by Aleicia Zhu
Thank you so much for coming! For current BTHS students, it's always wonderful to have alumni come back and explain some of their life after Biotech. So would you mind walking me through some of your background before Biotech, at Biotech, and after Biotech?
"Yeah, of course! So, I'm from Long Branch, which is my home high school and where I played sports when I was at Biotech. And, when I was at Biotech, you know, obviously and was put in the STEM pipeline, I really think I like, I just knew that I wanted to continue STEM.
So when I went to do undergrad, I ended up going to UVM—the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, specifically for microbiology. I always knew that I really wanted to study microbes. Whether that was viruses, bacteria, or fungi was undetermined. So I went to the University of Vermont, and I ended up working in the laboratory of Dr. Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, and so we studied asthma. So a lot of different kinds of asthma models using mice. I was doing a lot of microbiology but I in the lab studied more pathology. After that, I had spent a lot of time in lab, and I had worked summers. as a research technician. That's where I really felt like potentially doing science for the rest of my life. As an undergraduate sitting in on research meetings and seeing different scientists sit around the table and be able to talk to each other and optimize what they thought the next experiment we should do was, I realized that I wanted to be a part of that conversation eventually.
But, I also knew that it was going to be a lot to commit to—at least like a decade working on the bench just doing lab work all the time. And so I had really convinced myself that I had to do it. Instead of applying directly to graduate school when I was a senior in college, actually after I graduated, I did AmeriCorps. So, I did a volunteer program for a year I basically worked at a STEM nonprofit in Oakland, California, for a year doing community-building for different STEM mentorship nonprofits. It was really rewarding work, but about two weeks and I was like, I need a pipette, I need a lab, I know now that this is what I need to do.
So I really started applying to graduate schools. And I ended up at Mount Sinai—Mount Sinai, the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, which is in New York City, for graduate school. Then, while there I was studying a lot of immune pathways, so what your body first does, what cells do when they first see virus, so the steps before the adaptive immune response. I was also using flu as well. And then when SARS-COVID-2 came around, our lab entirely switched. So I started doing SARS-COVID-2 research, and then I quickly pivoted. I just defended my thesis that ended up being pretty much entirely on SARS-COVID-2 in September. Now, I am a postdoc at a lab at Harvard."
Yeah, what an amazing journey! You deliberated on what you wanted, and then you went after it. So, that's really insightful for current students. Are there any goals that you're currently working on?
"Yeah. so I think that...goals that I'm currently working on. So definitely for my postdoc, I can't necessarily say I stayed in the field that I got my Ph.D. in. Instead of being in a virology lab, where we're thinking mostly about the perspective of the virus, I'm now in an immunology lab. So think more about those immune responses, but I'm there so that I can bring in my knowledge about how viruses work. Now I'm worrying about this whole new thing, which is a new goal. But, also the next steps for being a postdoc. If I want to stay in academia, I need to secure independent funding, so I need to get a postdoctoral fellowship. Most likely, it's a good thing to do—to get your own funding. This year I'll be applying for grants for my own funding as a postdoc. Right now, I do want to stay in academia and, eventually, become a professor—a PI is what we call them—but we'll see what happens. A lot of people's minds change at some point, but I'm not there yet. I didn't give up on academia and science yet so we'll see. "
Yeah, what was part of the decision that made you want to remain in academia versus going into industry?
"It's a great question. It is a lot of balance, but I really like doing plans that I want. Like, I can think of a question and talk to my supervisor about it. Then, usually, if it's within the realm of possibility, we can do it. We can pursue things just because we want to pursue them, not necessarily because they're useful for a product. Not to say that lots of really important research that creates lots of new discoveries doesn't happen in industry, because it does. There are lots; it's incredibly important work. But, for me right now, it's just about, I think, the academic freedom of being able to study what feels interesting and not just be concerned about creating a product as the end goal. Yeah, so I think that that's why, but I have a lot of peers and colleagues who have chosen to go into industry. I think that's a totally a completely valid option, and we need a lot more people in industry doing a lot of those things."
Everyone fulfills that magic of science in their own ways.
"Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I definitely thought about it a lot—whether I wanted to go into industry or academia when I was about to defend my Ph.D., but, yeah, after months and months of trying to convince myself that it would be smarter to go into industry, I couldn't do it. So I stayed for now."
Do you feel that your high school experience helped you achieve what you've achieved?
"Yeah, I think that I definitely had a much easier time in college as an undergraduate than a lot of other people did, because I was so used to studying so much. The workload for me, everyone kept telling me how hard college was going to be. I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is going to be so bad. Then I got there, and I was like this is hard, but it's a work ethic that I had already learned in Biotech. I think it also was I knew how to study already; I knew how to take notes and how to study. So I think that that's a really important skill set that I brought into my undergraduate experience that a lot of my peers didn't necessarily have. So I think that that definitely was advantageous. And I definitely think that Biotech put me on the trajectory to do science in general. I don't know if I would have known that I needed to go to college to study microbiology if I hadn't been at Biotech and gotten such a solid STEM education, whether it's from our electives or all the HL IB Biology and Chemistry classes or anything like that. I really think that the most important thing besides trajectory in terms of me knowing how much I liked science, is that I knew how to study when I was an undergraduate. I think that really helps me a lot."
Yeah, it's amazing that Biotech really helps us build the skills that are not just specific to science, but also to just learning and becoming educated.
"Yeah, absolutely."
So do you have any advice for high school students who are interested in your field?
"I think that something that's really important is probably just to make sure that you can get hands-on experience. So that doesn't necessarily have to be in high school. But, in college, I think that really helped, I think what helped me at a state school that had labs to get into was just getting hands-on research experience in a lab as a technician or as a student. That was just invaluable to me, and that's what really made me know that this is what I wanted to do. So I think when you're an undergrad, just making sure that you get into a lab as quickly as possible so that you can get as much hands-on experience as possible because that's really what's important for if you want to expedite a trajectory into biomedical research is just hands-on experience during your undergraduate career."
Yeah, that's really helpful! So do you have any advice for Biotech students in general for life?
"Okay. Advice for Biotech students in general in life. Well, it's not necessarily advice, but the hard work will pay off. It's just something to keep everybody, you know, moving forward, and to make sure that you're trying new things because you want to make sure that you're in the right space. Just because you think that something's what you want to do, you have to make sure that it is what you want to do, because a lot of the fields of biomedical sciences or whether you're going to pursue your M.D. or whether you're going to pursue any other sort of medical or scientific degree, everybody there like has to really love what they do otherwise they're not going to be really happy. And so don't be afraid to you know, when you're in college or anywhere else is try new classes or don't silo yourself off and do, I have to go to med school if you like start liking working in the lab or anything like that.
I think that that's important. I think when you're in college, when you're taking those next steps, don't be afraid to have a minor that's out of STEM. Like, I minored in community and international development when I was at UVM, which obviously has nothing to do with what I'm doing now. But, it was really valuable to me to gain different perspectives and to meet people who are thinking in different ways. Don't be afraid to step out of your life intellectual comfort zone is my advice."
That was really creative advice! At Biotech, you learn some general skills that are not just some general info about STEM but an entirely new mindset. Thank you so much for all your answers and your time! That about concludes our interview.
"Yeah, no problem. It was very nice to meet you and I hope your Biotech time is going well!"
Of course, it was amazing to meet you, as well!