Life-Changing Science: The BioBuilder Podcast
Life-Changing Science: The BioBuilder Podcast
Unlocking Nathan Kirokwa's Path to Bioengineering
In this episode of Life-Changing Science, we sit down with Nathan Kirokwa, a rising senior at Pioneer Charter School of Science, who guides us through his journey from a curious child captivated by the human body's healing magic to a dedicated bioengineer. Nathan recounts how his mother's insights and his own early experiments fueled his passion for science. He also shares how his interests evolved from a broad fascination with medicine to a focused pursuit of bioengineering through problem-solving, eventually leading him to the BioBuilder Summer Research Program and a transformative internship at a biotech startup, Conduit.
Nathan describes how a seemingly random email ignited his ambition in synthetic biology, offering hands-on lab experiences and an unforgettable project on creating a ketamine-detecting yeast. Nathan also shares a serendipitous networking story that led him to join Conduit, a small biotech startup, underscoring the importance of community and seizing opportunities. His multiple interests make this episode a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the intersection of science, opportunity, and personal growth.
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Hello and welcome to Life-Changing Science, the BioBuilder podcast. I'm your host, aziz Shahan, and my guest today is Nathan Nathan is a rising senior at Pioneer Charter School of Science in Saugus, massachusetts, balancing two jobs. While in high school he self-funded his spot in the BioBuilder Summer Research Program. In this episode, we learn more about what sparked Nathan's interest in science, how BioBuilder kickstarted his bioengineering journey and how it led to an awesome internship at a biotech startup. Let's dive right into this episode. Where did some of your initial interest and passion for science and health come from?
Nathan Kirokwa:I was a very curious and sporadic kid growing up, like I'd always I'd had so much energy, I was very hyper and I used to play outside all the time and I guess I really liked to investigate, like I'd go outside, I'd look at bugs, I'd pick them up even though they scared the crap out of me just to see how they moved. And I used to race bikes a lot or climb trees a lot and because of that I fell down a lot, I scratched my knees a lot, I got injured a lot, and my mom she's a travel nurse God bless my mom and she would always patch me up. My mom and she would always patch me up and while she was giving me, uh, while she was giving me a bandage or cleaning my wound, she would tell me about how, um, the body heals itself. She'd tell me about, um, she'd tell me about the science behind healing. She'd tell me about platelets.
Nathan Kirokwa:I used to love platelets. I thought platelets were so cool. I I thought of them like a little army just trying to like, build a wall. I used to think that was the coolest thing ever. Um, it is. It's sick, yeah, it's awesome, it's really awesome. And that's what I realized really early on, like it's it's awesome the way the body works, so it's so complex, um, yet it's um. It's like it's the tool that I use to experience everything, and I feel like it was like one of my base tools, like it was the basic thing that I could have and I didn't realize that, um, it was so complex Like it that that changed me, that made me think whoa, I didn't know that I had so much things going on. I didn't know, I didn't know how many processes were going on behind my body without me even thinking about it. I didn't know how my knee could heal itself up from a scrape without me even thinking about it. So I'd ask my mom these questions like oh, how does my knee know it's injured? How does it heal itself up? Or if I get sick, I'd be like what's going on? And she'd give me some medications and I'd be like what are these medications do? What is Tylenol? And then she'd be like, oh well, it's acetaminophen and it does blah, blah, blah and it's like, oh, my God, what that's awesome.
Nathan Kirokwa:So I guess, like early on, I kind of, whenever I didn't understand something it was, I characterized it as like magic, I guess, and I feel like that was a really good first step because it made not knowing things less scary. Like if I say fear of the unknown, I'm gonna be like, well, that's a, that's a little bit ominous, that's a little bit dark and ominous. But if I bit dark and ominous, but if I say fear of magic, that's goofy. If I say fear of magic, that's goofy, that's funny. So it kind of like demystifies everything. So once I had that like base, it made me want to learn more about everything. I wasn't scared of not knowing. I was just like, oh, this is magic, how do you do that? And when my mom would give me these little lectures, it was like being a little sorcerer's apprentice, like I'm learning magic from the masters, someone who studied this for their whole life. That made me think that growing up I wanted to do something in the medical field, whether it was be, like my mom, be a nurse or be a doctor, a surgeon, something along those lines. And I still consider it every once in a while.
Nathan Kirokwa:But as I grew up and I became more curious and I did more investigation and I started tinkering with things, like I used to break my toys to see how it worked, which was cool. I get to learn how they work. But now the toys are broken, you know. But I guess my mom and my family started making jokes like oh look at the little engineer. I had no clue what engineer meant, but I thought it was cool. Zero clue. But I guess I investigated what engineer meant and then I was like oh, they're just people who make things, who solve problems by doing this, that and the third. And I guess I was really interested in problem solving and that's how I started focusing on science, because there were so many complex problems to learn about.
Nathan Kirokwa:Actually, this is one of my favorite hobbies. I call myself like an amateur power lifter. I'm not even that strong, I just like lifting. But I'd watch videos about bodybuilding and then I realized that bodybuilding itself is also very complex. Like on one side there are just people who lift heavy rocks because they think it's fun, and then on the whole other, and I liked learning about it because it made the body look like a complex machine.
Nathan Kirokwa:Like, for example, when it comes to moving your shoulder. For example, there are multiple muscles. It's like a mechanical system that moves your arm forward. It's not just if I move my shoulder like this. I guess the viewers can't see, but you can see, right, if I move my shoulder like this, it's not just my back pulling it back, but it's also like my chest releasing to let it pull back. It's like a little pulley system.
Nathan Kirokwa:When you understand how different muscles work together in compound movements, you can create a program to focus on maximizing the strength out of one muscle or you can create exercises that target a certain section of your body to make it bigger. And I was like this is pretty basic, but it's cool. When I realized that the human body was more complex basic, but it's cool. When I realized that the human body was more complex again, it was like rekindling my love for science and bio. So then I started reading articles and watching videos on hypertrophy and strength training and the science behind growing your muscles, and then that got me really interested in science Again. I thought I was going to go from being a doctor to a trader or a physical therapist, but that's something I was very interested in.
Zeeshan Siddiqui:So you know, you're obviously really curious about science and you're asking yourself all of these questions about anatomy and building muscle, which is a mixture of, like biotech, physiology, physics. Is this the time when you started looking into sort of school programs where, hey, I want to sort of apply some of the knowledge I've learned, I want to learn more, and you're curious about that Around?
Nathan Kirokwa:I think it was around my 10th grade year. Maybe it was my 10th grade year, I have to think. Yeah, I think it was around my 10th grade year. Most of my interests were just stuff that I did on the side, like it wasn't like I was trying to learn them for school or learn them to compete or anything, like I was just learning because I thought this was cool, I like doing it, it makes me happy. And I remember people were around like December-ish.
Nathan Kirokwa:I remember people were talking about summer programs and I didn't realize how important summer programs were to building your like high school resume. So I was like, oh, I, what? Uh, so I I started looking around because I remember I got it. I grabbed the notebook. It was what it was, a mini notebook, kind of like the one, but I grabbed something like that and I just started list, like brain vomiting, all of my interests and, um, I wanted to find something I could like pursue over the summer. And, uh, that I think around that year um was the time where I was really getting back into bio. So, um, I looked at all the interests. There was like lifting cooking um bio. I was like you know, cooking um bio. I was like you know what. Let me do something bio related, cause I did want to be. I did want to do something in the medical field. I think I decided that very young, like I, like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to do something in the physiology or medical field, like space, and I thought bio would be the best gateway into that.
Nathan Kirokwa:But I had no clue where to start Absolutely zero clue where to start. Absolutely zero clue where to start. So I guess there was a little bit of panic. See, like my school is a STEM school, like they're very focused on math and the sciences, but even they're just focused on rigorously teaching it. I don't really feel like they, that we do a lot to apply to real life. Like that's what makes things interesting seeing things happen in real time, people solving real problems, people using the science to create real things. We just focus on the science behind it, never its applications.
Nathan Kirokwa:So I really wanted to find a program that could at least solidify what I was looking for, because I had no clue what I was looking for and I remember one time I think I came across it in an email. There's somebody on the school faculty emailed all the high schoolers a list of summer programs and I guess no one was reading them. But I did. And I saw BioBuilder and I was like, oh, that sounds kind of cool. So I thought it was cool because it sounded like Bodybuilder. Not going to lie, I sounded like bodybuilder. I was like, oh, okay, okay, let me look at this. And then I was looking into it and I've never heard of synthetic biology.
Nathan Kirokwa:At the time I just knew biology was a thing, it existed Biology, everything was biology. There was no branches of biology, at least to me, because no one has really taught me that. So I see synthetic biology, I see how I see how it was. It seemed really focused on giving high school students, students, experience in the lab. So I was.
Nathan Kirokwa:So I thought, okay, maybe this summer program will let me know if bio is really for me. Because, again, I wanted to do bio. I just didn't know what I wanted to do. So if I joined a bio builder, I thought I could learn if bio was actually what I wanted to do for. So if I joined BioBuilder, I thought I could learn if bio was actually what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I really had no clue what I wanted to do, but yeah. So I signed up for BioBuilder. I remember the day after I found it and I decided that I could like definitively have the answer to whether or not I want to do bio. I got really excited about it. So I went through the signup process and I I saw the price tag. I was like oh oh, um, it wasn't.
Nathan Kirokwa:I mean, I don't regret it though. See, I've been working two jobs since. I was like, since eighth grade, um, at the time at least, I was working two jobs. So I was like okay, I have the money for this, let me just convince my mom. So I talked to my mom and I thought she would say no, but she seemed actually just as excited as I was. So I was like oh, okay, this is great, so I pay out of my pocket, because I had the money saved up and I was really insistent on paying out of my pocket, and I went to the program and that I guess that's how I found a bio builder. So yeah, no regrets, no regrets oh, of course not.
Zeeshan Siddiqui:That's just. That's amazing, I think, willie, you know, working willing to pay at this age through your own pocket, I think, definitely speaks volumes about whatever you'll do, you'll be successful at it, and I think it's not just me being nice, but it's very, very true. So you were part of the BioBuilder, the summer research program, and I wanted to learn about you know, there's so much that goes in there. There's so much science and lab work that you do and I'm curious about, because I know you did a project at the end of it, so curious about how you know some of the wet lab techniques. You learned that experience and then towards the end, you know you for a final project, you, you know, teamed up with other Viable students to build a ketamine-detecting yeast that could help prevent day grape, and I think that's. I'd love to learn more about that project and how that came about. So it's a long question I love talking about Viable.
Nathan Kirokwa:It was so fun. It was a great experience. It's a two-week program I mean you knew that, but it's a two-week program and we get a little bit of everything. So we get a little bit of lectures, we get a little bit of wet lab experience, which was already new to me. Like I said, we had a STEM school that was really focused on rigorously teaching the science, but I never really got to learn about the applications of it.
Nathan Kirokwa:So what was different at BioBuilder that I really liked was that we still kept that original lecture style, but then every once in a while, like at the end of the day, we'd go to the lab and we'd actually apply the things we learned. Or sometimes somebody would come in it would be a real person, obviously a real person, but it would be a real person who comes in and tells us about how synthetic biology is involved in their jobs and real problems that they try to solve with synthetic biology, with the same principles we're learning in class. I thought that was so cool. It really. It showed me what synthetic biology was and it showed me a scoop of the inside of the industry at the same time. So I'd learn something. I'd get to apply it in the lab and I'd get to see how other people are applying those tactics and many more things to solve real problems. That was a very immersive learning experience. It was very fast-paced, I'll admit it was very fast-paced fast-paced, I'll admit it was very fast-paced. So, um, it wasn't anything to worry about. But some days I did have to come in with, like, my game face on, like, okay, I'm ready. Um, hit me with this lecture, I'm not gonna miss a single beat. I'd miss a lot of beats, but it's okay because nothing was graded and I had a. I had a lab partner. Um, shout out to mich, I love Michael, I still talk to him, he's a great guy. I had a lab partner and we worked together in the lab. It was fun.
Nathan Kirokwa:And towards the end of the first week we split into groups based off of our interests to create a project, create to design a plasmid. It was a very bare-bones design. Um, it was a very bare-bones genetic circuit design, gene circuit design. But, um, it was fun because we actually got to participate in the design process like we had. We got to do the initial stages of designing a synthetic biology project and that was great.
Nathan Kirokwa:So I split up with my group members and we got to brainstorm and we were just talking about problems because we couldn't come up with solutions without problems. So we decided to start talking about problems and we were bringing up literally everything. People were bringing up food, flavoring kimchi. I'm starting to notice a pattern. We talked a lot about food and then we started bringing up more serious problems and I suggested what if we had a biosensor that could detect date rape drugs?
Nathan Kirokwa:So the idea was we we make a biosensor that can detect it and we, when you use it, it would change a color or it would give you some sort of signal letting you know that something was found in your drink. So you dip it, it into your drink. Maybe we didn't decide on the physical application use. We were just focused on making uh cells that could detect, um, date rape jazz. Specifically, we focused on ketamine. We had three options um, we just chose ketamine because it was at the top of the list in the article that we read.
Nathan Kirokwa:Um, so we chose ketamine and we wanted to make yeast cells. We chose yeast because they, um, they could survive in alcoholic drinks. And, uh, we wanted to make yeast cells that could detect ketamine and then in response they would produce a calmodulin protein that binds to two pieces of GFP. And that's just a fancy, fancy speak, for it turns green, it turns fluorescent green faster. And see, the idea was we put those, we put those cells, cells or at least a um, a cell extract system, into a bioelectric device that will notice the rapid change in green fluorescence and then it will give you some sort of signal, um, that you should leave now. So maybe it turns green, you, you go, that type of thing.
Nathan Kirokwa:So we had a lot of fun. We had so much fun making it because we the way Biobuilder was structured was we'd have a lecture, or for the last week we'd have a lecture or wet lab experience in the beginning and then we'd spend the rest of the day working on our project and my team members they were some great. There's some great people. I still talk to some of them and, uh, we'd work very hard and then we take a break. We might do, we did karaoke. This is random, but we used to take karaoke breaks um, we listened to the entire Hamilton soundtrack. I'm not even that big of a fan of Hamilton, but everyone else was. So I was like, well, I'm not going to kill the mood. Can we expect? Biobuilder the musical? Oh, I would love to be a part of BioBuilder the musical. I would love to be part of BioBuilder the musical. I cannot sing, but I would learn.
Nathan Kirokwa:Everybody who was there was there because they wanted to be there and because they wanted to learn, and that's something you don't get at school. Everyone at school is there because they have to be there, so you don't really get to see the best parts of people. When you're in a place that you want to be, you're more expressive, you're more like yourself, you can be yourself more, and I think that's what everyone else there was experiencing. It was really nice to be with a group of people who were dedicated to learning and have a group of mentors and speakers who are dedicated to teaching us for the time that they were there, and it was a really invaluable experience. It made me much more obsessed with bio than I already was. It made me really excited to learn and it made me.
Nathan Kirokwa:I said in the beginning that I tried bio builder to see if bio was really for me, and after doing bio builder, I decided that I want to do something in this field when I grow up, I want to do something in this field. When I grow up, I want to do something in this field for the rest of my life, or at least that's a big commitment. Saying that at like 16. I want to be in this field for I guess when I grow up yeah, I want to do this when I grow up. That's solidified that idea for me and it really propelled me to start doing other things and pursuing my interests in biomedical engineering, in synthetic biology and research. It also made me realize that the job I want to do, I want to have some social element to it, which is something I ended up developing. And having a social element to my work is something I try to keep in all of my passion projects. I feel like it makes me accountable and also it's nice to have fun and talk to people.
Zeeshan Siddiqui:So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it seems like it's given you. You're working, you want to work on impactful projects, you want to go in the direction of bioengineering, uh, and also have good work-life balance as well, because if you can't um, the environment where innovation happens, where you're doing your best work, is a Bible environment where everyone wants to be there. I know in the final presentation, you met the founder of Conduit. Oh man, and I'm curious as to sort of how that came about. Of course, you're presenting the final project, you're getting experience with scientific presentations and that whole experience, which in itself, is super awesome, because in a scientific career, there's a lot of that that you're going to be doing in the future. Outside of that, I know that you yeah, you met Ryan Robson and curious how that came about, and you're now working with him as well.
Nathan Kirokwa:Yeah, I love telling the story too, so I'll make it quick. But there are four main characters involved. There's me, there is another BioBuilder alumni, a friend of mine named Frank, and there is Natalie Kuldell, our queen, natalie Kuldell and Ryan Robinson. So what happened was during the two-week program, frank was on his way home. Frank was on his way home and he sat next to a guy.
Nathan Kirokwa:I don't know if it was on the train or how he like what means of transportation he was on, but he sat next to a guy and he just, frank is a social butterfly. He just talks to everybody. Um, he's a really funny guy. And frank goes hi, hello. And then, um, brian that's the guy he sat next to says hi.
Nathan Kirokwa:So they talk and frank tells ryan that he's in a, he's working with a bio. Um, he's in a bio program and that's why he's in Massachusetts right now. He's from Texas. So Ryan goes oh well, I actually own a bio company, a biotech company. And then they exchange names and a little bit of contact and then Frank comes in the next day in the morning. I always came early. Frank comes in the morning and he brings it up to Natalie and see, natalie does this thing. That I really appreciate. But whenever you talk to her about anything, she'll be like oh, I know a guy who did something very similar to that, and then she's like a walking biotech newsletter and I appreciate it in this week's edition and uh yeah.
Nathan Kirokwa:So she, um, she goes, ryan robinson doing that guy. She materialized a laptop out of nowhere I didn't see her pull it out, it was just in their hands and she, just she starts typing on LinkedIn, finds Ryan and sends him a message saying hey, you met one of my students. We're having a presentation this Friday. You should show up. I have no clue how their interaction went after that, but fast forward to that Friday we had our big presentation at Lab Central. Fast forward to that Friday we had our big presentation at Lab Central. We gave our presentation on our ketamine detecting device.
Nathan Kirokwa:And Ryan comes up to me. He walks up, he says hello and I'm like hi, sir. And then he goes I really liked your project and I'm actually working on something very similar at my company. So he tells me about nano splash, which is a saliva based diagnostic Um and um. He tells me about how, uh, the output, the change in color that I had for my device, is very similar to how his device works. Essentially, you spit inside of a canister about the size of my hand and you open it, spit into it and then, within minutes, the substance inside of the carrot will change color and, depending on whether or not the color changes. The color change will let you know whether or not you're sick, whether or not you have some sort of virus. And he was telling me about it. I was like, wow, that's really cool and he goes well. I mean, if you're interested, um, how about we keep in contact and maybe you could work with us? I was like really Really, and he goes, yeah, so fast forward a couple months. I asked him. I remember Actually, no, not fast forwarding yet, sorry. So he tells me I can join the company and I'm very interested.
Nathan Kirokwa:Six months later, after I'm getting adjusted in junior year, I send him a message and I say hello, ryan, I hope you're doing good. I was very interested in your company and the stuff you guys are doing and I was hoping maybe I could help you guys out, maybe join a meeting and learn from you guys, because I didn't think I'd have like an integral role in the company. I just thought, um, I could help somehow and from being there I could learn something. So I thought I needed to bring something to the table, like what could I do for conduit? So I thought, if I talked to him and I found, um a role I could place myself in. I could handle that role, do something for Conduit and learn from the people around me. That's what I wanted to do.
Nathan Kirokwa:I really wanted to learn from the people around me and I joined Conduit, and we're a small startup. We're a small startup, so we the good thing about being in a startup is that, um, all the I guess departments, I can say all the action items for the company, whether it's business related, whether it's um rigorous science related are very close to each other and you can learn from. You can learn from all parts of the company because you can really be on all parts of the company. That was a really great experience for me. I got to learn from some really great people, like Ryan himself, like some of the team members there. I'm really thankful for the incredibly lucky chain of events that led to me working at Conduit and I'm really thankful for the opportunity to work with great people who know so much more than me so I can learn from them.
Zeeshan Siddiqui:Thanks once again to Nathan for joining me today. What I found truly inspiring about today's episode was how Nathan's curiosity fuels his Bible journey. So from childhood questions about platelets to exploring the link between anatomy and muscle building, and his inquisitive nature leading him to work on biosensors it's incredibly motivating to see how he let curiosity be his guide. I believe this episode will resonate with anyone considering their own biobuilder path, whether they're a student or an educator, and if you would like to learn more about anything else Nathan and I discussed today, please refer to the show notes. Join me for the next BioBuilder podcast. We'll welcome another wonderful guest whose career has been influenced by BioBuilder's life-changing science. See you next time.