Jacob Lei was a rising Junior in High School when he participated in one of BioBuilder's online programs in the summer of 2020, waking up at 5AM Pacific time to participate synchronously three times a week for a month. BioBuilder’s online program introduced Jacob to the idea that biology and engineering could be combined to help people, using genetic parts that could be reconnected to address global issues. His biodesign team focused on medical treatments with a design that addressed insulin regulation in Type I diabetes, incorporating a model for insulin fluctuations in R.
Jacob furthered his interest in synthetic biology through a program at UCSD the following summer -- taught by Carlos Vera (an amazing BioBuilder teacher himself!). And now Jacob attends Rice University in Texas where he is studying bioengineering, and will be joining Jeff Tabor's lab to carry out an undergraduate research project, working on novel two component signaling pathways. He is also sharing his excitement for science through a local outreach program called Kids Are Scientists Too, in which Jacob spends time doing fun science demonstrations with young students near Rice University.
Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/
And follow BioBuilder on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/BioBuilderFoundation/
https://twitter.com/SystemsSally
https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder
https://www.instagram.com/systems_sally/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/16132078
Jacob Lei was a rising Junior in High School when he participated in one of BioBuilder's online programs in the summer of 2020, waking up at 5AM Pacific time to participate synchronously three times a week for a month. BioBuilder’s online program introduced Jacob to the idea that biology and engineering could be combined to help people, using genetic parts that could be reconnected to address global issues. His biodesign team focused on medical treatments with a design that addressed insulin regulation in Type I diabetes, incorporating a model for insulin fluctuations in R.
Jacob furthered his interest in synthetic biology through a program at UCSD the following summer -- taught by Carlos Vera (an amazing BioBuilder teacher himself!). And now Jacob attends Rice University in Texas where he is studying bioengineering, and will be joining Jeff Tabor's lab to carry out an undergraduate research project, working on novel two component signaling pathways. He is also sharing his excitement for science through a local outreach program called Kids Are Scientists Too, in which Jacob spends time doing fun science demonstrations with young students near Rice University.
Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/
And follow BioBuilder on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/BioBuilderFoundation/
https://twitter.com/SystemsSally
https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder
https://www.instagram.com/systems_sally/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/16132078
Hello and welcome to Life Changing Science, the bible, the podcast. I'm your host, z Sean. And today I am joined by Jacob Lee. Jacob first joined the bible, the program online when he was a rising junior in 2020. During this time, he would get up at 5:00 AM to take the Bible of classes and took a great interest in synthetic biology and eventually became the leader of his biodesign team. He then leveraged his bodybuilder experience to work in a synthetic biology program at U C S D the following summer, taught by Carlos Vera, an amazing bio builder teacher. And now Jacob attends Rice University in Texas where he is thriving studying bioengineering and will be joining the table lab for an undergraduate experience in Sy Bao. Let's hear about this wonderful Symb Bioo journey and dive right into this episode. Let's get started with you. Were part of the online bio builder, uh, program in 2020. Um, tell us a bit more about that. So what was the program though? Were you part of, how did you first get involved with bodybuilder?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. So around that time, uh, it was around the spring or summer of 2020, which was my, uh, sophomore year of high school. And I had known for a while that I liked science, I liked, uh, biology specifically, and I had more liked, um, like biotech or just kind of that technology plus, uh, biology connection. Um, but I hadn't really crystallized like what that meant in terms of what I want to study in the future. So a big part of what I want to do once the pandemic hit once things went online is I really want to explore, um, like which interests specifically I wanted to dive into. Um, so I googled around some, um, like different biotech, uh, programs, different, um, bioengineering programs, biomedical engineering, and I found bio and I saw synthetic biology as an opportunity to combine both the technical aspect of biology that I liked. Um, just using all those different, um, all the techniques and technicalities of cells and how they operate and how we can use engineering techniques, uh, combine those together and create something that can and help people. And so I found Bio Builder and I was like, man, I think since, since Ilog looks pretty cool. So, uh, I actually did Bible there, uh, over the summer. I think it was the Bible, the summer program in 2020. It was online unfortunately, so we couldn't do anything in person. Um, but I still found it very rewarding in terms of, um, just deepening my interest. Um, so through the program, like I'd gone in with like a loose interest of like, I knew I wanted to do something biology technology related, but leaving the program, I felt so inspired by the potential of bioengineering and synthetic biology, of just seeing all the techniques of um, how we could use plasmids and bacteria or how we could engineer these different, um, these different biological parts together to create, um, a desire outcome that we wanted. I just found that so, so invigorating because we have all these parts that have been around us for so long, all these different genes, uh, promoters, all these biological parts in us, um, but we can connect them in a way that can solve global issues like genetic diabetes, Alzheimer's, pollution in our water, all these different things. I just found that so inspiring.
Speaker 1:The, what I wanted to ask was how is the online learning experience, because you had to, obviously learning about plasmids and biological parts, uh, and genetics, et cetera, is tricky to do in person in the first place. Um, and so how is that online experience and how, how was the Bible online experience? How were the classes? Like how was learning different? Because you know, in 2020 we were learning as we go, right? No one really know, knew how to teach in that, uh,<laugh> in that era.
Speaker 2:Definitely, yeah, definitely took some time to get used to. So I mean, I had been classrooms, I'd been taking biology and like in the classroom, right? Um, but doing online, I think I remember I had to wake up around, uh, 5:00 AM Pacific time each, each Monday, Wednesday, Friday to go to lectures cuz um, but I, I know for me it was, um, definitely for me, like it was a new experience learning online because, um, just getting used to not, not like, especially for biology, which is like a more hands-on thing where you can learn, um, like watching Dr. Cordell do the experiments on her bench, uh, through Zoom. That was interesting. But I still felt that it was really rewarding in terms of, um, seeing the potential of synthetic biology. I think, um, for me, like even though waking up at 5:00 AM wasn't so easy, uh, I just found like, man, this is so cool. E even though I'd be like, have a cup of TX to me in the morning and retired, but seeing um, how we can use the different parts and engineer these different processes to our favor, I think that kept me, kept me going. So unfortunately, even though I couldn't work with the parts myself, um, I still found it valuable to discover which parts I could use, um, if still does go through the design process of which, um, biological parts to design and how I can design them. And then, um, maybe in a future project where I could go in person, I could build on top of that.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. Makes sense. So you're sort of building sort of a repertoire of knowledge, uh, that bible that was providing at that time and in the, in the hope that in the future. Okay. Right now it's just a learning phrase. Uh, and then sometime in the new feature you're gonna really just apply all of that in the lab. Absolutely. Um, cuz yeah, I guess everything, everything starts with the, with the theory and, uh, first impressive. Good, good on you for waking up at 5:00 AM it's not hard to do, especially during summer. Uh, I'm sure you<laugh> you know, preferr doing a lot more things. Um, that's awesome. Okay, now I really want, I'm really excited cuz um, while you were in the Bible, the program, um, online, you got involved with sort of, um, the, is it the biodesign challenge or you're part of, um, you set up the biodesign team. I'd love to hear more about how that came about and some of the science that you worked on as well as, you know, I'm from a bioinformatics background and I heard there was some programming in in your projects. I'd love to hear a bit more about that.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Yeah. So the, the way the program worked is that we had a couple, um, I think the first couple weeks we had, um, just mostly introductory info. So they teach us about different techniques we'd use, um, different, different tools we use and what, um, parts, how, how the different biological parts work together. Um, and then I think starting week two or week three, we broke into teams based on, uh, which, uh, project interest we were most interested in. So the area that I worked in, uh, was called like the medical, uh, regulation type of field. Um, so then the project specifically I worked on was, um, insulin regulation because, um, I, my family has had a history of genetic diabetes, so like higher blood sugar levels, um, in general. So we need to watch what we eat, um, make sure we take metformin if we need to. Um, but I found it so cool that we could use these, um, these bacteria as a, as like a vehicle for creating or as a, as a, as a vehicle for creating solutions for this, uh, global issue for so many people. And I just think that that passion and that drive and connecting it to a personal purpose, that's what drove everything forward. So, um, that's, I, I spend like hours after classes like reading, trying to find papers, um, inspiration, you maybe even pass, I jump projects for inspiration on how to design my project. And I come to the next lecture with, uh, an array of questions for Dr. Cordell<laugh>. Um, and just trying to find out more, as much as I could about my design. Um, so ultimately what we ended up doing is we had, uh, we designed a plasma that could regulate, um, insulin levels in that type one diabetic patients, so they're not able to produce insulin because their beta cells have been destroyed by an auto immune response in their early years. So what our bacteria could do is, um, sense the, the insulin levels in the bloodstream and then, uh, either secretes insulin or glucagon based on, on the, on the blood sugar level to kind of regulate it just to make sure it's not too high, which is like hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia or too low, which is hypoglycemia. Both of those are pretty bad. So I wanna keep it in some kind of, uh, middle ground range. And, uh, it was, although we couldn't design and test like the design in person, um, we did have some are, uh, coding just to kind of model what the, um, so we modeled the, the normal daily shape of a blood sugar graph on like a normal patient. And then we modeled the daily blood sugar graph of a diabetic patient. And then theoretically we, we put, um, the, we, we modeled the, uh, the blood sugar levels of a patient with our treatments and it'd be kind of in between those two. Um, just to kind of help lower the threshold of how high the spikes go and how low the spikes are.
Speaker 1:I, I have a question for you. Can, can you be my lecturer in the future? That was explained very well. Uh, oh my God. That is, that's, that's so cool to be able to work in this in And which year of high school were you in?
Speaker 2:I was a Were you doing science engineer at the time? So somewhere between sophomore and junior year. Okay.
Speaker 1:Being able to do all of that working on, on a synthetic, but like you've identified, uh, you know, a problem, you've identified a topic in science that, you know, um, is very, I guess, personal to you and you, you're passionate about and you've found like a synthetic biology solution in a way, um, that, that's really, really cool. And what was sort of the bioinformatics programming aspect?
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so I think, uh, part of the program was, uh, like training in, in our programming. So we did, uh, we did some modeling where we, like, I think we looked at some 3D modeling and other I think we, yeah, like we different like 3D models. And we also had, um, just like basic our programming, um, like knowledge. And then, uh, we, our, our challenge is to try to include some kind of data visualization part in our projects, even though we couldn't test our, our design in person. Um, so it's using the kind of graph, the graph features, like pretty basic features of r but just the graph, the graphing aspects of r I think to help supplement our project. It's pretty, it's pretty basic, but I think in our, in the Cosmos program we did use Python a little bit more.
Speaker 1:So you got to like develop a whole like new toolkit of skills as well. You have, okay, so you have this incredible experience in the bible, the program and all of this in what, three months
Speaker 2:I think it was or something? It was over, I think it was like all of July, I think in July of my July, 2020. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Wait, in one month you did all of this?
Speaker 2:Yeah.<laugh>.
Speaker 1:Oh my. Well, by<laugh>, I, wow. Yeah. Wonderful<laugh> doing all of this in one month, only possible in Bio Builder. Of course. Um, so you finished this program and like, you must have been in love with like synthetic biology at the end of it. Like it would've, uh, I mean you already mentioned that you were interested in like biotech and SY bio, but this must have been like, once you finished you would've been like, I want more like Bible gimme more stuff to do. Yeah, right. So what was, what was, now let's move on to applying for universities. Um, how influential was Bilder in one, selecting your major and um, also the universities that you were applying to?
Speaker 2:That was, it was huge. Yeah, so I think I was, I just, I think bible's a really kindled my interest for synthetic biology and kind of using engineering with biology to create these issues for these global problems. I think, um, seeing, taking my my own like personal interest in it and just tying it to the potentials, like, like Bible gave me the tools to, to see like how much I can do with my interest. And I think taking that and using it as a baseline to determine which, um, majors, which programs to apply to that was a huge factor. So looking for like any kind of synthetic biology specific programs, any, any programs with really cool labs I'm interested in or, um, maybe just like bioengineering programs with a synthetic biology minor or concentration. Um, I definitely that guided my search because, um, there are a lot of different aspects of engineering biology of course, but um, having that little synthetic biology niche was like really important for me to either through a lab or through a program or some kind of, um, specific synthetic biology course. I think those were key things I was looking for. Like, man, I want, I really wanna keep doing this in college.
Speaker 1:I feel Bible and synthetic biology are synonymous at this point. Um, yeah, basically. And you mentioned, you mentioned the engineering approach, uh, to biology. Um, did you feel you had that at some of your biotech courses at high school? Or was Bible really the only, um, part that was combining the engineering biology mm-hmm.<affirmative> together?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I would say, yeah, I think most of my high school courses were mainly about like content knowledge, but not, not really like applying them into projects. Um, it was mainly like through tests and, and um, other like essays that to write. But, uh, I think bible, there was the first experience, but I could learn, take all these, um, concepts I learned and different techniques about, um, how synthetic biology works and apply them into a project that I can define the scope, I can define the problem and what aspect I wanna solve. I think that was a really interesting part that, uh, it was a lot easier to spend time and just keep reading more about it. Yeah. Cause I could see the purpose of how I was doing it.
Speaker 1:You basically became a true scientist for the first time, uh, at
Speaker 2:Bible, basically. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And just before we move on to, I wanna ask you a few more questions about, you know, you are, you're in college now. Um, I think the best way to learn synthetic biology is to have a bunch of failed experiments. Um, and I I just wanna ask you about one or two times where, I mean, the bible, the program was only sort of one month, but where do you feel you sort of one ar one aspect of, um, syk that way you were struggling to understand or you, or you, you weren't getting it. Um, but where, where you describe it as you sort of felt like you failed at it, but obviously that you used as that as a learning experience Yeah. To then sort of enhance your passion for biotech and understanding for synthetic biology.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I I think two examples are good. So in the, in the bible of the program itself, um, part of the design was choosing a bacterial chassis to build the project on. So I had chosen, uh, I think it was, I think it was e equalized, my chassis as my first draft before I, I like showed my idea to Dr. Cordell and I had done all this reading and research and, um, building the, the project around e coli, but it turns out that the, the parts I had used were not compatible with e coli. So then all that work is kind of for nothing. I'm like, oh man. So at first I was like, I spent so many hours like reading, but um, I kind of drove me to figure out, like read more and try to figure out more details about what chassis was compatible and why MS. Chassis worked over which this chassis didn't. And I think ultimately after reading more about different chassis, I found three different ones that were good and or could work. And I showed ELE and she actually forwarded me another article that I could read for like further reading after class. And that article that she sent me was the chassis I ended up using, which I think was lta ba sells lactase, but kind of like me just going through my own process of trying to work through the work, through the chassis, work through the parts which parts go where, and figuring out, oh, shoot, this one doesn't work, but how, why doesn't it work? And why, why does this one work instead? I think that part, I took that in stride and just kept building on that as another step of my project. Um, another example was in, uh, the next year, the next summer I did another program at, uh, uc, San Diego. And I had actually, um, let's see, yeah, I had, I had done a lot of the same thing with, with the plasmids and um, like taking biological part, that's my standard registry. Um, but the design I had done, I linked it to a, like a biomarker for high, high insulin sugar or high, high insulin levels or high blood sugar levels. But I wasn't able to find that, that blood, I wasn't able to find a diabetic biomarker that fit with the parts that I used. So there's a similar problem where I'm like, oh man, I done all this reading and hypothetically this, this, this structure that I had could work, but these two parts weren't compatible. I'm like, oh man. Um, so it just kinda the same thing where, um, me going through that same, that whole process of me trying to design it and then figuring out it doesn't work helped me understand more in depth about why things work and why things don't work. I think that whole engineering process of trial and error really helped me hone in my understanding of synthetic biology.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what you just described there, those two examples, um, that's what it means. That's what synthetic biology is. Engineering means you designed build test, and you went through that so many times that really, that's, that's awesome that you got that experience so early on. Okay, so you started in September, uh, at Rice University. That is super awesome. So how have, I'm sure you're taking a bunch of, um, what, what are some of the courses you're taking? Are there more biotech related or at this stage, is it more like a bit of,
Speaker 2:So
Speaker 1:Currently chemistry, maths, et cetera?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for the, for the bioengineer rice, like a lot of the first year stuff is, is like more of the, the prerequisites for the bioengineering classes. So, so right now I'm taking like physics, uh, 1 0 1 or like intro physics. I'm taking calculus, like calculus two. Um, I'm taking, um, like computational and applied mathematics, which is like kind of practicing math lab coding. Um, all of these are kind of foundational concepts for next year's classes and the sophomore year, which are more bioengineering focused. So, uh, next year for example, I have like fundamentals of bioengineering or I have, um, tissue instrumentation lab or, or all these more specific biotech bioengineering classes. Um, but this year has more been just like getting the prerequisites out of the way.
Speaker 1:And do you feel, because you've, you've had the experience, uh, at bio at U C S T, um, that you feel more comfortable being challenged at uni when you come across a concept that's really difficult or when you're doing lab work, do you feel, do you look back that, oh, I've done this at bodybuilder, I've, and it you get excited by that challenge?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah. I think that mindset I took from the bodybuilder, like through all those failures and reiteration of the project, it's like, how can I keep working to improve my, improve my project or improve my design or improve my lab results, right? It's, I think taking that design and just continually working at it and refining and retuning, um, I've applied that mindset in a lot of my classes. Like even physics, like physics labs are, or like physics problem sets or all these like, tough, tough classes that are still STEM related. I think a lot of that mindset translates over in terms of the problem solving ability.
Speaker 1:Um, alright, I'm, I'm excited to hear about sort of what the next project you're working on, um, in synthetic biology. So are you currently doing like, you know, uh, extracurricular outside of your coursework? Are you currently working on something in Symbio?
Speaker 2:Definitely, yeah. So I just, a couple of months ago I was able to like interview and obtain a research position at the, at, um, there's a lab at Rice called the Taber Lab. Um, and it's, it's basically a synthetic biology lab. There's a couple different projects, but the projects I'm working on is, is engineering two component bacterial systems. Um, it just has to deal with signaling pathways and um, kind of biosensing. But I, I'm super excited to get into it. Um, I think I'll be involved in it a lot more next semester because, um, just in terms of like Thanksgiving break and finals, um, I couldn't do too much this semester, but next semester I'll definitely have, um, a lot more commitments and I'm really excited to keep working with, uh, both Dr. Taber and also the PhD students there. I've met them such a great team. Um, not only do they are they so knowledgeable about the content, but they're also so encouraging to help me understand the content and walk me through the steps of getting in the lab, figuring out the techniques I need to use and kind of the biology behind it. So that's one opportunity I'm really excited for next semester. And also in a couple other, um, biology, uh, STEM tutoring, uh, organizations. So one of them is where I go to, it's, it's called Kids Are Scientists too. Uh, I go to local Houston Elementary schools where typically underserved communities and we just teach them nice fun STEM labs. So it might be, um, cutting parts, strawberries and f like how to extract their dna. Or it might be, um, taping a balloon to, uh, a water bottle and seeing how physics works with a balloon, rocket bottle of rocket balloon basically. Um, or it's different, different STEM concepts that are, that are important to understand, but simple to teach. And I think the kid seeing the kids' reactions, it's uh, or like seeing, like seeing, seeing their smiles whenever they see like a decomposition reaction make a balloon pop or make or they see, um, like how, how a reaction occurs like with baking soda and an orange or all these different reactions. It just reminds me of why I do these things. Like, it just kind of gives me a roots. So like why is it so interesting seeing their reactions? That's a good way to, to keep seeing why it's interesting.
Speaker 1:Uh, at the Table lab you had, um, uh, an interview for the position. Am I right to assume like they just basically ask saw like, oh this guy went to Bible Boulder. Yeah, just come in. You you can run the line, it's fine.<laugh><laugh>. How's that interview? Like?
Speaker 2:It was, it wasn't too bad actually. So, uh, I recently, I had just, so the, I, when I first come to to university, I know in high school I was like, oh man, I, finding research is so hard cause I had to send out so many emails, I never got any responses back. Um, but I don't, in university I just sent out to an emails to the labs. I was like interested in, um, I researched the table lab before I actually even got accepted. Um, like when I was researching rice itself, I still have the table lab. I'm like, wow, if I could could go in that lab, that would be pretty cool. Um, so I, I had sent an email to them saying like, Hey, you know, here's my experiences, um, here's my interests and this project is your, yours resonates with my experiences and my passions. Hopefully we get set up a Zoom interview and just kind of talk about my passions and your project and maybe there's a spot I can help in. Um, and then they just, they they, he directed me into one of his, his PhD students and we just talked about his projects. Um, it was really cool that the two components signaling pathways, um, and just like he said, yeah, you know, if, if you have time commitments next semester you can definitely join. Um, I was kind of stunned about how it, how easy it was to get involved in research in university and that's just kind of adds to my excitement because I know that, um, this is something I done looking forward to for a while and being able to do it. The lab I've been looking at for a while now, being able to do it next semester in more significant capacity, I'm like, ugh, even more excited.
Speaker 1:So I I I love how all of this can sort of be traced back to your start with bodybuilder. Um, and for my final question, what advice would you give, uh, to students that are just looking, just started looking into Bible or just started to get interested in synthetic biology? So they're high school students or maybe even in like, um, actually yeah, let's, let's just, yeah. High school students who are interested in learning more about Bible. What advice would you give to them?
Speaker 2:Definitely, yeah, I'd just say like follow your passion. So I know for me, like I'd been interested in these biology technology concepts, but I wasn't sure like, like it wasn't really crystallized and kinda just ideas floating around. But I know for me, like once I had uh, found bibles, I just followed my passion. I'm like, wow, like this, like building these parts and using it for problems that I personally am passionate about. Not just like, I, I found myself spending hours and hours just reading journals and like, even though like on another day I might be like, oh, I, how can I read that? But I remember like, I just kept reading like, I more excited to find this new part or understand why this part worked or different, different mechanisms I can use and how can I design this? Just follow, follow my passions really helped me think about that whole process of how can I create the most impact with my design. And I think just following your passion and continuing to retry, retry, keep going at it's, cuz I know for me there are a lot of, a lot of designs that I had to scrap because either the parts weren't compatible or the parts were further the, the Ron chassis or maybe, um, this part worked for this problem, but not for this problem. I just think keep on going at it with that engineering, engineering biology mindset as, as well as keeping your self grounded in your interest. That's really, um, the advice I gave myself and I think that's, that's why I was able to have so much fun doing this.
Speaker 1:Thanks once again to Jacob for joining me today. What I found insightful about this episode was hearing Jacob talk me through his process of engineering bio. He mentioned that failing some of his experiments helped him understand why things work and why others don't, and that the engineering process of trial and error really helped his understanding of synthetic biology. I feel this episode will be very useful to any high school student interested in learning about the specifics of what exactly the Bible the program has to offer. For example, what types of labs you do, the content you learn, uh, and the many skills you'll develop. If you would like to learn more about anything Jacob and I discussed today, please refer to the show notes. And with that, we're at the end of another season of the Life-Changing Science podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who has tuned in. See you next year in season three, where we'll welcome another wonderful guest whose life has been impacted by Bible's, life-changing science.