Saturday, May 9, 2020 was supposed to be Cincinnati Rollergirls’ annual Star Wars Night, the team’s first at the Cintas Center at Xavier University. The space theme had also inspired CRG to partner with Cincinnati Museum Center’s STEM Girls program at the game and showcase CRG skaters’ own careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Now, while the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancelation of CRG games and other large gatherings, it also has underscored the importance of scientific research and discovery. Read on to meet four CRG skaters who work in STEM, learn how their jobs have changed because of COVID-19, find out how roller derby impacts what they do (and vice versa) and hear their advice for other people pursuing STEM careers.
Anne Bones
Ph.D. Candidate/Research Assistant
What do you do?
I perform cancer stem cell research with the goal of finding ways to prevent healthy stem cells from being converted into cancer stem cells, which lead to tumor development and recurrence. When patients undergo surgery to remove tumors, if they are willing to donate their tissue to research, I receive samples from their tumor. Using this tissue and genetically engineered mice, I perform experiments that show how genes that are involved in cancer stem cell function respond to different compounds. Treating cancer cells and mice with compounds that turn off genes that stimulate cancer stem cell growth can prevent cancer progression. These types of studies are the first step in developing cancer drugs for human use.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?
The fact that there are still so many questions that no one knows the answer to inspired me to pursue a career in science. I liked the idea of solving puzzles about the world.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
Sharing science with others, particularly students who are interested in pursuing careers in science or medicine.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
The pace. Science is very slow. It takes a lot of time to get the answers to most scientific questions. But it would be very irresponsible to send a drug to clinical trials without first very thoroughly and painstakingly verifying that it is safe and effective in pre-clinical experiments, so it is a necessary part of the process.
How has your job changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began?
Since I perform the same types of experiments that are used to determine whether patient samples are positive or negative for COVID-19, I am part of a volunteer group that may be called upon to run tests if needed. I am funded by the National Institute of Health, and a lot of funding for scientific research has been diverted to COVID-19. There will likely be long-term impacts on funding and jobs and in the scientific field for years to come.
Has playing roller derby had an impact on your job or vice versa?
Working in science, there is always a puzzle to solve. You start with some pieces of the puzzle and then spend every day looking for clues that might lead you to the other pieces. And unfortunately, the puzzle is never truly complete. The process can be very tormenting because it’s easy to obsess and fixate on finding the next clue that will “solve” the puzzle. The only time my brain is not stuck in science mode is when I’m playing roller derby, so it provides a much-needed mental break. But I do often take a scientific and methodical approach to learning new derby techniques. Most of my teammates have probably heard me breaking a new skill down step by step under my breath during practice.
What advice would you give to someone who’s interested in a career in this field?
Contact me and we’ll talk. It can be rewarding. If you like mysteries and puzzles, it might be for you. I love science, but I don’t think that’s enough to enjoy working in this field, and it’s certainly not enough to succeed in it. So do your homework before you decide to pursue a lifelong career in research. And get a cool hobby like roller derby.
Garden of Beatin’
Research Assistant
Dr. Guy Lab at Northern Kentucky University Department of Biochemistry/Chemistry
What’s a typical day like for you?
In the morning, I bring up the list I created the previous day of experiments and lab duties I would need to perform that day. Some are experiments that are to be started, some are continuing experiments from the previous day(s) and some are experiments the undergraduates in my lab are working on that I assist with. I also check my calendar to see what students are coming in to do research that day so that I am available for them if needed.
After I have reviewed all of this and my emails, I get to work! Our lab studies tRNA (transfer RNA) and requires a lot of manipulating, cloning and extracting of nucleic acids from different organisms (yeast, bacteria and cultured cells). Sometimes our data is visual (qualitative) such as looking at DNA/RNA fragments in an electrophoresis gel, and sometimes our data is measurable (quantitative) involving scientific equipment such as Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) or Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR). The data can support or oppose our hypothesis about the biochemistry we are studying. The goal is to make discoveries and share them with the scientific community in the form of published papers.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?
I have known my whole life I was going to be a scientist and my parents encouraged it. My biggest problem was knowing what kind of scientist I wanted to become because I loved all the sciences. When I was in 8th grade, I took a biology class taught by an amazing teacher who made learning fun and biology fascinating. From then on, I knew I wanted to be a biologist.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
Making biochemical discoveries that nobody else in the world knows and watching my undergraduate “kids” blossom and go on to become scientists and doctors.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Research, unfortunately, involves more failures than successes. Some failures are just as important as positive results (“Oh, I guess that enzyme doesn’t do what we thought…cool, let’s move on”). However, most of the time failures occur due to experimental error either by myself or the equipment. That is very frustrating, especially when you have been working for two to three weeks on an experiment and have no idea where the error occurred and must start over. This becomes a waste of precious time and resources that we do not have an excess of and makes me frustrated. The key is to try to determine what went wrong, learn what you can from it and try again.
How has your job changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began?
With the university officially shut down, I am unable to go into my lab to work and I can not do experiments at home. I literally was doing experiments until 2 a.m. the day before the shutdown to make sure we had all the data we needed for a publication we were about to submit. Since then, I have been doing some writing on future publications we have partial data for, but I really miss being in the lab. My boss has made the lab and me available to help with COVID-19 testing since we have the equipment, but unfortunately, no government organization infrastructure has been set up to use empty labs.
Has playing roller derby had an impact on your job or vice versa?
Roller derby influenced my life in more positive ways then I can count, and I will always be eternally grateful for this sport, my teammates, all the people involved and our fans. Most importantly, it taught me how to deal with failure. I spent my whole life beating myself up when anything went wrong, roller derby taught me to learn from it and move on within the time of a two-minute jam. Start again fresh, optimistic and wiser. And know you have an amazing support system of wonderful people there for you always.
What advice would you give to someone who’s interested in a career in this field?
The old standby answer is to do well in math and science, of course, but I would advise you to take it a step further and enjoy it as well. Math is magical and science is art. Everything you do and everything around you is science. Cooking and baking in the kitchen is chemistry. The glass you drink from is melted sand like you find on a beach. The smell of freshly cut grass is the grass communicating an airborne chemical warning to the rest of the lawn. Flowers are shaped and colored to attract certain pollinators so they can make seeds but also to trick humans into caring for them because we think they are pretty. I look around nature and all I see is beauty and science. I like knowing how it works. It’s an amazing world.
Miss DeMEANor
Quality Assurance Manager
What do you do?
I work in food safety. This means I inspect the work environments to make sure cleaning practices are done correctly, we are making the product correctly and we are shipping the product without any quality or food safety issues.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?
I wanted to work in a fast-paced and non-routine environment that made a difference.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
I love getting to work on an improvement project and answering questions on how to continuously improve making the product the best it could be.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Not being able to plan out a typical day. While this can be fun and exciting, sometimes it makes it hard to make it to practice!
How has your job changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began?
We have been working longer hours since food is in such demand. It’s inspiring to see how well my company has come together to make sure we are all well cared for and feel safe at work. Getting hand sanitizer and other items we normally stock has been a challenge we have been able to overcome, but not without a lot of work!
Has playing roller derby had an impact on your job or vice versa?
Yes! Most people find it exciting, but at times I have to wear a lot of layers to cover up bruises!
What advice would you give to someone who’s interested in a career in this field?
I see a lot of people do internships and co-ops, and I wish I would have had this opportunity. Never stop asking questions, and always ask when something goes wrong how something happened, not who did it. If you are interested in hearing more or an internship, please contact me!
Wicked Widget
Mechanical Engineer
What do you do?
I’m a design engineer, which means I work on a team to design hardware to solve a particular problem. We have to use physics, math and creativity to create a part that will work without breaking. We use powerful software to create 3D models to see how they will react under certain conditions. A big part of my day is coordinating with a larger team. Every change I make can affect someone else, so we have to stay in constant communication with each other.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?
I love working on teams to solve complex problems.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
The moment when I get to see something I designed fully manufactured and operational.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Staying flexible. Sometimes I do a lot of work to come up with the perfect solution, but there’s a change that makes me have to completely redo my design.
Has playing roller derby had an impact on your job or vice versa?
I tend to approach everything from a very technical mindset. It means I pick up quickly on rules but tend to overthink things on the track. Sometimes my teammates will have to tell me to stop using my “engineering brain.” It can be really hard!
What advice would you give to someone who’s interested in a career in this field?
Try it out! There are a lot of cool programs out there to design things like rockets and robots where you get to work with your friends to solve a challenging problem.
Want to get in touch with one of these skaters to talk to your student, classroom or organization? Email us.