Season 3 Episode 2: Meet BioBuilder Rachael Smyers

Rachael Smyers was part of the 2019 BioBuilder High School Apprenticeship Challenge that was held at LabCentral. The program’s “learning by doing” approach attracted her to it, especially since she got what she felt was a late start in the Vocational Technical Program at Medford High School. Starting there in her junior year, she spent mornings taking 3 or 4 traditional high school classes (English, History…) and the afternoons in Biotech Shop, learning lab skills like pipetting, prepping buffers, running gels, and culturing mouse cells. 

In this interview Rachael talks about how the BioBuilder Apprenticeship program let her connect with students she would not have otherwise met, helped her practice technical skills, and taught her more about the science behind laboratory techniques. The program let her, “see the science world outside of the classroom while still inside the classroom.” The Apprenticeship program led directly to a summer internship with one of BioBuilder’s industry partners, Indigo Ag, and thanks to a successful summer there, Rachael continued as year 'round employee, working  on agricultural biotechnology through her two years at Bunker Hill Community College and her Junior year at University of Massachusetts – Lowell.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Life-Changing Science, the Bio Builder podcast. I'm your host, z Sean, and my guest today is Rachel Spires. Rachel attended Medford Vocational Technical High School and is a graduate of the 2019 Bodybuilder Apprenticeship program that was held at App Central through Bio Builder. She got an internship at Indigo G, which she continued for a few years. She graduated from Bunker Hill College with an associate's degree and is now studying byec at U and Slow. I'm super excited to talk to her today about this amazing journey. So let's dive right into this episode. The first thing I wanted to ask is, where did you, where did you grow up? Where did you go to high school?

Speaker 2: 0:41

Uh, well I kind of moved around a lot as a kid. Um, I'm from Massachusetts, but I've lived in Florida and Texas. Uh, and then we moved back up here just in time for high school. And so I went to, uh, Medford Vocational Technical High School.

Speaker 1: 0:57

When did you first get, get interested in, in science? Was it in high school? Was it a specific class that you took or, um, maybe while reading about science, like science fiction, et cetera, just interested in, in learning when you were like, oh, I mean, I think every kid is interested in science at some point, but you see that either fades away in high school. Uh, but yeah, I just trying to understand that.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Yeah. Uh, I think I've always kind of been interested in science. Um, uh, it was one of the, cuz I moved around a lot as a kid, um, science was always kind of taught the same way in schools, uh, whereas like math and English that have completely different methods. Uh, so I always really enjoyed the consistency of science class. And then I know I did like afterschool programs for mad science and that was a lot of fun. They did like, you know, elephant toothpaste and, uh, dry ice volcanoes,

Speaker 1: 1:57

Uh, that, that, that, that one's always fun. Nice<laugh>.

Speaker 2: 2:01

And then in high school, school I did so well in biology class, uh, that they, the biotechnology, uh, teacher recruited me for the biotech program, um, cuz I didn't really understand what it was. Uh, and so he explained it to me and I joined a little late in my junior year.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Yeah. And what do you mean by biotech program? Is that like an advanced class or something you do after school?

Speaker 2: 2:32

So, because it was a vocational school, they had all the different shops. So like, there's automotive, there's electrical, all of that. So they also had a biotechnology program and basically that mean that you took like three to four actual high school courses like history, English, um, math during the morning. And then, uh, in the afternoon you would go to biotech. So we had six periods in the hour high school day, and the first three of them I would go to my normal classes. And then the last three of them, you'd be in the same room with the same teacher learning about biotechnology.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Oh, nice. And what sort of topics do you cover? Um, and you mentioned this was in your junior year?

Speaker 2: 3:16

This is in my junior year.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Okay, nice. What were some of the first topics that you covered in junior year?

Speaker 2: 3:23

Um, I was a little bit behind because again, I joined a little late. Um, but basically learning pipe petting skills, uh, learning all of the basic foundations. And then we, we got to do some really fun, cool stuff in high school. Uh, like, you know, prepping our own buffers, uh, running PCR and gels. Uh, we got to do some, uh, cell culture with mouse melanoma cells. We got to, we got to do some really fun things, like we got some glow fish from the pet store and kind of slowed them down their heart rates and, uh, got a little piece of their shin and we were able to isolate GFP and RFP from the Glow Fish, uh, through purification<laugh>. Oh wow. Amazing. Real transformation and plate those. Yeah. So that was so cool.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I, everything that you mentioned I didn't do until second year of college. So trust me, Rachel, you were not behind. You were very, very ahead. Um, that would've been a really, really cool experience and getting to do, I guess sort of like just firsthand signs, um, at your high school, um, in the lab, seeing stuff in front of you, um, would've been, that would've sort of gotten you even more excited about science. Um, and that brings me, uh, so it's fair to say your science experience at, um, at Medford was, was was quite fun. Uh, to start off with, so where did, uh, when did you first hear about Bio Builder?

Speaker 2: 4:58

So, uh, because I was a little bit behind all of my classmates in my biotechnology education, um, I was looking for different avenues to kind of catch up and I found Bio Builder. Okay. Web searches,<laugh> and I applied and I, but then, uh, I got, I was like the last person to sneak in. So,

Speaker 1: 5:22

Hey, what, and uh, this was the apprenticeship program, right? How does the, uh, so you know, while you're doing all this really, really cool stuff, um, in, in high school, like you said with the GFP and stuff, uh, what was the application like, uh, for Buy Builder?

Speaker 2: 5:42

Um, like the application process?

Speaker 1: 5:44

Yeah, the application process.

Speaker 2: 5:47

Uh, well at that time it was filling out like a Google form and, uh, it was a lot of questions about why you're interested in science and, um, how you think BioBus can help you, uh, reach your Okay. Yeah. Goal journey.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Yeah. Yeah. And I guess for you it was one, you were doing some equal exciting things and you felt you wanted to maybe just, just catch up a bit to your classmates. I mean, felt Bio Builder would sort of help facilitate that?

Speaker 2: 6:16

Yes.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Okay. Awesome. Um, and great. So you got into the apprenticeship program. When was this? Was this, uh, senior year of high school? This

Speaker 2: 6:26

Was May of 20, I wanna say it was 2019. Yeah. Um, so that, or that would've been spring of 2019, so that would've been, I was, I was in junior year still<laugh>. Yeah, it was the second half of junior year.

Speaker 1: 6:44

You've you've had a busy junior year. It's great like that.

Speaker 2: 6:48

I have builders. I was also doing s a t prep after school, so it was a lot of Rudi mother driven me back and forth all around the world.

Speaker 1: 6:57

I, I could imagine. That's awesome. Um, and okay, great. So you start the apprenticeship program. Um, and, and how was the apprenticeship program? Like, what, you know, what did you learn? What sort of experiments did you do? Um, yeah, let, let's start there.

Speaker 2: 7:13

Uh, the apprenticeship program was wonderful. It was, uh, an eye-opener kind of to see the world outside of the classroom, but still inside the classroom, if that makes sense. Uh, to kind of connect with a lot of students I wouldn't otherwise have connected with, um, and to kind of get separate hands-on knowledge. So things we were doing, uh, were similar but also much more in depth than the things I was doing in high school. Like, um, you know, doing protein purifications in, uh, PS and bacterial transformations, uh, in the lab at Lab Central

Speaker 1: 7:55

In, in terms of more in depth than high school, was it that you would work on one project for a longer period of time or would you, were there more experiments involved? What was the, in, what do you feel was the in-depth part of, uh, the Bible apprenticeship program?

Speaker 2: 8:13

I think the in-depth part was, um, instead of just doing the experiments and getting the hands-on knowledge, Natalie really taught us the science behind each experiment, which is something that I felt I might have not gotten, uh, in high school, was the kind of in depth, okay, this is why we do this step. This is why we do this step. This is what's actually happening inside of your PCR tube or whatever.<laugh>.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Um, and how long was the, was the apprenticeship program?

Speaker 2: 8:44

Uh, I believe it was from around February through May. Uh, so it was, it was a considerable number of weeks.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Yep. What was, uh, your favorite, um, I mean, I'm sure every day you, you'd learn something new. W what was your favorite experiment or was there a moment where, you know, you did this experiment and as you said, Natalie would mention sort of some of the science behind it. Was there any moment during the program where you're like, oh, wow, that's, that's amazing. That's so cool.

Speaker 2: 9:13

I think the moment that kind of stands out isn't necessarily an experiment, but, um, kind of the project that we had to come up with for like, our poster session as a group, it was coming up with an idea, a synthetic biotech kind of idea to solve a problem. Uh, and I thought that it was just so cool to see everybody's solutions to these problems, uh, and hours. What we did was a kind of breakfast pill that would

Speaker 1: 9:41

Oh, love

Speaker 2: 9:42

That for all. Um, like if you were, if you had dietary restrictions. So it would get all of your supplements in, uh, in one little pill at the beginning of every day.

Speaker 1: 9:55

Nice. And, uh, I, I love that idea. And this was, I guess in a group of like three or four other students and you worked on this for a few weeks and presented a poster, et cetera. Um, how, how was that experience like, cuz that's sort of, you know, when you, when you do get to do science at college and, um, you know, further studies, a lot of it is presenting and science communication. Um, how did you feel your science communication skills and, you know, so many scientists have to attend so many conferences, publish a lot of papers. Um, did you feel you were maybe taking a step closer to becoming a scientist while doing all of that?

Speaker 2: 10:33

Yes, that definitely helped me a lot to kind of learn what I needed to work on and, uh, what I was good at. But it was, it was really nerve-wracking to have to present our ideas to a bunch of industry professionals. Uh, but it was also really fun to kind of get asked questions about the research that we had done, uh, which is something that up until that point, you know, we're just students. We don't know anything. We didn't get to do any of our own research. So that was really fun and really encouraging.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Yep. Awesome. And, uh, fair to say, was this what must have been a fantastic experience, um, during the apprenticeship program? Uh, and then I know after that you did an internship at, uh, indigo, uh, just I wanted to, um, hear more about that, like how did the internship come about and what did you do during the internship? I, is it fair to say it was right after the IBI Builder apprenticeship program?

Speaker 2: 11:33

Yes, it was that summer.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Okay, awesome. How, so how, how, how did you, uh, get the internship? Was it through Bio Builder? Did you place apply separately? Uh, talk us through that process.

Speaker 2: 11:43

So, uh, PowerBuilder had a number of internships, uh, kind of partners that they had been working with, um, for these internships for the summer for people who wanted them. And so I was really interested in John to, uh, indigo because of the agricultural aspect of the biotech. Uh, and so the Eric Weis, who was the, um, head of the screening team at that time at Indigo was at the poster session. And so I was able to meet him then and he, uh, I guess was interested in me. And so, uh, I had an interview, uh, at Indigo with him, which was really just a walk and talk through the labs, which was yeah, perfect for my first kind of interview cuz I wasn't. Awesome.

Speaker 1: 12:28

So you just joined into your, presume you would've talked about some of your high school experience and your apprenticeship program, all the skills you learn. And I guess as you mentioned earlier, because you understood so much of the fundamental science, um, theory, at least going into the lab through bodybuilder, did that help during the interview?

Speaker 2: 12:47

That definitely helps during interview. Um, they were, I think, not expecting me to know as much as I did, which I don't blame them for<laugh><laugh>. Um, a lot of them were kind of wary of a high school intern.

Speaker 1: 13:00

Yeah, of course.<laugh>

Speaker 2: 13:01

I think I really found my place there especially, I was able to continue my, um, internship through the senior year of high school because a vocational school I was able to do a co-op and so I would take my first three classes of the day and then I would leave school at 1130 and go to work every day.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Ah ha.

Speaker 2: 13:24

That was really fun. That's,

Speaker 1: 13:25

It's

Speaker 2: 13:26

Awesome. I continued the internship until just recently I was, uh, yeah, I, I, my last day was in March.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Yeah. Oh wow. Okay. You've been digging for a while. What are some of the, I mean, I'm sure you've been working on a lot of different projects, but what, what was the main thing you were working at, uh, working on at Indigo?

Speaker 2: 13:47

So, uh, we kind of screened these microbe treated plants, seeds, uh, and so we went and treat the seeds and then see how they performed against different stresses, uh, like simulated soil stress in different media. And, uh, so the seeds would germinate and we'd kind of scan them and look at the metrics and see how they did.

Speaker 1: 14:11

You've gotten so much lab experience. That's awesome. Um, I, I think that's really, really important to get as much lab experience as possible. Like early on. Sort of the final bit I wanted to, uh, talk to you about was, um, I think after you finished, um, high school, you went to Bunker Hill Community College and you're currently at UMass Noell. Yeah. Tell us about Bunker Hill Community College, because you, did you have to, did you enter into a program there? Uh, did you already select a major? Um, I guess if we look at this timeline, you're, you know, you're at Indigo and now you're going to, I mean, not now, but Indigo continues through us. Let's, let's, yeah, let's ignore Indigo her now<laugh>. Um, but tell us about the journey from high school to Bunk Hill.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Well, it was an interesting one because, uh, COVID hit at the tail end of my senior year of high school. And so, uh, all of the classes moved online and it was pass or fail. We didn't have finals. It was really confusing. End of high school, like, uh, our graduations come swing by the school and pick up a trash bag full of your stuff,

Speaker 1: 15:21

<laugh>. Oh my God.

Speaker 2: 15:24

Uh, and so I decided I wanted to go to Bunker Hill because, uh, it's so much, um, less expensive, uh, and you get the same quality, especially for covid, um, where I wasn't gonna be able to be in the labs anyways and go in person for a good chunk, um, of my time there. And so I thought that was the more affordable option. Uh, and I really enjoyed Bunker Hill. Uh, I was on a biology transfer track, so all of my credits would transfer to a four year state school.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Nice.

Speaker 2: 16:03

Um, and yeah, it was really fun. Uh, I wasn't even able to get in to go into the lab until my second semester for, um, biotechnology. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> the course. And it was, you know, mask, goggles, face shield,

Speaker 1: 16:19

<laugh>. Yeah. All of course

Speaker 2: 16:21

Lab partners, everybody's isolated.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Uh, yeah, it was a different world. Henry<laugh>. Um, you mentioned that you were on the bio transfer track at Bunker Hill. What made you choose the bio? Um, so yeah, the biotech, let's call it major

Speaker 2: 16:38

Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, uh, well I wanted to, I knew I wanted to have a four year degree at least. Um, and so, but I also was kind of excited to get my two year degree as well, so then I could, uh, kind of leverage that to continue working while getting my four year degree. Uh, and so I wanted the kind of transfer option so all of my credits would transfer to that four year school, uh, so that I could continue my education.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:07

And of course I wanted to do biology because, uh, I've already been kind of in that field and that was kind of what I decided I wanted to do.

Speaker 1: 17:15

Yep. Sure. And how, how influential was a bodybuilder in making that decision for going down the biology track?

Speaker 2: 17:25

I think I'd say it was very influential, uh, because I kind of knew, like I enjoyed biotech, it was fun in high school. Um, but I don't think I really understood the scope of just how many avenues there are in biotechnology. Like there are so many sectors. You could go into agriculture, you could go into pharmaceutical, you can go into research, you can go into environmental, like there's just so many opportunities for whatever you might be interested in.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Yep. And do you feel that bible to help sort of illuminate those different options or not? Not really yet. Awesome. Um, and now you are at UMass Lowell, um, and did you start in September or,

Speaker 2: 18:08

Uh, I started, yeah, in September. Last September. Yeah, the other year. Now it feels like long

Speaker 1: 18:18

<laugh>. Yeah. Time. I think after 2020 time just doesn't, like time and space doesn't make sense anymore, uh,<laugh>. So. Okay. Now that, you know, I'm sure um, you have more access to the lab at UMAS level in terms of like, it's, it's 2023 now. Um, have you had a chance to do a lot more work in the lab this year or is it still a lot of coursework plus lab?

Speaker 2: 18:43

It's a lot of coursework plus lab, but the labs are a lot more interesting. I'll say I've really enjoyed Bunker Health, but they didn't have as many in-depth courses as UMass L does. So for example, I'm taking developmental biology, uh, this semester, which is really cool and really specific and it's not a course I would've found at Bunker Hill. Um, so like we got to do a sea urchin fertilization lab and that was so fun to work with, uh, live sea urchins and kind of watch the, uh, kind of fertilization process under a microscope

Speaker 1: 19:20

<laugh>. Yep. No, of course. That sounds amazing. Um, and what are, what are some of the other courses you're taking currently?

Speaker 2: 19:28

Uh, currently I'm taking, yeah, the developmental biology, uh, evolution, ecology and Conservation, which is no lab, but it's a lot of fun. Yep,

Speaker 1: 19:38

I can imagine.

Speaker 2: 19:39

And uh, as for bio courses, like last semester I took, um, data science, which was no lab, no nothing. It was all computer work, but it was very illuminating because data science is such a huge part of biotech. Uh, it's a complete separate sector that I feel like you don't get a lot of experience in as hair lab person. Yeah. So it was really nice to kind of understand, oh, what is metadata? What is all of this stuff?

Speaker 1: 20:09

Yeah. And it's, so I think when you get to like finally of college and especially research at a post-grad level, 50% of your work is actually data science as a biologist, probably more actually. Uh, so it's awesome that, you know, you're getting to learn stats and now you are looking to like RN Python or some other stuff right now?

Speaker 2: 20:30

Uh, yeah, it was, it was all in, um, Python<laugh>.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Oh, nice. Awesome. That's good because usually we start with r like 80% of bioinformatics is R right now, but there's a transition to go into Python, so that's awesome. Like, I think, um, the learning curve is super steep for Python or just encoding in general, but like once you get past the first six months, it's, it's like, it's a, it's a synthetic biology tool knowing Python, so then it, it helps you be, it helps you even more, uh, when you actually come back into the wet lab and dot analysis, et cetera. So that's also like, there,

Speaker 2: 21:04

It was interesting, especially cause I was the only, I was one of the only two biology majors. Everybody else was computer science

Speaker 1: 21:14

<laugh>.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Nice. So I really like that mentioning up, but I think it'll benefit definitely in the workplace. Yeah,

Speaker 1: 21:21

Of course. And how do you feel your bible or experience has helped you settle in, um, and do really, really well at EMS level so far?

Speaker 2: 21:31

I think it's helped me to kind of know what I want, uh, as well as just being proficient in skills, um, because of Covid. I think mainly a lot of biology students haven't had much experience in the lab, uh, in like, just academic labs. And to be in upper level courses and not know how to pipette, I, you know, it's nice to be able to kind of help my fellow students as well as just kind of understand what I'm doing. Uh, and I feel like my past experience with Bio Villa in high school has really uniquely kind of helped me along with all of that.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Of course. Yeah. No, I, I can imagine. Um, and what advice would you give to, you know, um, current high school students who are contemplating, um, either going into bodybuilder or learning about synthetic biology?

Speaker 2: 22:24

I think that there are so many opportunities out there for, uh, career in this field. And, um, if people are interested in science, this is a great way to get some hands on, um, learning and just see even seeing if it feels right, if this is what you wanna do to kind of, you know, dip your toe in the water and see how it feels to be performing these assays in a lapse.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Thanks once again, Rachel, for joining me today. I found her inside into the multitude of career opportunities available to biotech scientists to be truly inspiring, especially how she uses this knowledge to work on a number of diverse biotech projects, from proteins to data science and sea urchins, which I think is really developing her into a great scientist. I feel this episode will be useful to anyone wanting to learn about the many career parts in biotech as well as budding by builders. If you would like to learn more about anything Rachel and I discussed today, please refer to the show notes. Join me for the next Bio Builder podcast. We'll welcome another wonderful guest whose query has been influenced by bodybuilders life-changing sites. See you next time.