Vol 1(5): Amy Long

For a PDF version of this interview, please click HERE

INTERVIEW
Amy Long: Veterinary Technician                             

Written and Edited by F.D. Rogers, M.A. 

Amy Long combines her interests in animals and science in her career as a veterinary technician.

Inspirational Primates
Originally from Westminster, Colorado, Amy graduated from Stillwater High School. As a child, Amy wanted to be a primatologist, a scientist who researches nonhuman primates (e.g. lemurs, monkeys, apes, etc.). One famous primatologist, Jane Goodall, was particularly influential in cultivating Amy’s interest in primatology. “… I read all of her books,” says Amy. “I met Jane Goodall through her “Roots and Shoots” program for children… She gave a talk about observing and researching chimpanzees, how she came to interact with them, and their relation to humans. She inspired me to work with animals and to become a vegetarian.”

During her time at Stillwater High School, Amy volunteered at the Stillwater Humane Society, an experience that influenced her decision to pursue a career as a veterinary technician. “It was important to me that the most poorly socialized and trained animals were given a chance to find a forever home. This was difficult emotionally, and was an experience that helped me realize that I could bear the heavy emotional toll that can be working with animals,” says Amy. 

A Day in the Life of a Veterinary Technician
Amy decided to become a veterinary technician because she wanted to work with animals and in science, but did not have a college degree. “Many veterinary hospitals have entry level positions,” says Amy.  

An average day for Amy includes things like collecting samples from animals, running lab work, and explaining necessary treatments and diagnostics to clients. She also fills prescriptions and medicates patients in addition to preparing patients for surgery.  

“My job is very rewarding when I can treat a sick animal whose health improves as well as comfort animals who are fearful and have anxiety. Helping to heal a pet also means that I’m helping their pet parent as well. The hardest days are when we see neglect or abuse cases, or when a pet dies a traumatic death. In the latter cases, we have to stay strong for the pet parent even when we feel like falling apart.”

Amy intends to further her education and work with exotics and wildlife. She’d like to work in conservation and rehabilitate wildlife negatively affected by humans.

To learn more about the Roots and Shoots program, visit: https://www.rootsandshoots.org/

Vol 1(4): Forrest Rogers

For a PDF version of this interview, please click HERE

INTERVIEW
Forrest Rogers: OSP Co-Founder and Editor, and a PhD Student in Biological Psychology at the University of California, Davis.                                    

Written and Edited by S.L. Guerra, Ph.D.

As the son of a biochemist and a high school educator, Forrest Rogers was encouraged to pursue science and other academic studies from a very early age. Between seeing his mother working in the lab and having dedicated mentors throughout his early schooling in Oklahoma, he quickly fostered an interest in the biological sciences that ultimately led him to pursue his Ph.D. in Biological Psychology, with a few twists and turns along the way.

Stillwater Start
Forrest is currently a PhD Candidate in Biological Psychology at UC Davis, but his journey to the Golden State started in his hometown of Stillwater, OK. He attended public school there and started to develop an interest in science in preschool, though his full passion did not bloom until he entered his sophomore year at Stillwater High School. While in high school, Forrest was a serious student that dedicated his time to coursework in biology and French. It was these good grades and his extracurricular involvement in Youth Government, Student Council, and French Club that opened doors for many leadership scholarships.

“I would say I was a really serious student and that really paid off in the long run.”

Oklahoma State University
Forrest chose to attend Oklahoma State University because they offered extensive opportunities and funding for undergraduate research plus a strong degree program in biological sciences. This academic excellence combined with its convenience and affordability made it the perfect choice. In fact, his entire college tuition was paid through Oklahoma’s Promise (OHLAP), a program that gives qualifying Oklahoma students tuition to attend an Oklahoma public university. Forrest was able to cover his fees and living expenses through his leadership and merit scholarships he earned in high school, only taking out a small loan to fund a study abroad semester in Paris where he was able to further develop his French skills. Ultimately, Forrest completed two degrees: one in Biological Sciences and the another in French. 

From Medicine to the Lab Bench
Forrest began college as a Physiology major, first pursuing medical school as his next step. But after conducting undergraduate research in two separate labs, he fell in love with science and the process of the work. The hands-on experience in the lab made him reconsider his future goals. He pivoted from three years taking Physiology coursework that focused heavily on healthcare topics, to a new less specific major of Biological Sciences so he could explore a wider range of topics including botany and ecology.

Forrest’s undergraduate research first centered on the social behavior and neuroscience in prairie voles, a small rodent model for social monogamy and parenting behavior, working in the lab of Dr. Alexander Ophir (now at Cornell University) in the Department of Integrative Biology. Following two years studying prairie voles, Forrest then had the opportunity to work with Dr. Jennifer Byrd-Craven in the Department of Psychology to study hormones and romantic relationships. It was his passion for behavior and biology that ultimately led him to pursue his degree in Biological Psychology.

His experience in undergraduate research at Oklahoma State University was the primary reason he pursued his PhD in the first place. He credits the research as a primary driver of his ability to attend graduate school.

“I think my undergraduate research experience is 99% of the reason I was able to get into graduate school. My undergraduate research experience showed me hand how science is done, from the rest questions you have to the answers you gain and the process in-between. If I had not done undergraduate research, I don't think that I would have pursued my PhD. I really fell in love with science and the process of science once I had the opportunity to get hands on experience.”

California Dreaming
Forrest was very passionate about his undergraduate research, so much so that he chose a graduate school based primarily his research interests, following them to a lab at the University of California - Davis run by Dr. Karen Bales. Dr. Bales had an opening for a new graduate student in her lab and Forrest was excited to join to study his specific sub-discipline of behavioral neuroendocrinology, the study of how hormonal processes in the brain drive behavior.

His PhD program takes about five years to complete and consists of coursework and research in the first two years of the program. After he finished his first two years, the vast majority of his time has been spent doing research. He gets paid as a graduate student to conduct this research work, which can vary from planning the studies, actively conducting them, analyzing data, to writing up and presenting his results. He spends time in the lab mentoring undergraduates in research- a small way to pay it forward, encouraging and inspiring others to pursue a research career path like he did.

Biological and Affective Psychology
Psychology is a broad scientific field that could be split in a few ways. Some psychologists may earn a masters degree or doctorate (either PsyD or PhD) in order to work as a counsellor, a therapist, or clinical psychologist in order to work with patients (or clients) to promote mental health. For example, soldiers returning from war might seek the help of a clinical psychologist to receive help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Other psychologists are researchers, and do not work with patients or psychologist. Instead, they work with people and non-human animal models to study things like cognition, emotion, and behavior. This broad category of experimental psychology can be split into smaller research areas, or “sub-disciplines”. For example, according to the American Psychological Association, Social psychology is the study of how individuals affect and are affected by other people and by their social and physical environments. Other sub-disciplines include child or developmental psychology, quantitative psychology, health psychology, quantitative psychology, etc. Forrest studies what is known as Biological Psychology, as well as Affective Psychology.  

Biological Psychology is the sub-discipline of Psychology that is concerned with explaining psychological phenomena (e.g. behavior or emotion) in terms of biology. Some people know biological psychology by the name of Behavioral Neuroscience, emphasizing the study of behavior and the brain. Forrest studies how the brain and physiological systems in the body influence behavior and affect, which includes things like emotions and moods.

Return of the Prairie Voles
Forrest has continued to work with prairie voles in graduate school and recently completed a study using data he collected on parenting behavior on prairie voles. These animals are interesting to researchers because like humans, both the mother and father prairie voles show care towards their children. Forrest found that the parenting behavior of mothers and fathers changes over time from one litter to the next, a finding that provides valuable information for the understanding of parenting in monogamous species. Forrest is also conducting research exploring the ways that early social systems (like family) influence the way brains and behavior develop.

Translation from Voles to People
Forrest has also expanded his research into the field of affective psychophysiology, the study of how things like emotions and mood are reflected in physiology (e.g. in heart function, hormones, etc.). He is currently conducting research under the advisement of Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes at the University of California, San Francisco. Specifically, Forrest is investigating how the relationship between parents and children change during the early pubertal transition, a period between childhood and adulthood that is characterized by extensive neurobiological and behavioral change.

For more information on the research Forrest Rogers is doing, check out the lab of his mentor at UC Davis, Dr. Karen Bales: https://bales.faculty.ucdavis.edu/ ; and the lab of his mentor at UCSF, Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes: https://www.wendyberrymendes.com

For more information on undergraduate research opportunities at Oklahoma State University, check out: https://scholardevelopment.okstate.edu/

Vol 1(3): Frank Xie

For a PDF version of this interview, please click HERE

INTERVIEW
Frank Xie: OSP Editorial Board and Client Service Engineer at Broadway Technology                              
Written by Antonieta Salguero • Edited by F.D. Rogers, M.A.

Frank Xie is a Client Service Engineer and enjoys the challenges of his job. However, growing up he wanted to become an NFL wide receiver. “I was never athletic or tried to play sports. Rationality is overrated,” says Frank.

A Start in Stillwater
Frank is from Stillwater, OK and comes from a STEM-oriented family. Both of his parents are physics professors, and their parents have either engineering backgrounds or a doctorate. He recalls liking math puzzles from a young age and being inspired to learn about science by his maternal grandmother, who tutored him throughout his childhood.

During his time at Stillwater High School, he participated in quiz bowls and built strong relationships with the teachers who sponsored these competitions. “I would encourage all high school students to develop a good bond with any teachers they like. I know most teachers don't seem relatable or cool when you're in high school, but almost all of them have a great story, and a real desire to help people, otherwise they wouldn't be teaching,” says Frank. He also spent a summer working in an experimental physics lab, and this experience helped him realize that he wanted to do more practical work.

College at Cornell University
Upon graduation, Frank was awarded a National Merit Scholarship. He attended Cornell University where his love for hands-on work and computers led him to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A Day in the Life on an Engineer
Frank is a Client Service Engineer at Broadway Technology based in New York. This position allows him to work with bright people to plan and build complex trading systems for some of the leading financial institutions. He appreciates that every day is different and there are constant puzzles to solve, but also considers it challenging as there is always so much to accomplish in a given day.

“I implement and fine tune complex trading systems. These systems need to respond in sub-millisecond times, processing millions of transactions per minute. Over half a trillion dollars is moved through these systems daily.”

Frank believes that some important skills for a position like his are the ability to design and implement systems. He recalls his involvement in college project classes working in teams as fundamental to develop these skills and to help one “think like an engineer”.

© Oklahoma Science Project: http://okscienceproject.org/

Vol 1(2): Blake Chancellor

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INTERVIEW
Blake Chancellor: PhD Candidate in Biological & Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University.                                    

Written by Antonieta Salguero • Edited by F.D. Rogers, M.A.

Blake is from Coweta, OK and grew up playing chess competitively. Playing chess led him not only to win an Oklahoma State Chess Championship, but allowed him to develop strategies to solve complex problems. “Once I realized I could apply my passion for strategy and problem solving to real world problems and make a career out of it, I knew I would become a scientist of some sort,” says Blake.

Tulsa Roots
As a sophomore in Booker T. Washington High School, he became interested in chemistry. He completed the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB), which led to his participation in a summer internship in the laboratory of Dr. Rashmi Kaul at the Oklahoma State University Center of Health Sciences in Tulsa. This experience allowed him to work alongside medical and graduate students to understand the molecular pathophysiology of urinary tract infections. The most valuable outcome was learning how to phrase scientific questions and use the scientific method to answer them. “This experience set my career in science in motion. I still talk to Dr. Kaul today,” says Blake.

Blake founded his high school’s chess club, was a member of the National Honor Society, played sports, volunteered at a hospital and was president of the Latin club. He participated in all these activities and was still able to graduate with a 4.6 GPA. He attributes his acceptance to the University of Tulsa to graduating from Booker T. Washington High School and successfully completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. He thinks his GPA, test scores, and research experience helped him earn his scholarships.

Developing Research Skills at the University of Tulsa (TU) and Beyond
Choosing where to go to college can be a difficult decision to make. When Blake was considering his options, there were three major factors that influenced his choice:

1. Financial Aid: Blake received a scholarship to the University of Tulsa (TU) awarded as a graduate of the IB program, Dean’s Scholarship from TU, and the Martha J. Farrington Scholarship from the Cherokee Nation Foundation.

2. School Environment: Blake had an interest in attending a small, private institution.

3. Research Opportunities: Blake saw the potential to start working in a research laboratory early during his freshman year.

 At TU, Blake majored in Biology with a minor in Chemistry and took a variety of classes in advanced molecular and cellular biology. During his freshman year, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Robert Sheaff, who studies how the dysfunction of the tumor suppressor protein p27 leads to aggressive cancers. The lab had discovered that p27 dysfunction allows cancer cells to utilize alternative energy sources in times of starvation. As a member of Dr. Sheaff’s lab, Blake screened metabolic inhibitors and eventually found a drug combination that could kill cancer cells without harming normal cells.

Even though his findings did not lead to a publication, he was able to present his work at multiple conferences at TU and around the country.

In addition to working with Dr. Sheaff, Blake spent two summers in labs at two universities in Boston. The summer after sophomore year, he participated in Boston University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship working with Dr. Ulla Hansen to understand how overexpression of a transcription factor leads to aggressive cancers. The summer after junior year, he participated in Harvard Medical School’s Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program (SHURP) working with Dr. Junying Yuan to dissect new mechanisms of programmed cell death.

“Doing undergraduate research is about learning what it means to be a scientist. I learned how to take a project from beginning to end, with every up and down included. My summer experiences taught me what it’s like to do science at a top tier university, while my long-term experience at TU taught me how to handle a research project, both when results look great and when nothing is working.”

The Life of a Harvard Graduate Student
Blake was attracted to Harvard’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBS) after his positive experience conducting research during a summer internship at Harvard Medical School. BBS has approximately 800 affiliated faulty and a broad range of research topics to choose from. Moreover, the program pays for tuition, a stipend, and health insurance for the duration of his PhD.

A Day in the Lab
Upon arriving to the lab, Blake checks his emails and reads a research paper relevant to his field. He relies on Twitter as a way to stay up to date on updates from scientists who tweet their newest papers or retweet their colleagues’ papers. Afterwards, he starts his laboratory duties for the day. Blake manages a couple of mouse colonies for his research projects, and he works on genotyping new pups (i.e. baby mice) from his colony, which means completing a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiment and running an agarose gel to determine whether the new pups have genes of interest to the research team.

Maintaining a mouse colony is a lot of work, but Blake does a lot more on a daily basis. His current research project involves isolating cells from mouse brains to analyze via a technique called single cell RNA-seq. The experimental workflow starts after a mouse learns a motor task on a running wheel. Then, Blake will dissect the animal’s brain to isolate cells. Afterwards, these brain samples go through a complex preparation process which involves several core facilities to enrich for the cells of interest, separate the cells into single cell preparations and sequence the genomes. This work allows him to understand how the animal’s genes function to alter neural circuitry and support motor learning.

Neurogenomics Research
Blake’s research focuses on understanding how neurons and glia interact to form functional circuits that support cognition. Most research in the last 100 years has focused on the synapse and synaptic plasticity. However, within the last 10 years, scientists have discovered that myelin may actually control the neural network. Myelin is a fatty substance that insulates the axons of neurons and facilitates enhanced neuronal ring. Myelinated neurons fire 10-times faster than unmyelinated neurons. One idea is that myelination improves neural circuit function by preferentially supporting some neurons over others. By making some neurons fire faster than others, myelination can control how the overall circuit functions, which may lead to different forms of cognition and potentially learning and memory. For example, when an animal learns a new motor task, there is an increase in the amount of myelin in the motor cortex and subjacent white matter. The cells that myelinate axons are called oligodendrocytes (OLs) and OLs are formed by oligodendrocytes precursor cells (OPCs). One published experiment inhibited OPC to OL differentiation in experimental mice compared to control mice, resulting in slower learning and memory in the experimental mice.

“My project, entitled ‘Single cell RNA-seq approach to understanding experience- dependent myelination’, is focused on understanding the process by which an OPC becomes an OL capable of myelinating axons and the signaling molecules that initiate this entire process. We believe that neurons that are activated by a motor learning experience, like wheel running, produce signaling molecules in a process called activity-dependent transcription. Once the neurons produce the molecules, the molecules are released by the neurons to signal to nearby OPCs and thus initiate differentiation and subsequent myelination. This model explains how myelination may facilitate neural circuit function. The overall goal of this project is to uncover how experience regulates neural circuit function, which will bring us closer to understanding the molecular details of cognition.”

For more information on the research Blake Chancellor is doing, check out the lab of his mentor, Jesse Gray: https://gray.hms.harvard.edu/index.html

For more information on undergraduate research opportunities at the University of Tulsa, check out: https://utulsa.edu/research/turc/

Glossary:

Core Facilities: shared research facilities that provide access to research tools, technologies, services, and expert research consultants to aid scientific or clinical researchers who may not have those tools or relevant expertise in their labs. 

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): a method used in molecular biology to make many copies of a specific section (or segment) of DNA.

RNA Sequencing (RNA-seq): a method used in molecular biology to characterize transcriptomes, the complete set of gene transcripts in a cell.

Synapse Plasticity: neurons altering their connections to each other to form new networks.

© Oklahoma Science Project: http://okscienceproject.org/

Vol 1(1): Kayla Davis

For a PDF version of this interview, please click HERE

INTERVIEW
Kayla Davis: OSP Co-Founder and Editor, and a PhD Student in Biological & Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University.                                    
Written and Edited by F.D. Rogers, M.A.

Kayla Davis didn’t know that she could, or would, grow up to be a scientist. “When I was a kid I wanted to be a medical doctor, but only because I didn't know that I could be a scientist!” says Davis.

Stillwater Roots
Kayla Davis is a PhD Student in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Her journey to study at Harvard started in her hometown of Stillwater, OK in the Stillwater Public School system. “Starting in the 8th grade, I became very interested in chemistry. This love for chemistry continued until I was introduced to genetics in 10th grade biology.” That introduction was made by Joan McKeever, Davis’ 10th grade biology teacher. McKeever took her biology class (including Davis) to a conference for high school students interested in medical genetics. “I was fascinated by the future prospects of medical genetics and never looked back,” says Davis. 

Oklahoma State
For her undergraduate education, Davis pursued her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with a minor in Chemistry at Oklahoma State University. “I chose biochemistry because it combined my interests in chemistry and biology and offered many courses in molecular biology, which fit with my interests in the genetic basis of disease at the time,” says Davis.

She decided to attend Oklahoma State University, also in her hometown of Stillwater, because it was affordable and offered her scholarships (thanks to a good GPA and ACT scores). Her final decision was made when Oklahoma State offered her the Freshman Research Scholarship, an award that pays first year undergraduates to conduct laboratory research, something that Davis had already been doing during the summer after her Junior and Senior years at Stillwater High. 

“When I was a kid I wanted to be a medical doctor, but only because I didn't know that I could be a scientist!”

 Davis continued to find ways to pay for her undergraduate education with research. In addition to her Freshman Research Scholarship, she earned two additional, competitive scholarships to continue her undergraduate research: the Niblack Research Scholarship and the Lew Wentz Research Scholarship. She also found support from the Osage Nation and the OK-LSAMP program, a program that supports minority students pursuing education in STEM fields.

 At Oklahoma State, Davis conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Rita Miller. In Dr. Miller’s lab, she worked on studies examining how posttranslational modifications of proteins involved in cellular division contribute to cell division outcomes as well as how these modifications potentially contribute to disease pathology.

Davis’ search for research opportunities went beyond Oklahoma State. She completed a summer research internship at Johns Hopkins University with Dr. Karen Beemon; and she also completed the Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program (or SHURP) at Harvard Medical School, where she worked with Dr. Wade Harper. The research experience and letters of recommendation that came with these internships went a long way in securing Davis a position in the graduate program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard.

“I learned many things from my time as an undergraduate researcher. Everything from how to maintain a professional relationship as a researcher in a lab environment to how to conduct bench experiments, keep a scientific notebook, read scientific literature, and ask novel scientific questions,” says Davis.

 A Day in the Lab
As a PhD student, Davis maintains a flexible schedule; she does some course work, but the most of her time is spent in the laboratory doing research. In an average day, she might plan experiments, conduct those experiments in the lab, and analyze the results of those experiments. Another important part of her work is writing and developing research presentations in order to communicate the results of her experiments to other researchers.   

 Neurobiology Research
The broader field that Davis studies is called “neurobiology”, which is a scientific field aimed at understanding the biology of the nervous system. The nervous system is a subset of the body (including things like nerve cells and fibres) that communicates information (or transmits signals) from one part of the body to another. It coordinates outcomes like the beat of a heart, learning, and behavior.

The specific area of neurobiology that Davis studies is called neuronal cell biology. Her focus is on the transport of mitochondria in the nucleus of neurons. In her own words:

“Mitochondria are essential for the proper function of neurons and are needed to supply energy and buffer calcium. Neurons can be very long, reaching lengths of up to 1 meter, this presents a unique challenge for the neuronal cell to transport essential organelles like mitochondria and cellular components like proteins to the correct location over the span of great distances. It is known that both damaged mitochondria and lack of mitochondria contribute to neuronal diseases. My work aims to better understand how mitochondrial transport is regulated. Outcomes of this work could lead to a better understanding of how mitochondria contribute to diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s Disease which have known links to impaired mitochondrial function.”

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For more information on the research Kayla Davis is doing, check out the lab of her mentor, Tom Schwarz: http://www.schwarzlab.org/index.html

For more information on undergraduate research opportunities at Oklahoma State University, check out: https://scholardevelopment.okstate.edu/

© Oklahoma Science Project: http://okscienceproject.org/