From THINKing to DOing: Here’s What Postbac Logan Cataldo is Doing!

As a kid, Logan Cataldo had been interested in all things life sciences whether it be technology, geology, space, or anything in between. Going into Wake Tech, his plan was to finish up general education and prerequisite courses like calculus and organic chemistry, ready to transfer the credits over. Once he earned an Associate in Science (AS) from Wake Tech, he transferred to NC State as a junior to work towards earning his bachelor’s degree. Majoring in microbiology with a concentration in microbial biotechnology and a minor in biotechnology, he graduated in Spring 2024. After graduating, Logan joined our very own BIT Program as the new post-baccalaureate lab technician in Fall 2024.

Since his time at Wake Tech, he was exploring different options but knew he wanted to pursue a career in the life sciences. After taking an introductory microbiology course, he applied to NC State as a microbiology major. One unit in the introductory course focused on career opportunities within microbiology and microbial sciences. Intrigued by the scope of microbiology, he wanted to seek out research opportunities to gain hands-on experience and learn to apply various biotechnology techniques and skills he had learned as a result of taking many of the BIT modules. However, this is where he faced a few challenges.

“It was harder than I thought it would be to get an opportunity to do undergraduate research. I transferred as a junior so I was already behind the curve on learning how to seek out opportunities. Had I known how important it was going to be for me to get experience, I would have started earlier, but you live and you learn and now I’m here!”
Logan Cataldo

During his second semester after transferring, he reached out to many labs for opportunities and had found a mentor to work with on a project over the summer between his junior and senior year. Unfortunately, towards the end of the semester, he was informed that the project was cancelled and that meant “I only had one year to do research and needed to find somebody.” In the fall of his senior year, Logan met Dr. Trino Ascencio-Ibáñez with whom he conducted his first ever research project.

Under Dr. Ascencio-Ibáñez’s guidance, Logan worked on his year-long research project centering on restriction cloning. Restriction cloning is a process using DNA restriction enzymes that cleave at specific sites on a plasmid vector, which is a circular DNA molecule which can replicate independently from chromosomal DNA. Then, DNA fragment(s) of interest, also referred to as “inserts,” are inserted within these specific sites and bound together by DNA ligase to create recombinant DNA. This technique allows for studying and isolating individual genes, gene editing, and more. In his project, Logan used restriction cloning to move viral genes from one plasmid to another to make it easier to study the viral gene. Through this research opportunity, he was able to gain valuable hands-on experience which set him up to apply to more opportunities and become a more competitive applicant for graduate school. 

At the BIT Program, Logan is responsible for piloting the BIT 410/510 labs as well as preparing reagents and setting up the materials prior to enrolled students participating in the lab. The last lab of the course, a pharmacology lab, hasn’t always provided students with reliable results. The lab, focusing on the changes of fluorescence of the CaMPARI transfected cells under different conditions, used an UV lamp to hit the sample with ~400 nm light to allow the fluorescent CaMPARI protein to photoconvert from green to red. The plate reader would read the ratio of red to green, with more red fluorescence indicating a higher concentration of calcium within the cell to bind with the CaMPARI protein and more green fluorescence indicating a deficiency in calcium within the cell. The cell cultures treated under different conditions should lead to a difference in fluorescence, but trouble with equipment made it difficult to see these results. The original procedure could only treat four wells with the light instead of the whole well plate. Additionally, the wells didn’t line up well with the light which caused inconsistencies with the results. Taking up this challenge, Logan made improving the pharmacology lab his independent project to work throughout the academic year. He developed a rectangular open box with reflectors on the inside that goes over the whole well plate, allowing the whole 24 well plate to be treated with the same intensity of light throughout. In Fall 2024, the lab already saw improved and viable results thanks to Logan’s light!

For Spring 2025, he has been working on tweaking other parts of the lab in order to further improve and make sure the procedure consistently provides viable results. Working on this independent project has allowed him to improve his skills with cell culture and apply his problem-solving skills to help improve the BIT Program. As applications are rolling around, Logan has been applying to graduate programs and hopes to attend graduate school to earn a PhD and go into translational virology and immunology research!