Turning Creativity into Real-World Solutions with Biology

In this episode, Zeeshan talks with Will about how creative world building turned into a real drive to solve problems through biology and synthetic biology. Their conversation traces how BioBuilder helped Will gain mentors, lab confidence, and a clearer path from high school projects to Stanford bioengineering and early industry exposure.

This episode includes a conversation about Will's
• early curiosity rooted in ecosystems, energy flow, and creativity 
• why biology feels like a place he can build and contribute 
• what drew him to quorum sensing and bacterial communication 
• how reading about CRISPR sparked interest in synthetic biology 
• why BioBuilder matters for access and first-generation students 
• how he helped design projects that protect ecosystems 
• projects related to coral reef protection and tackling fertilizer runoff

• mentorship moments that reshape what it means to be a scientist 

•  presenting lightning talks, building communication skills, finding community 

• internships and research experiences that clarified industry versus academic paths 

• choice of Stanford for challenge and choosing bioengineering to translate research into impact 
• advice for 16-year-olds who feel intimidated, namely: show up, learn by doing, ask questions 

If you'd like to learn more or hear some of the other podcasts we've recorded, please go on to the BioBuilder website. 

Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/

And follow BioBuilder on social media: 
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https://twitter.com/SystemsSally
https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder
https://www.instagram.com/systems_sally/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/16132078

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Background

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello and welcome to Life Changing Science, the Biobuilder Podcast. I'm your host, Zee Sean, and my guest today is Will. Will is from Oak Park River Forest High School where we got hooked on biology through the Biobuilder Club, leading projects on everything from nitrogen regulation in crop soil to quorum sensing and even doing research at Northwestern along the way. He's currently a bioengineering major at Stanford with a deep interest in environmental biotechnology. And in today's episode, I talked to him about his journey from biobuilder to Stanford, what drew him to SinBio in the first place, and why he's chosen to keep paying it forward by mentoring the next generation of first-gen students coming up behind him. So let's dive right into this episode. I want you to, you know, take me back as far as you can. What's your earliest memory of you know being genuinely curious about how living things work? And this question is sort of um, you know, really is when when did you first start getting interested in in the sciences?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

When I was younger, the thing that I really wanted to do was creative ready. Um, especially within that, I was very focused on like world building. Um, and so before I ever got into any science, I was kind of interested in like creating like landscapes and ecosystems um and like creatures or monsters that like people could fight and that type of thing by chance. Um, and so like that was when I first started studying biology with a really like I didn't put a title to it, but that was the things that captivated me most all kind of tied back to living things in some way. And the more I studied it, the more I felt like that was just because biology was the science that like captured my attention the most. It it checked all the boxes, like for something like physics, all respect to physicists, but it just seemed like something that's so daunting, um, like hard to get into, first of all, but also something where it would just be very, very analytical the whole time. Um, and I felt like biology was the one place where I could be, I could contribute something to the world, I could be analytical and um that type of thing, but I could also integrate creativity. It wasn't just a matter of how quickly you can crunch out equations. There's a little bit of a X factor to everything you do. Um, and that's still something I feel is true for the field. Um so that was really when I first started, it was coming from that perspective of what's something I can do that creative writing never panned out because it just when I looked at the world, I felt like there were so many real problems that I could be solving instead of inventing like new ones for my world. Um and biology was the one place where I felt like a little bit of uh non-traditional creativity would be most appreciated.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Like while you were sort of you know building a world, building building your um your landscapes, etc. Like, do you have to like go on Google and like actually learn about certain ecosystems or or like synthetic biology even? Um I'm curious if you you know came across certain like biotech terms that you learn now and you learned it because you were trying to actually, you know, um be a creative writer.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, I I never specifically learned biotech terms. Like when I was when I was like trying to think of new things to add, I would never like find like a long definition or like a protein name or anything like that that I would integrate. But it was funny because going into biology, a lot of the concepts felt very familiar to me. And I think like to a large extent, that's because like the the base principles that you learn when you're trying to design like an ecosystem, like how does everything interact? Like, where does it get energy from? It can't come from nowhere. Um, like what are its adaptations, those types of things without like necessarily needing to know that it's called like, oh, this is what a mutation is, or this is what you know a primary consumer or a producer is. Um, I never learned those things, but I learned the principles that I was able to kind of fit into these terms and definitions that I learned after the fact.

Why Quorum Sensing Drew Him In

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Yeah, yeah. Okay, no, that that that makes a lot of sense in in in terms of how everything works together. Energy has to go somewhere. I think that's the basis of all biochemistry, at least in undergrad. Um fantastic. And I saw that you did like a quorum sensing for an AP research project um in in high school. That that's quite a niche topic for you know, for I I think AP bio. What what okay? I'm sort of seeing uh now that you've you know we've you've told me a bit about some of the writing stuff you've done and how you sort of first got interested in it, but I was gonna ask, what actually drew you to the bacterial communication specifically?

Discovering SynBio And BioBuilder

SPEAKER_00 4:59

That's a good question. So like like I was mentioning, the way I the type of scientist I want to be, I don't want to just be plugging in numbers. I I kind of want to take some do some experiments that no one would think to do and do some things that have a very high chance of not working. And I would not feel comfortable doing that in something like um like human studies, where obviously like people's lives are in your hands. It's not it's not a matter of um just like like having fun with it. But I do feel pretty comfortable doing that with bacteria. That it feels like a space where if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out and you go back to the drawing board. Um there's not a lot of hoops to jump through that are like there, like rightfully so to protect people. Uh and you can kind of just you can pursue anything that there that there is that is captures your interest. Um, so that's that's one of the things that I think drew me to the bacteria. Um also just their prevalence everywhere. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

How how did you first you know stumble into the Bibuilder Club? Um was was like the term synthetic biology like even on the radar uh before that?

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, so I got into synthetic biology by reading one of the books by uh Coke Breaker about Jennifer Downell. Um and that was the thing I know I've spoken to many other people that that was the catalyst for, I think. Um it was hugely influential and especially on me. Um, but there was actually a pretty long distance between reading that book and starting with the club. Um and most of that time was just me like like studying as much as I possibly could about biology. Um but eventually point where I'm like, okay, like I know all these terms, like whatever, I know all this, like when can I actually start doing something? Um and so for me, like there were my school's pretty big. We have a lot of clubs, we have a lot of bio clubs, but I was like, you know, do I really want to join like anatomy club to just learn more about anatomy or like environment to just learn more about the environment? Like I really want to start like getting my hands dirty. Um and that's really the thing that drew me to BioBuilder because I mean, like in the name, it gives you uh a chance to like build something and to do something with your like with your knowledge that actually has an impact on the world. And that's the thing that's what really drew me to the club um for the in the first place, and it's one of the things that um makes the club so important to me now. And I think that's like very, very important to the goal of the organization as well, because like if if it is if if we leave it the way that it has been so far, which is like you were saying, like these techniques, you start them second year of your undergrad, that think of how many people that already closes out of the conversation. Like not only do you already have to be in college, which eliminates a lot of people who don't ax have access to that, but also you already need to know that you're interested in biology or biochemistry, you already need to have the impet impetus to like get into that in the first place. So introducing it from a younger age, it gives us the opportunity to introduce that concept to a lot of people who might not have otherwise um stumbled into it. Like, I I feel very fortunate to have had a Bibuilder Club ready at my school. But if I don't had not had that, maybe I would just be in anatomy club right now, like studying a V pre-med.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

I I want to learn more about some of the projects you worked on at the Bi while you were at the Bibuilder Club, but specifically like you know, you don't have to give me the project abstract and everything. But I'm interested in sort of how those projects came about, some of the methodology you use to be like, hey, this is what we want to tackle. And the second part of that question would be um really interested in learning some of the skills and techniques that you learn, both sort of you know, hard skills in the lab and then some soft skills as well.

Designing Environmental Biotech Projects

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Okay, yeah. So my first year, I was a little bit intimidated because it was my first time like actually doing anything, and I was kind of like, I don't want to break anything. I'm working in a group, I have like really great mentors here. Um, so I that was the first year I was watching and learning, and that year we tackled um uh sunscreen degradation, um, which is like harmful to corals. And so I thought, okay, we're doing like a coral protection project. Obviously, we're gonna be editing these like coral organisms themselves. Um, and so one of the first things I learned from that is that's usually not the approach. Um, because like when you're trying to preserve the integrity of an ecosystem, you don't want to go into that ecosystem and like transform the organism itself. There's that has its own implications. Um, but we actually uh focused on editing the some of the bacteria that cohabitate with those coral. Um and I took that philosophy with me of um being minimally intrusive, especially using bacteria for the next year, which was focused on algal blooms, um, because our our main thing was we're focusing on excess fertilizer usage and how all that extra nitrogen in the soil that can't be used by plants in time and it gets washed away. That's that's the source of the algal bloomer. That's like the nutrient um that allows them to grow so quickly. Uh and so we instead of editing like the plants themselves, however, you would do that to just make them consume nitrogen more quickly, uh, we focused on transforming the rhizobial bacteria in the roots in order to make them take in nitrogen when it's at like an extremely high level and store it and then like slowly release it so that it trickles out. Um, and that plant can have the optimal level for the whole year. But if the rain comes and washes that nitrogen away, it's not like it was all gone. Now there's some more that can slowly be re-released and the algal bloom hopefully can be uh prevented or minimized. And so both of those projects, first of all, they were super interesting to me. Um personally, the second year, especially, that was something that I was very interested in. Um I'm probably more environmental or agriculturally focused, um, because you know, those are the types of things where uh you can get these bacteria out there and like actually start deploying them in ways that they have a material impact and um but you're not like interfering with conscious organisms, which is big for me, at least not directly. Um skills-wise, we definitely learned you know, project design itself. It's easy to think of ideas. There's obviously so many things I think uh biotech could be used for um and applied to. Um, and so usually brainstorming day, we have like like 25 at least options. Um there's there's limitless things to to start, but like really like chasing a thing all the way down, drilling down to the details, like you realize how deep it goes, how much there is to learn. Um so yeah, and then lab techniques, of course.

Presentations And Finding Your People

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yep, yeah. No, awesome. Thank thanks for you know walking me through that. These are some like fantastic projects uh to to work on. And how how did the so yeah, once you you know did these projects, did you like towards the end of the year, like pr do a presentation at Lab Central? Um, and of course it was a bit of a group project as well. So those dynamics are you know important to learn as well. Um yeah, curious to hear sort of like how some of these projects ended.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yeah, so the first one again, that was the year I was I was so intimidating, uh so intimidated by like the lightning talks, by the talking to people who probably know more about my project than even I do, just because they're so well-versed in biology. So that year I was definitely a little more timid, kind of like sitting back watching and learning. Um but the second year, that was when um I was really excited to like get out to college. This was something that I was feeling more confident about having gone through it the first time. So that year I I did give the talk for our team. Um and it's really like it's it's a really fun thing to do because there's like biotech, even like here in California at Stanford, it still feels like when there's someone who I talk to who's interested in synthetic biology, that's like that's like one in a thousand. It's it's so rare to find people who are interested in it. So having a place like BioBuilder where you can kind of congregate with other people who share your interest, it's like it's really good for developing my passion for it and finding mentors as well. Like I found a lot of really great mentors through the program.

Mentors And A New Scientist Mindset

SPEAKER_02 13:57

That that's super important in terms of having people who have sort of gone through some of the phase. Um, you know, I'm sure you talk to any biologist out there the first time they go into a lab, the first time they hear lightning talks, anything, it's super intimidating, right? Yeah. Um so having someone to sort of guide you through that. And and know that, you know, you're not alone, the feelings you're having, um, the stuff you're learning, everyone has has gone through that. Um, so that's that's it's fantastic that you've sort of you know been able to grow in in that respect. Um and I also want to ask, you mentioning mentors, you worked uh with Michael Sheets, um, who's been heavily involved with BioBuilder. He was on season one. Um so you know, we it's you know, it's it's so cool to you know have people who like we've had guests on the podcast in season one and they've gone on to mentor uh other students who have now come now in season six on the podcast. Uh I I I'm curious. Uh so that was, you know, I just want to mention mention that. Uh was there, you know, um was just something in he said or did or you know taught you that sort of shifted how you think about being a scientist?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah, no, it was um I remember obviously that was that was my first season, so I was kind of taking everything in, uh absorbing as much as I could. But that was really the first time where I saw um because he works for like a synthetic biology company.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Um I think sunflower.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah, and that was one of the first times like up to that point, when I think scientist, I think like get a PhD and go to a university um and work in the lab there and maybe teach their best case scenario um when you're older. So seeing someone who like not only had gone through the same biobuilder program that I had, but who ended up at a place where he was like he was making something like truly new on his own path. Like I was what like 16 or 17 at the time, so I was definitely in a in a more rebellious phase um where I was like, you know, I don't I don't want to go along the the typical path. I really want to find something that I can I can make my own. I wanna I want to make my imprint. So it really just like seeing him so knowledgeable going somewhere where he could make that like felt in the world was it was super meaningful to me. That was also like a time where, you know, again, 16 or 17, I was I was kind of feeling pretty proud of like I'd read like all the biology textbooks I could find, PEFs of online. I'd done all that, and I was like, I you know what, I really think I've reached the very limit of what I can know about biology. And so getting that reality check from someone who actually works there, and he pulls up like this map of a plasmid, and I'm like, what is that? I have no idea what I'm looking at here. Like, I don't know um if the people who are listening have ever seen something like this, but it's just like a giant circle with all these little tiny labels, colors like coding for the genes everywhere, and he's navigating it like it's his childhood neighborhood. Like he he knows where everything is and what everything does, and all these little tools in the sidebar where I'm like, I have no idea what's even going on here. So getting to see that there's still a lot of room to grow was also much needed for me, I think.

Internships And Industry Exposure

SPEAKER_02 17:30

The the the the more you think you know, the the less you actually do a um yeah, that's not that that's that's fantastic, and I'm sure you're getting that right now in in your courses. And now I sort of want to ask you uh post-biobuilder. Uh I know you did an internship at Ginkgo, uh also research at North uh Northwestern. Uh just just want to learn a bit more about that post-biobuilder phase.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Ginkgo is part of the Biobuilder program, um, which was like really nice because uh like one of the biggest things that I'll keep coming back to is I really felt like there's so much more support and so much more of a clear, like well-defined path for getting in an academia um from like a biology perspective than there is getting in the industry. Like, if you don't know someone who's already in the industry, it can be very hard to know that it even exists, much less to like get to see like the inside of it, inner workings, or like even get a job there. Um, and so yeah, I mean I know one of the things as an ambassador for Biobuilder I've been really focused on. Um uh and talking with Chloe about newly launching, of course, like the biotech builder, that's been something really exciting for me because I definitely think I'm more inclined towards industry. So that was really like getting to see the inner workings of what that looks like was very valuable to me coming from like neither of my parents worked in biotech. It's kind of something I've been trying to figure out for myself. Um, that was super valuable. And then yeah, getting in the Northwestern, that was um I was still kind of at that time figuring out whether I was more curious about like the industry side or the academia side. Um, and so getting to work in Northwestern was really nice, not just from the perspective of like actually getting like practical hands-on work with these lab techniques, um, and most importantly, like we'd done some like wet lab and bio or whatever, but getting to be part of something where you don't know what outcome you're looking for, um, that was that was really nice as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

And yeah, it's so there's there's a lot to unpack here, but the the one thing I will ask is of course uh the Ginkgo tour, et cetera, was part of um the Biobuilder program. Because you had gone through Biobuilder and you had those you know early experiences, um, and you were also you know now skilled in a way, um did that help you sort of get the internship at at Northwestern? How big of a part did Biobuilder play?

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah, I definitely think like first of all, obviously you have to consider like the practical side where something like like biotech, you need to start somewhere or like to get your application read. Like the the fact is like this goes for anything. You need to you need to have something that you can you can show to people um to show them that like to some extent I'm not gonna I'm not gonna like break your pipe pad when I get in the lab. Um so that that is like a valuable thing in the first place. But yeah, also definitely like being comfortable, like interviewing with people, getting comfortable, um, talking to people who are very well versed in biology. Like if I'd been that same kid going into the first biotech um uh like symposium where I was like totally scared to talk about my project or to use a big word for fear I was gonna use it wrong, or to talk to someone who is more knowledgeable than me. Um, I I don't know if I would have been able to like keep up with um like all the people at Northwestern because you're working under a mentor, you're not expected to know everything, but you are expected to like be able to communicate effectively to them about what you're doing um and how you're doing it. So getting, yeah, getting a little bit more well-versed, not just in the actual skills themselves, but in knowing how to talk um to people within the biotech community or biology community more generally, that was definitely super valuable.

Choosing Stanford And Bioengineering

SPEAKER_02 21:39

So while we were applying to to colleges, um how how did you think about you know which college to apply for, which major uh you know, curious about that thought process? And um how how you how did you land on on pursuing bioengineering at at Stanford?

SPEAKER_00 21:56

So when I was applying to colleges, there were obviously like ton of places that I was thinking about because like there were places my friends were going, there were places my family had gone. Um and so I was really like trying to kind of narrow it down and figure that out. Um but I think at the end it really came down to um like what I want to do with the rest of my life. Um like going to Haverford which is the place that my dad and his dad had both gone it's like such a nice school it was so pretty when I went for admin weekend I love the people there so much. And I felt like I would have been like very very comfortable there. But like the more I was thinking about it like at night I was like I just wonder if I would be too comfortable there. Like I was thinking of that first day walking in a Bibuilder not knowing what was going on at all in the club not knowing anyone all that and how intimidating that was to me and I was thinking like man that like that felt really horrible but like at the end of the day I'm so like so glad that I ended up doing it. And so Stanford was somewhere it's obviously like it it was a long shot then and it still feels like it was a long shot now. But I just felt like even though this is totally like I'm from Illinois it's like pretty much other side of the country it's um some of the like most academically challenging one of the most academically challenging communities you'll ever be in. It's like very cooperative but there is a a level of competition here you know um but I was like I just did not feel as afraid of that as I think I would have if I hadn't been in a community and gotten accustomed to being in places like that already through Biobuilder. And so applying here I like just one quick thing I was between molecular biology and bioengineering um and I think at the end of the day like the big determinant was it's kind of like the same as I was saying with biobuilder like being the thing that calls out to me. I don't just want to learn biology. I don't just want to know biology. I want to do biology I want to make something with it um and solve problems with it. Like I want to be the one who's taking the like amazing research that's been done um doing some of that research myself sure but then like figuring out how can we translate that into something that's actually going to help people. So yeah I mean I don't know if that's too long-winded but that was that was probably how I was thinking about it at the time and that's how I think of uh on it looking back now.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

So you've had uh so many great experiences at at Biobuilder uh Northwestern currently at Stanford um now I want to ask uh you know not to put you on the spot but I want to ask to I want you to give some advice you know what advice would you give maybe to your 16 year old self or current 16 year olds who are you know learning about synthetic biology at the lab time who are at Lab Central for the first time and are super intimidated um and you know experiencing a lot of new science for the first time and they're thinking about biobuilder, they're thinking about a career in bioengineering just wanted to you know get your thoughts on on what would you you know one either if you had to go back and talk to your 16 year old self or um as yeah as I said before current 16 year olds.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

So put you on the spot there but what is some of your advice to to them I mean I think the first thing is feel would be like that is what we are here for. We are bibuilder and in the way I understand it is here for the people like that who don't have family who have done bioengineering. They haven't necessarily learned everything there is to learn about it at the age of 12 um and who but who still want to start getting into it who want to get something done um and who want to see what they can do with it. Like Biobuilder I think it's probably greatest strength is that hopefully like somewhere near you it's accessible to you. And that's like so I would say just go for it. Like we're here for you no matter what stage you're at no matter how much you know about biotech or like the content or like what it looks like in the real world. Like those are the things you just like learning by doing those are the lessons that you're gonna remember the best. That would be my advice to you is everybody in the organization is so supportive and of course it's gonna be intimidating but you're not going to be punished because you don't know everything the first day like we we like everybody will tell you this I'm sure you know it um everybody I talked to at recent like biotech summits I've gone to they love to see a young person um who knows nothing about biology coming to their events and like going there to learn more. So yeah that would be my advice is just like it's it's normal to be scared but don't let that stop you from getting out there.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Thanks so much again to Will for coming on today. I really love hearing about how he found his way into biology that moment of realizing he could contribute something to the world. It was so nice to hear about how Bibuilder gave him a place to congregate with people who shared his interests and find mentors who could open doors. And what I found really inspiring and insightful was was the way Will talked about wanting to make his own imprint there's this default path in biotech especially if you don't know too many people in the in in the industry that funnels you straight into academia and Will saw that early and and really pushed back on it. He embraced that rebellious teenage instinct that says the traditional comfortable path is not for me. And instead of just feeling that he acted on it. He went out of his way to learn about biotech and industry to look into companies to build a network and industry years before you know most undergrads even start thinking about it. That kind of initiative seeing many moves ahead recognizing that well defined isn't the same as you know right for you and wanting to do more experiments no one else would think to do with a high chance of not working that's you know the the foundation where careers and discoveries uh get built on. And it's this this is really the mindset Bibuilder is trying to cultivate and and will and really everyone else on this podcast has has been a brilliant example of it in action. And if you'd like to learn more about some of the other work we've done, the other podcasts we've uh recorded, please go on to the Biobuilder website and if you'd like to learn more about anything else Will and I discuss today, please refer to the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Join me for the next Biobuilder podcast we'll welcome another wonderful guest whose career has been influenced by Biobuilder's life changing signs. See you next time