is helpful because it penetrates deep into animal and human tissues and it does not require doing anything invasive, like cutting a person,” says Jesse. For Jolie, the most exciting part about this research is its future. “I’m really excited about the potential. I think it might actually be really good for saving lives,” she says.

SRAP is a six-week long intensive research program based at the University of Wyoming and sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR

By Robin E. Rasmussen and Kali S. McCrakin
Photos by Robin E. Rasmussen

Faces of Science: Finding Life's Passion in Unexpected Places

  This is the fifth of a series of blogs about women in science at the University of Wyoming, as we initiate our new NSF-funded program.Throughout the year we will be blogging about women in engineering, earth sciences, biological sciences and beyond. 
 

Rachel with students shortly after winning the Ellbogen teaching award in 2011

Rachel Watson graduated with top honors from the University of Denver, receiving the Best Chemistry Undergraduate award. She had spent years working in a lab, gaining invaluable experience as a researcher studying metalloenzymes (proteins that function as enzymes) using electron paramagnetic resonance. She could have been accepted into almost any graduate school she wanted. The path towards becoming a bench top scientist lay before her feet, but she turned away from this opportunity and hasn’t looked back. 

“I was terrified of a life like that,” Rachel says, reflecting on the principal investigators of the lab she worked in during her undergraduate years. “Maybe partly because I couldn’t find my own personal passion in the kind of work the PIs were doing.”

Rachel found her passion while in graduate school at the University of Wyoming. Two years into her PhD, she started working with the Upward Bound and Math-Science Initiative programs in the summer, and her life took an unexpected turn.

“I had no thought that I would ever want to be a teacher until I stepped into that classroom in the summer and fell in love with it,” Rachel says. “I just knew that I would spend the rest of my life as a teacher and that I would never step out of a classroom, no matter what I was teaching.”

Rachel finished her master’s degree, but rather than continue towards her PhD, she began teaching anything and everything she could. Today, Rachel is an Academic Professional Lecturer in Molecular Biology at UW where she teaches, works on research about education and co-coaches the UW Nordic ski team.

Since her undergraduate years, Rachel has thought and written a lot about women in science and why many women do not stay in these fields. It’s one of her passions and something she carries with her in her work with students.

“There has been a lot of writing about why women don’t stay in science and I think a lot of it misses the boat,” Watson says.

The biggest problem Rachel sees is the way that science as an institution and a process, work. Both try to be incredibly objective and in doing so, the human aspect and emotional aspect of science are removed. Women, in general, need these aspects, because they look for the ways that they are impacting people’s lives; they look for the overall meaning their work has for society.

“That kind of disengagement of the human aspect from the science is really unfulfilling,” Rachel says.

In her classes, Rachel works to provide this type of engagement.

“One of the biggest parts of my job is turning people on to science, but also at the same time letting them know that there is many more than one way to be a scientist,” Watson says. “Students need to see how what they do matters in the world. If I can relate what each student loves already to microbiology then I can show them that it actually matters in their lives.”

At the University Games in Erszerum, Turkey in 2011

Athletes on the Nordic team regularly experience how science impacts their passion for skiing as Rachel talks with them about metabolism, physical activity and intellectual capacity. Science helps to explain the relationship between metabolism and physical activity, but it also shows that physical activity supports intellectual capacity to form a positive relationship.

“The two are a beautiful synergy really,” Watson says. “For me, I’m able to work out every day with no guilt about leaving my job because I’m not really leaving it. It’s all just a part of my job and I stay fit and happy too. I think that makes me a better teacher.”

On the wall in her office, Rachel has a collage of thank you cards. It’s her most prized possession and speaks to her dedication to her students.

“That is what gets me up in the morning,” Rachel says. “The students are unquestionably the best part of my job. They inspire me every day.”

At the beginning of her career, Watson was unsure of where her passions stood. Today, there is no doubt about what inspires her and energizes her. Her passions and dedication are clear in everything she does. She keeps her classrooms learner centered, to support and encourage the scientists of tomorrow.

“Always put that which matters most at the heart of all you do. There are many ways to achieve the synergy of passion and career,” Rachel advises all students.  

By Kali S. McCrackin
Photos courtesy of Rachel Watson

Faces of science: The balancing act of life, science and family

This is the first of a series of blogs about women in science at the University of Wyoming, as we initiate our new NSF-funded program.Throughout the year we will be blogging about women in engineering, earth sciences, biological sciences and beyond.

Dr. Sylvester with her two daughters several years ago.

 Dr. Anne Sylvester has a lot on her mind. Between teaching, researching, and the duties of an EPSCoR director, as well as her life outside her career, she rarely has a dull moment. Fitting everything in and maintaining her energy and enthusiasm comes from years of practice- practice at balancing, practice at making decisions, practice at getting everything done.

“I really think the balancing act came from choosing to have a career and choosing to have a family,” Dr. Sylvester says. “Maintaining the family nucleus was really important and you just can’t do that if you have a nine to five life. We’ve always had a twenty-four hour life.”

A twenty-four hour life means that the balancing act is never finished. There is always something else to do, someone else to talk with, another place to go.

 “You have to be willing to have no boundaries,” Dr. Sylvester says. “I have no time boundaries, I have no distance boundaries. If I need to be somewhere, I get there. If I need to work at a certain hour, I do it.”

Balancing a family and a career would have been nearly impossible if it had not been for the support system surrounding Dr. Sylvester, especially when her daughters were young. Her husband, Dr. Steve Herbert, supported her every step of the way. They divided time, making sure that they had dinner together every night, as a family, and that they both went to their daughters’ events. They adapted their schedules to maximize family time, and worked to ensure that they could both have science careers and life outside work.

“I think that the support of others is very important,” Dr. Sylvester says. “I owe an enormous amount to my parents, who helped us throughout our lives. I learned that concept of boundless enthusiasm from my mother --  she showed me that anything is possible and she always supported both Steve and me every step of the way, even though my parents lived far from us. If we had an emergency my parents would appear at the door to help or provide advice that taught us that hard work and creativity solves most problems.”

Choosing to have a career and a family came with hard decisions, especially as a young mother, Dr. Sylvester recalls. She remembers dropping her daughters off at daycare and asking herself, “What I am doing?”.  At times, she questioned her decision to be a scientist and a mother, but never enough to deviate from the path she had carved out. Instead, she made choices that allowed her to be both a scientist and a mother, without sacrificing things she would later regret.

“You have to make little decisions that have a big impact,” Dr. Sylvester says. “I made a decision when my children were young. I said, ‘You know, I have my whole life ahead of me to travel, so I’m going to turn down seminar invitations, I’m not going to travel as much so it does not impact my children,’. Those are the little decisions you make along the way, and I have no regrets whatsoever.”

Dr. Sylvester’s daughters are grown and in college now, but her life remains as busy as ever. The philosophy she lived by when raising her children is the philosophy she continues to follow. She approaches each and every activity with the same mindset: stay focused, work to completion and atten to one thing at a time when possible.

“I think the concept of multitasking is overrated,” Dr. Sylvester says. “I think that it is more important to think about single action activities that are highly focused rather than dividing attention into so many pieces. The biggest danger of juggling a lot of things is rushing.”

For someone looking to follow a path like the one Dr. Sylvester has made, it might look a little intimidating. How do you even start?

“Don’t have anyone tell you this is the way to do it,” Dr. Sylvester says. “I think there is no one path that works, that’s my first piece of advice. There are many, many ways to achieve a dream or a goal. I think you really have to work with your environment, your people, your structures. Everybody has to look at what works for them and find the support structures. If the structures aren’t there, you have to make them.”

Dr. Sylvester with her 'field family' and eldest daughter.

Today, Dr. Sylvester advocates for more family friendly work environments in universities. She remains keenly aware of the choices parents face when it comes to families and careers. Little by little, work spaces are becoming more family oriented, and Dr. Sylvester is reassured. In the future, the challenges she faced won’t be as severe. This is positive, especially for young women looking to follow in Dr. Sylvester’s footsteps.

To these young women, Dr. Sylvester says, “Anything is possible.”

By Kali S. McCrackin
Photos courtesy of Dr. Anne Sylvester