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BIT SURE Mentor Profiles



Meet the mentors for the 2024 BIT SURE program! All of our mentors are passionate teachers and mentors who are excited to help students succeed in research. Below is a list of questions that we hope will help you get to know the mentors and give you a better idea of what to expect, should you participate in our program.

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I love looking at the intraspecies diversity of bacteria and how genes can be shared! Strains of the same bacterial species will share a large portion of their genome but they will often also harbor other non-essential genes involved in everything from antibiotic resistance to virulence. Genomic analysis of these accessory genes can be extremely important in understanding how to combat human pathogens.

What do you like most about research?

I enjoy collaborating with scientists who have diverse backgrounds and expertise. Science is difficult and working with others who have knowledge you do not can help drive projects forward and help expand your set of skills. I also enjoy feeling like a detective, trying to solve a problem that no one knows the answer to.

How would you describe your mentoring style?

My mentoring style always changes depending on who I am mentoring and what style they prefer or need, I can be either hands off or on. I am always available to answer questions or provide help if students need it but in general I think research is an excellent opportunity for students to become more independent and work through problems.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

Don’t be afraid to fail. Research experiments rarely work on the first try and troubleshooting is one of the most important skills to learn. If you make a mistake or your experiment does not go as planned don’t panic and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I am interested in the role plant hormones play in stem cell induction.

What do you like most about research?

I enjoy the hands-on nature about my research and the problem-solving and learning outcomes.

How would you describe your mentoring style?

My mentorship is complex; I aim to be an educator and cheerleader for my mentee. I want to educate the mentee on most of the background information while remaining positive and noting the growth and change a mentee is producing.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

Never forget to give yourself grace and learn to acknowledge your accomplishments.

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I think developmental biology and understanding gene regulation is really exciting! My past research focused on how gene regulatory changes can occur over evolutionary time in really important developmental processes. I love learning about how transcription works and thinking about gene regulation on a genome-wide scale. There is so much that we can learn from studying the transcriptome and it’s really fun to dig into large data sets and think about the underlying biology based on what we find!

What do you like most about research?

I really like collaborating and problem solving to think through new research questions! The process of discovery is really exciting and I find that getting to collaborate with others and share findings is the best part of research! I love that every time I walk into the lab (or computer room) that I get to learn something new from the science or from other researchers!

How would you describe your mentoring style?

I want my mentees to develop confidence and excitement in the projects we work on in the lab. I will provide support, frequent meetings, and am always happy to answer questions. I also want my mentees to develop independence in the lab so while I always welcome questions, I try to give problem solving guidance rather than just telling them the answer. Troubleshooting things (while sometimes frustrating) can be a fun part of science!

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

Don’t hesitate to ask questions! I was not always confident when asking questions in a scientific setting but I wish that I had realized how important this is earlier in my career! I view research as a collaborative experience and want students to feel comfortable asking things. Asking questions is the best way to find what you are interested in, solve problems in the lab, and to grow as a scientist!

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I have always loved DNA! It looks super cool and it is so fundamental to cellular function. My research explores ways that cells preserve genome integrity, meaning preventing and fixing any damage that inevitably occurs to the DNA.

What do you like most about research?

Learning something new! When you run an experiment and get good results, you know something that no one else in the world knows! And then you get to share with other people who geek out over the same things.

How would you describe your mentoring style?

I would describe my mentoring style as “Try it first.” I’m happy to explain concepts, show students where everything is located, and demonstrate as needed, but I like to have them make a solid effort to find the appropriate information or lab reagents first. This helps them build independent research skills.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

I would definitely say to embrace failure! Experiments rarely go smoothly the first time, so it’s important to make sure you’re learning from and building off of that to improve. Also, take really good notes!

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I love learning about the potential of the microbes that are around us. We use high-throughput approaches including sequencing and screening to uncover useful strains and genetic sequences in some of the understudied microbes we share our living spaces with… I believe in co-creating and sharing knowledge, and science communication and OPEN data/FAIR principles are integral to this.

What do you like most about research?

I like learning new things from students. I enjoy learning new platforms and tools to analyze the genomes and communities of microbes we often overlook.

How would you describe your mentoring style?

Over the years, I have learned that my mentoring style is based on a mutual agreement and expectation that it is your project. I will not ‘provide’ a research experience because then I am only asking you to do work without your intellectual investment. I want both of us to work together to determine what questions you have that we can attempt to answer and learn from in a reasonable time frame. The goal is to empower you to use teamwork, self-directed learning, and the many resources we are fortunate to have at NC State to discover something that baffles you!

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

Failure is an opportunity to learn how to improve. Forgetting is a chance to work harder to retrieve and search for new knowledge and connections. Research, at least in my experience, is not a linear process: it is a continuous cycle of learning from others and returning to previous questions to expand on what we can find and learn. Enter the research cycle and be prepared to learn about what you never previously considered!

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I’m super interested in extracting quantitative data from microscopy images.  Microscopy images are so much more than pretty pictures!  When imaged and analyzed correctly, they contain a wealth of information that can be used to answer many different and really interesting questions.

What do you like most about research?

I like following paths of inquiry and often ending up somewhere I didn’t expect to be.  Research rarely ends up exactly as you predict or expect and that journey is always a lot of fun to me.  The science will be the way the science is and it doesn’t care one bit about your notions of how the world works.  Many interesting discoveries come from people noticing something weird in their experiment and following up on it to figure out why it occurred.

How would you describe your mentoring style?

I want to set up my students to gain research independence and feel like they are truly contributing to a project.  To that end, I want to position myself more as a collaborator than a boss.  I want to support my students by providing them with resources and suggestions as appropriate, but also encouraging them to troubleshoot and research solutions themselves.  That said, no one needs to reinvent the wheel and my students should learn to find a good balance between trying it themselves and leaning on others for crucial advice.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

As I said above, research rarely ends up working exactly as predicted.  A lot of being a good researcher is learning how to troubleshoot, adapt, and reconsider your preconceptions.  If something doesn’t work the first time, that’s normal and not a failing on your part.

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

I’m most interested in post-transcriptional regulation of mRNAs in the context of germ cell development. It is well known that mRNAs can have several fates once they leave the nuclear environment in which they are synthesized. They can be degraded, stored, or, ultimately, translated on ribosomes (the final and most important step of gene expression). Importantly, which accessory factors (RNA-binding proteins, small-RNAs, etc.) associated with a particular mRNA are necessary and sufficient to determine its fate remain unclear. Recently, it has been appreciated that an mRNP (messenger-ribonucleoprotein) complex is the discrete functional unit of this type of post-transcriptional regulation. This mode gene expression is especially critical for neurons and germ cells, who are under unique spatial and temporal constraints during development.

What do you like most about research?

Although it may seem a BIT selfish, I enjoy being the first person to see a result. Whether that be something simple, like measuring gene expression under a variety of conditions, or being the first person to view the expression of a novel fluorescent reporter in a developing animal. I also, in a less selfish capacity, enjoy knowing that my work might go on to help someone investigate a phenomenon that they find interesting one day.  

How would you describe your mentoring style?

I would describe my mentoring style as a facilitator of self-learning. I try to use my background expertise to show students how we investigate biological systems in the laboratory, where the gaps in our knowledge lie, and, importantly, how to ask the questions that are most likely to help us paint a more complete picture of these biological systems. I also try to learn from my students, who often ask questions or approach things in ways that I simply couldn’t. I view this as important because these biological systems have a few billion years head start on us, so we need to work together!   

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

I’m going to give two. Number one, ask questions. If you have them, others do also, or have had them in the past. You can’t know everything, and that’s okay. Number two, talk to the researchers around you about how best to navigate the various career paths that research opens up. They are complex and often esoteric, but understanding them will make reaching your goals that much easier!

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

My PhD research was in developmental biology- it was amazing to see how a single cell can divide, determine polarity (ie left/right or up/down), and develop into a mature organism based on signaling (communication) through proteins. My current research projects are more focused on assay development. It’s essentially applying a similar set of conditions/algorithms to new molecules; however, no two assays work exactly the same. They all have their unique quirks and it’s fun to figure out what they are.

What do you like most about research?

I like being able to follow my curiosity and learn new things. And I love working with others to troubleshoot and solve problems!

How would you describe your mentoring style?

I am somehow simultaneously hands-on and hands-off. I like to have frequent meetings with my mentees to check on experimental and professional progress. At the same time, once my mentees are confident to work on their own in the lab, I like to let them really take charge of their schedules and experimental designs. I see myself as a resource for when a mentee gets really stuck- I’m here to help bounce ideas and troubleshoot, not to tell them exactly what to do.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

Don’t be afraid to mess up in lab. We can still data from “failed” experiments, so long as careful notes have been kept about what went wrong. And, sometimes, we find unexpected results this way!

What is your research area and why are you passionate about it?

Cancer biology, experimental chemotherapeutics, pharmacology. I love deciphering the biochemistry of the human body and using that knowledge not only to understand what causes disease but also to improve human health.

What do you like most about research?

Every day in the lab brings something new. It might be an exciting new finding or a challenge that needs to be overcome. I enjoy the adventure and mental stimulation that working in the lab brings and sharing that journey (ups and downs) with my trainees.

How would you describe your mentoring style?

By default I am a hands-off mentor. I want to enable my students to pursue independent or semi-independent research by the end of their tenure in my lab. However, I understand that all my students bring their own unique personalities and perspectives to the lab. I therefore maintain a very open communication policy with my trainees so we can work together to modify a mentoring plan that is best for each of them. We revisit this plan frequently since trainees’ needs change as they progress in their lab experiences.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to students beginning research?

Don’t be afraid to take risks or tackle challenges. Science is an iterative process and much of what we do in the lab does not work (even for the most seasoned scientists). Keep trying and don’t give up!