|
Inspiration, determination lead to success for undergraduate biology major Shewit Tekeste
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Written by Luis Sandoval and Branwyn Wagman
At UCSC, senior Shewit Tekeste has developed a fascination with biology and a commitment to biomedical research. This fall, she will begin a doctoral program at the UCLA Graduate School for Biomedical Research. But her interests and her passion for learning have their roots in Kenya, where she was born and raised. “My passion for furthering myself with knowledge has gradually grown from my first-hand experience of seeing close family and relatives dying slowly of AIDS and from seeing homeless children suffering from malnutrition, wandering aimlessly around heaps of garbage digging for food,” Tekeste said. “In Africa, many believe that these diseases are a curse that cannot be overturned for sinners who do not live according to the traditional way of life,” she explained. “This gets in the way of acknowledging ways to prevent and treat such diseases. It stifles research opportunities for prevention or treatment.” Tekeste's family was originally from Eritrea, but civil unrest there forced them to seek refuge in Kenya. She was born in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where the family lived until five years ago, when they moved to the United States. Tekeste's family of eight—she has one sister and four bothers—joined her uncle in San Diego, where he helped them get established. “We stayed with him and his family in their two-bedroom apartment—12 people collectively—for a month before my family moved into a two-bedroom apartment,” she said. As a 17-year-old, Tekeste found assimilation to U.S. culture difficult. "But I learned to use barriers as positive challenges that test my perseverance and to use pressure as my driving force," she said. Tekeste said her strong determination for academic success derives from her upbringing. “I was raised believing that unless you acknowledge where you are coming from, you will never know where you are heading,” she said. Tekeste is the first from her family to graduate from high school and the first to attend a university. She has clearly made the most of the opportunities she found at UCSC, including the chance to work in a faculty research laboratory. Tekeste has been working in the laboratory of Melissa Jurica, assistant professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology. She found the Jurica lab through a pipeline of services available for minority students in the sciences. Starting as a freshman, she took advantage of the intensive discussion sections for math and science gateway classes offered by the UCSC Academic Excellence (ACE) program. “It is really helpful for incoming freshmen; you get one-on-one attention. That’s where I met my peers who are my friends now.” As her junior year approached, the ACE program recommended her to UCSC’s Minority Access to Research Careers/ Minority Biomedical Research Support (MARC/MBRS) program. She started by participating in the California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) summer research program. During the school year, her MARC/MBRS counselor connected her with Jurica for a research project, and the program offered her financial and academic support. “Being in MARC/MBRS is like having a whole new family. The older students give advice about what classes are best and what teachers to avoid. It makes your life a lot easier.” In her senior year, the MARC program put Tekeste in touch with CBSE, and her research goals and project idea allowed her to win one of the center’s diversity awards for undergraduate research in genomic sciences. As a diversity award recipient, Shewit participates in the CBSE Research Mentoring Institute (RMI). The RMI honors program provides undergraduates and graduate students with a research experience in genomic science, ensuring that they acquire the academic services and motivation to successfully graduate from the university and to enroll in an advanced degree program or enter a career in genomic science. The CBSE RMI and diversity award program requires students to develop a project in genomic science and to work closely with a faculty mentor. Tekeste gets her mentoring in the Jurica lab, where she learns and uses the tools of structural biology to understand how cellular machines carry out their biochemical functions. She also enjoys peer mentoring from another RMI participant, graduate student Gabriel Roybal, who also works in the Jurica lab. Gabriel encouraged Shewit to apply for the diversity award, and they work closely together on projects in the laboratory. Research in the Jurica lab seeks to understand a critical step in the process where information in DNA is read and then used in cells. The step is called pre-mRNA splicing, and errors in this process are responsible for a large number of human genetic diseases. “Our group uses the tools of structural biology to understand the cellular machinery that carries out splicing, called the spliceosome," Jurica explained. "Our goal is to build a three-dimensional model of the spliceosome so that we can understand how it is put together and works in both normal and disease situations.” Tekeste’s project involves the structural analysis of an early phase of the spliceosome, called E complex. She purifies E complex to be visualized using electron microscopy. To improve the visualization, she engineered a special protein-binding sequence into the pre-mRNA that makes it possible to label an important part of the spliceosome structure. Tekeste and Roybal plan to use this method to improve the lab's imaging capabilities. “We collect tens of thousands of electron microscope images, and then we apply software that blends them into a three-dimensional structure," Roybal said. "Averaging a set of images gives about twenty pictures of the different faces of the complex. We label one spot on the complex to help with orientation, so that we can piece the individual pictures together like a puzzle to make the whole image.” Each quarter, the CBSE diversity award requires Tekeste to write up her research. “CBSE is giving me a head start on my thesis, by causing me to translate my work in the lab into a science paper,” she said. Tekeste’s determination in carrying out her research and in achieving academic success stems from her responsibility to give back to her family. “I came to UCSC focused and ready to graduate early, so I could be of help financially to enable my siblings to at least get to where I am.” The CBSE Research Mentoring Institute, part of a pipeline of services for students interested in science, strives to increase the numbers and capabilities of minority scientists and science professionals engaged in genomic research and in the surrounding ethical, legal, and social implications. The program is designed to allow outstanding UCSC students to pursue research projects in areas relevant to the human genome while providing academic and financial support. The institute is made possible by funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
|
