Tag: undergraduate research

Sydney Huiet B.S. ’19, M.S. ’22 remembers being as young as an elementary schooler, visiting friends’ houses and running home to tell her parents that her friend got their nose or eye color from their mom or dad, or what similarities they shared with their siblings.

“I actually knew from a very young age that I was interested in genetics. Even though I didn’t understand what genetics was at that point, I was naturally drawn to it. So, deciding to attend Clemson and study genetics was basically a no-brainer for me!”

Sydney grew up in Summerville, SC and was a genetics major and an animal and veterinary sciences minor, graduating in 2019 with her bachelor’s degree. Starting her sophomore year, Sydney began working in Dr. Leigh Anne Clark‘s Canine Genetics Lab, whose research focuses on identifying and characterizing the genetic underpinnings of complex diseases in dogs.

“Working in Dr. Clark’s lab allowed me to grow my passion for genetics and understand some of the health, emotional, and financial implications of having genetic testing available.”

Sydney completed her undergraduate departmental honors thesis in Dr. Clark’s lab and enjoyed the work so much that she decided to continue her research and stay for graduate school. Sydney worked on a variety of projects, but her undergraduate and master’s theses were both on a dental anomaly in Shetland sheepdogs called lance canine, discovering this condition was associated with having a decreased body size and discovered two linked variants that were causing this size reduction and increased risk for lance canine.

“This work resulted in a cover feature publication in PNAS and the creation of a genetic test for lance canine! This work was extremely rewarding and sparked my desire to go into the field of genetic testing.”

Even though Sydney was confident that working in the genetic testing industry was where she wanted her career to go, she decided to try something a bit different after graduating with her masters in genetics in 2022.

“I figured if I didn’t try something new now, then when would I? So I actually decided to try out working in forensic science at first. I worked at the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory in Hendersonville, NC for nearly two years as a scientist in the forensic biology unit.”

This role involved generating DNA profiles from crime scene evidence, performing statistical analysis to compare any unknown profiles to known standards in the case and testifying to these findings in court when necessary.

“It was rewarding work, but after a few years I knew my passion still lied with genetic testing.”

Sydney’s next move was to her current position at GeneDx, an industry leader in exome and genome testing. GeneDx is a genetic testing company that was founded in 2000 by two scientists from the National Institutes of Health, Sherri Bale and John Compton. GeneDx’s mission is to deliver health insights that inform diagnosis, direct treatment, and improve drug discovery.

Sydney’s is an associate genomic analyst on the Primary Analysis team at GenDx, where she designs PCR primers and send amps to the lab for anything needing confirmation, analyzes the resulting sequencing data and makes calls on whether the variants are real and what the zygosity of each family member is.

“Having accurate and timely results can make a monumental difference in developing a treatment plan for a patient and can save their family much emotional and financial stress. I find this work extremely rewarding, especially as GeneDx is continuing to offer tests with faster and faster turn-around-times for these patients.”

Sydney lives just outside of Charlotte, NC with her high school sweetheart-husband, Evan and works fully remote for GenDx. She is excited about the growing opportunities this field offers.

“There is a lot of growth in this field and at companies like GeneDx, so there are endless opportunities for career advancement, which is exciting! Right now I’m just enjoying newly-ish married life with my husband, Evan, and our three dogs Scout, Obi, and Pippin.”

When junior genetics major and member of the Army National Guard Stephanie Toft got the call to come into work for hurricane Helene relief efforts, she didn’t hesitate.

“With the devastation that Hurricane Helene has caused the Carolinas, the need for assistance has been dire and that is one of the many reasons I chose to be in the military—to aid my state in moments of need.”

Stephanie works in the Aviation Unit in Greenville, which is always prepared and ready to assist with natural disasters being equipped with many aircrafts and well-trained pilots. Stephanie and her unit worked to rescue civilians and get tens of thousands of pounds of supplies transported to North Carolina.

“My official job title is an Aviation Operations Specialist, so I checked out equipment to the pilots going out to transport cargo and attempt rescues, communicated with them over the radio and made sure safety and success of the mission was the top priority.”

Overall, Stephanie and her unit accomplished many rescues of individuals trapped in isolated areas and their chinook aircrafts dropped 20,000lbs of supplies everyday as they went out to get food and water to those who desperately needed it. They even had aircrafts from New York and Florida come to their Greenville unit so they could head to North Carolina together to fully assist with relief efforts.

Stephanie was raised in Greenville, South Carolina and grew up having aspirations to follow in her sisters’ footsteps by joining the military.

“I have an immense passion for my job and aviation in general, and my goal is to complete my twenty years of service to retirement because I love my job so much!”

Stephanie is a transfer student, who after obtaining her associate’s degree, came to Clemson under a different major. However after hearing Dr. Alison Starr-Moss speak at the College of Science Open House about genetics as a major and career route, she switched paths.

“Dr. Starr-Moss explained it so well at the open house that choosing to pursue genetics at Clemson was a no-brainer. She explained how genetics takes biology and showcases life processes at such an in-depth level that I couldn’t help but want to get involved in research and explore what that meant.”

Stephanie currently works in Dr. Michael Sehorn’s DNA Cell Repair Lab. She just began working in the lab this semester and the excitement she has to learn more about the repair process and how homologous DNA repairs and breaks function is paramount to her aspirations to be involved in research in general.

Her plans after graduation are to attend graduate school and continue pursuing a genetics-related research career. Stephanie hopes to find some more amazing research opportunities to grow her lab experience and delve deeper into the fundamentals of genetics.

If you can’t find Stephanie working for the military or in a research lab, you can find her hiking, her favorite spot being Alaska!

“I may be a newbie to the world of genetics, but switching my major and joining the Clemson family absolutely was the right decision, and I feel as passionate about it as I do about joining the military!”

In the beginning, senior Hetvi Solanki was unsure if she wanted to major in genetics or biochemistry, the two often going hand-in-hand. One thing Hetvi wasn’t on the fence about was where to purse her higher education. She loves the small town feel of Clemson while there also being so many unique people around.

“Genetics was the right choice for me because I would be able delve deep into a specialized field and also relate it to human diseases.”

Hetvi feels at home in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, knowing most of the people in all her classes, which is something she truly appreciates – being able to go through this major alongside a mini community within the larger Clemson community.

“Our professors are wonderful – some of my favorites have been Dr. [Jennifer] Mason and Dr. [Heidi] Anderson.”

On campus, Hetvi in involved in a few extracurricular activities, one of them being serving on the executive board of the Clemson University Period Project, a nonprofit organization that collects and donates period products by donation events as well as delivery drop-offs to various locations.

“We are a club dedicated to providing menstrual products to those in need as well as educating students on women’s health and period poverty.”

She is also a part of the Health Professions Advising Ambassador Program, where advisors prepare prospective and current students as well as alumni interested in pursuing careers in the chiropractic medicine, dentistry, medicine, optometry, pharmacy, physical assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology fields.

“In this role I get to be a student guide for a physician at the annual Tigers on Call event and mentor other pre-medical undergraduate students.”

In addition to Hetvi’s extracurricular participation, she is also involved in Dr. Yanzhang Wei’s lab from Biological Sciences, where investigates a bifunctional fusion protein’s ability to prevent T-cell exhaustion and engage Natural Killer cells in tumors.

“I specifically work with a breast cancer cell line and my experience with this lab has really increased my confidence as a researcher and taught me valuable skills like cell culture, transfections and a number of different assays.”

With all this undergraduate experience, Hetvi plans to pursue a career in medicine.

“I am specifically interested in pediatrics at the moment but am open to exploring other specialties!”

Hetvi is from a small town in SC called Andrews near the coast and enjoys spending time with my family and friends and going to local coffee shops.

When senior biochemistry major Justyn Stevens was in high school, he started taking chemistry, biology and anatomy and immediately fell in love with life sciences. That passion coupled with his love of the campus and the knowledge that he wanted to go into the medical field made the biochemistry major at Clemson the perfect place for him.

“Clemson is also always investing in the sciences and helping students and professors with anything they need to help advance their research.”

For Justyn, the Genetics and Biochemistry Department has brought a sense of community with life-long friends and supportive professors. Justyn says his professors and advisors are always there to answer questions just talk about the future and how to prepare.

“If I had one piece of advice for any incoming or current G&B students, it would be to not be afraid to talk to people. Whether that’s professors or other students, you never know who you could meet. I have found some of my best friends in this major as well as some of my favorite professors.”

One of the professors that Justyn has found supportive is Dr. Lukasz Kozubowski. Justyn is currently working in Dr. Kozubowksi’s lab where he is studying Cryptococcus Neoforms. He works closely with Hannah Akahoho, a Ph.D. student in the lab, to better understand the CDC42 gene found in Cryptococcus.

“We are testing how different drugs interact with the organisms and seeing how they affect the budding/replication of Cryptococcus cells. This, in the grand scheme of things, will help our understanding of the CDC42 gene and how to prevent Cryptococcus from replicating and spreading.”

Justyn’s end goal is to go to medical school and become a cardiothoracic surgeon. After graduation, he plans to take a gap year, working as an EMT back in his hometown of Myrtle Beach, SC.

In his free time, Justyn enjoys anything sports related – golfing, throwing football/baseball or playing pickleball. He is studying for the MCAT to go to medical school after his gap year.

Yellow camellias are far rarer than white, pink and red, found only in south China and Vietnam. Senior biochemistry major Allen Gomez’s research aims to make propagation and growing of yellow camellias easier.

Gomez’s research is done through the Creative Inquiry + Undergraduate Research program with associate professor Dr. Haiying Laing, whose research focuses on the application of genetics and genomics to improve economically important traits in plants.

“I think it’s really interesting how gene editing and being able to modify and improve certain aspects of different organisms through genetics works,” said Gomez.

Working with first-year Ph.D. student Roger Zhang he has investigated the expression levels of auxin response factor (ARF) genes in Camellia nitidissima, aiming to determine how ARF genes were regulated in yellow camellias, possibly leading to the ability to determine a method to induce adventitious roots and develop a treatment method that would improve the rooting ability of yellow camellias.

Gomez’s end goal is to attend medical school and become a surgeon. He says the research he has done through this project gives him valuable research experience to bolster his medical school applications and allows him to hone skills he’ll use throughout his career in medicine.

“It shows that I am able to follow instructions step-by-step, take precise notes, solve problems, work with others, interpret data and know the importance of sterility. I’ll use those skills in medical school and as a surgeon,” he said.

Gomez’s desire to become a surgeon stems from a childhood experience.
When Gomez was 10, he lived in Ecuador. After falling off monkey bars at the playground and breaking his wrist, it was four days before he could get the surgery he needed. That sparked his interest in surgery and a desire to help bring more medical services to rural areas in Ecuador.

“My experiences at Clemson helped solidify my belief that pursuing a medical career is the right thing to do.”