When it comes to discovering how things work, Jason Carnes asks a lot of questions. And he's always looking for the scientific explanation.

Carnes’ mom — a life sciences teacher — offered scientific answers to typical childhood questions. "I never heard 'the stork dropped you off','" Carnes laughs. He decided discovering new scientific answers was the career for him.

A Seattle BioMed scientist focused on RNA editing in trypanosomes, Carnes is making solid, incremental gains in scientific understanding. "Going after the big leap is sexy, but such successes are exceedingly rare. Working to find the next small clue and building on that knowledge more typically leads to real progress.”

Gaining momentum from field work

Carnes often finds himself traveling to present at and attend scientific lectures and meetings with international collaborators. During a visit to Kyoto, Japan, Carnes presented his research at the RNA Meeting. "I learned many things, which are mostly technical, and I started a collaboration with another researcher to look at her lab's deep sequencing data in a new way," recalls Carnes.

With every trip he takes, Carnes takes note of a highlight to share with his Seattle BioMed colleagues:

"While visiting the Kinkaku-ji temple in Japan, I found an Assassin Bug from the family Reduviidae, which looks similar to the Bloodsucking Conenose of the genus Triatoma (the insect vector that transmits Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease). While I can't be certain that this particular insect was a bloodsucking conenose, it is possible."