Meet Joe

Hometown: Simsbury, CT

College: Macalester College, 2012

Seattle BioMed Mentor: Zane Kraft

Reason for Pursuing Research: Biology had always been something I read about in Discovery magazine as a kid, but I had never considered it as a career until my junior year of high school. My school offered a course in molecular biology, and it introduced me to techniques like gel electrophoresis and column chromatography. Hands-on learning taught me that biology isn’t just memorizing organ systems, but about systematically expanding our understanding of the most complex things we know of – ourselves.

There is nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing results of an experiment, and knowing that you’ve recreated a process that is occurring inside you, right now! Of course, at Seattle BioMed, this excitement is tempered by the fact that you are trying to understand some of the world’s most horrible diseases. I’m here because this is research that both advances our knowledge of ourselves, and could potentially bring relief to millions worldwide.

Global Health Internship Goals: My college is small. While the Biology Department is truly excellent, our resources are more limited. This summer I’m hoping to become more experienced with the kinds of advanced research techniques and equipment that Seattle BioMed offers. I’m also looking forward to working with professional researchers, who can give me a sense of what the day-to-day life of a scientist is like both in and out of the lab. Most of all, I’d like to see how a research team works together towards a long-term goal. When faced with a subject as large and slippery as HIV, how do you tackle such a huge question? How do you break something like “HIV vaccine” into manageable chunks, into individual experiments?

Other Summer Plans: I plan on seeing a few ballgames and getting to know a new city. (Seattle may be cloudy, but it’s one of the cooler towns I’ve met.)

Best Lab Experience This Week: This week I’ve been prepping DNA sequences that produce mutated HIV proteins (specifically, spikes on the virus’ surface that allow it to infect your immune system. We’re trying to understand how the body’s immune system might bind to, and shut down, the HIV virus. Each spike is coated in patterns of sugar molecules. By slightly changing the shape of the spike, we can remove individual sugar molecules, and see how each molecule affects how specific types of antibodies bind to HIV. Since any future HIV vaccines will probably work through creating antibodies that bind well to HIV, understanding how these sugars affect that process will help us develop an effective vaccine in the future. It’s a small but important part of the larger picture, and so far I just feel lucky to have this opportunity to help.