Meet Stephanie Schofield ’23, an OUR Peer Research Ambassador (PRA) majoring in Molecular & Cell Biology and minoring in Psychological Sciences.
What is the focus of your research?
My research focuses on combating the global problem of antibiotic treatment failure. Roughly 35,000 people die per year in the United States alone from bacterial infections that are unresponsive to antibiotics, stressing the need for more effective treatment methods. Specifically, I am currently investigating genetic bacterial stress mechanisms and determining how each of these stress-response genes plays a role in treatment. With this information, I am working to find better ways to potentiate bacteria towards succumbing to antibiotics faster by manipulating their genetic mechanisms and finding substances that can inhibit vital machinery they need to evade treatment.
Why did you get involved in research?
I’ve always been super passionate about my education, and I craved for more than just diagrams in a textbook! My fascination with the “molecular world” of life began from a young age and I always yearned to learn more about the mechanisms of cells through hands-on experiences. I feel that in order to make the most of my education, I needed to understand the real-life implications of what I studied in my classes. Research was the best and most motivating way to do this! I saw it as an immense opportunity to grow and narrow down what I wanted to pursue as a career. So far, it has done all of this and more for me!
What advice would you give to aspiring student researchers?
Be flexible and try not to be too hard on yourself! Being flexible with yourself is especially important. No one ever came out of the womb knowing how to hold a pipette or how to decode a sequence of DNA! Research is meant to be a learning experience, and it is indeed a beautiful one, but you must have an open mind and go into it with the right reasons. Don’t choose something you’re not interested in just for the sake of appearances. Research can be rigorous and hard, so choose something you love! Imposter syndrome is a real thing, but rest assured that it is something we all face. You ARE capable of anything you put your mind to! A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor!
What do you enjoy the most about participating in research?
For me, it is so cool to see how your textbooks come to life when you do research! For me, I was always fascinated by learning about plagues in the Middle Ages (I’m a part-time history geek) and then seeing how nearly 500 years later, I get to experiment with such innovative drugs that make things like bacterial plagues less common. To many people, bacteria are scary and germy, and while I don’t disagree with that, I find them so beautifully advanced for only being single cells. To give you an example of just how much I love my research, I caught impetigo, an infection caused by staphylococcus organisms, and I was ecstatic to be “the science.” This sounds pretty crazy, though it was so cool to finally understand exactly what my antibiotics were doing and what particular steps of metabolism they were interfering to cure my infection. Knowing how great of an impact antibiotics have on all people, my research has given me an insight into its clinical applications, which I am immensely passionate about. Needless to say, when you pick a research topic/lab, make sure it makes you as fascinated as having a bacterial infection makes me!
Describe the impact your research experiences have had on you.
In short, my research has made me a much better person! My research has served as a lighthouse in some of my toughest academic seas. Whenever I struggled in a class, I used to take it to a personal level with negative self-talk of “maybe I’m just not smart or I can’t understand anything.” As with almost any college career, I’ve had my fair share of poor grades and those can be devastating. But research has given me a separate basis to reassure myself of my potential. Though it can be hard sometimes, it has increased my confidence in not only myself but as a student as well! Research has also forced me to step outside of my comfort zone and overcome some of my fears and anxiety, which has been a super rewarding experience!
What is your greatest accomplishment so far?
My answer to this question varies depending on whether I look at it from an academic standpoint or a personal one. Academically, I am extremely proud of both my presentations of my research at a total of four conferences so far and, I am also extremely proud to be in the process of getting my first publication out soon. One of my proudest moments with presenting research was when I was selected to present my work at the BIG EAST inaugural research symposium in New York City! It was such an honor to be able to represent the University at this symposium and I was so proud that in less than a year, I had gone from fearing I would not find another research project to presenting a project I am so passionate about in Madison Square Garden.
If I answer this question from a personal perspective, I am extremely proud of my persistence and my own goals to better my mental health. Throughout my college experience, I have struggled with anxiety, and I can become stressed over academics easily, which has also impacted my research sometimes. With this, I am so proud of pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, exposing myself to as many conferences as I can, as I mentioned earlier! Even further, I am proud of my advocacy to normalize mental health amongst all undergraduate students and hope to continue supporting my fellow undergraduates in the best capacity that I can.
What are your plans after graduation? How has involvement in research influenced your plans?
After graduating, I ultimately want to pursue a career as a genetic counselor. My research has the ultimate goal of bettering the lives of everyday patients who may otherwise succumb to resistant bacterial infections. My time in the Mok lab has fueled my passion for molecular biology and the implications it has on our everyday lives. The work I have completed on the genetic mechanisms of bacteria has shown me what a major impact changing even just one base-pair can have on the behavior of the bacteria during treatment. Our genes code for almost everything we do, and to see this in action throughout my studies swayed me in the direction of wanting a career that merged the research and patient side of this. Even beyond my research, I have developed an immense passion for sharing my work with the general public. I’ll never forget the first time I presented my research at Fall Frontiers. I had a nurse, who had seen the devastation of bacterial infections first hand, approach me. She had a hard time understanding the nitty-gritty of my work and so on the spot, I had explained my work on microbial interactions through the analogy of two neighbors living in side-by-side houses. A minor, and seemingly silly analogy, she lit up in excitement as she understood the complex work I had on my poster. The feeling of helping someone to understand deep science such as that I was presenting was an amazing emotion. This experience made me just as passionate about explaining my research to others as did completing the actual research and hard science behind what I do. Knowing this about myself, my research moved me to want to pursue a career that blends my passion for genetics and counseling/advocacy!
Click here for more information on Stephanie and other OUR Peer Research Ambassadors.