Pursuing biotechnology, starting as a freshman
By Stephanie Oshiotse UA’28 and Jim Stellar
I am thinking about ultimately graduating with my masters in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. I just couldn’t choose between Biology and Chemistry so I chose the next best thing- something in the middle. I want to graduate with my masters in it also with a Informatics degree. I believe that I will be able to do that in the 5 year program at UAlbany.
That sounds great. So what do you think you will do with those degrees when you graduate? The field of biotechnology continues to look very bright.
I am not entirely sure, but I am thinking of pharmaceutical research and I have an interest in sickle cell anemia so I might do research on that. Treatment for sickle cell anemia can be approached by knowing the genes and their expression through biochemistry. As of late last year, I was made aware of some new gene-editing therapies that have been introduced into the industry to help lessen patients pain and symptoms as well as to improve their quality of life! Most of these techniques include, taking out the patient’s stem cells, modifying it, then reintroducing the treated healthy gene in hopes that it begins to replicate healthy blood cells. However, it’s very expensive. My hope is that in the future, I’ll be able to contribute to such research to help improve the lives of those with sickle cell anemia.
Again that sounds great, but what I see above is someone committed to the service of others. Where did that come from?
Well, I would say that I got that from my mother and father! My mother is a Nurse Practitioner and my Father is a Licensed Practical Nurse(LPN). My whole family practically works in healthcare, so I would say care in our blood (lol). My parents naturally raised me to be a kind and compassionate person. They would always remind me to remain kind to others because you may not know what they are personally going through, and to always help out someone in need when able too. Additionally, hearing stories of them working with their patients, putting time and effort they put into their work, always inspired me. I always wanted to be like my parents, and though it may not necessarily be through providing direct service to others, I want to help in ways that I can. And one of those ways is developing vaccines to combat illnesses that many are prone to, contributing to the work of curing Sickle Cell Anemia, and overall innovating and finding new discoveries to further mankind.
These are great goals and it gives me confidence in the future of our planet to see you and your peers acting like this in college. Which brings me to another question. To me, you act much older than your age. Were you always like that and how did that happen?
I’ve always been told that I seem older than my age. I don’t know whether it’s the height or how I carry myself, but I put my coins on the fact that it was how I carried myself. I am the eldest daughter of three, and because of that my parents instilled that higher expectation of me to be a good role model to my siblings. I definitely know that that has translated to my professional life and my school life. I think that has enabled me to gain emotional intelligence at a faster rate compared to my peers, and with that insight I am able to deduce and decipher situations that others may not be able to and sift my way through it. I can admit that I definitely act like an 18 year old, but there are times where maturity has to take the lead, and being able to utilize both is a great ability that I hope to build upon in the future.
The increase in maturity with experience I think comes about because your cognitive planning brain (the neocortex – what makes you smart) and it gets input from the middle of your brain which is where emotional reactions are processed (the limbic system that at least underlies fear/anxiety in the amygdala and pleasure/reward in the accumbens). The problem is that the limbic system does not tell the cognitive system how it got that output. So the cortex has to try to read the limbic system to get the value of that plan or another plan when making a decision. This planning could be about your choice of major and field in college or it could be when you were younger about your yelling or not yelling at your little sister.
That makes sense to me! It’s like the decision I had to make about my major. When I first picked it, I had a feeling of indifference, like that was just what I was supposed to do. But now as I look back at it after all the classes and the lab experience, my outlook kind of changed about it. Going through those motions helped me to weave through why I was just indifferent, and that was because I still had some uncertainty that I had to unpack. Going through the work helped me to understand what I did and didn’t enjoy from it and it helped me to reevaluate some of my thinking. My emotions said “meh” but it took my cognitive brain some time to figure out why I felt that way.
Exactly.
