Karl Thompson has been working at Howard since 2011, when he was appointed as an assistant professor of microbiology in the College of Medicine. In 2012, Thompson started a lab with a vision to execute innovative research in microbial and molecular genetics and train the next generation of scientists. Thompson has mentored and trained dozens of undergraduate scholars from various disciplines and STEM development programs on campus, including the Karsh STEM Scholars, the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), and the Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (URISE) STEM programs. Several undergraduate alumni, including those from the Karsh STEM scholars’ program have gone on to medical, graduate, or M.D./Ph.D. programs.
Sophomore biology major and chemistry minor Sophie Lee is a Karsh STEM scholar immersed in research she hopes will help affect change. The young scientist said she joined Thompson’s lab because it allows her to go beyond the prerequisites of her major and take a deep dive into other areas of research. Though students work collaboratively on a variety of basic science research, translational research, and applicational research, she’s most excited about learning everything she can about human genetics and sigma factors. Human genetics is the scientific study of inherited human variation.
Lee is studying how genetic traits are passed down, generation to generation, and how variations in genes can contribute to the development of certain traits or diseases in some people.
“Basically, what makes us, us?” asked Lee. “Why do we have brown skin? Why do we have curly hair or like what we like? Why do we have anxiety, or why are we more susceptible to certain diseases?”
Finding out the answers to these kinds of questions allows for better understanding of human development, and can lead to the development of medicines or treatments for diseases and other health-related issues. For Lee, it’s critical to understand how genetics affect Black people in particular. The future physician scientist plans to address the inequities in the healthcare system, as well as the lack of personalized treatment options available, which often result from a lack of focus on the nuances within minority populations.
“I really want to change the healthcare system and how it affects Black and Brown people, and I think I can do that through human genetics, which will give us a pathway to personalized medicine,” said Lee. “I believe if you look at people in their genome and their genetics, at what scientifically makes them up instead of looking at statistics or the color of their skin and making inferences like, ‘this will probably work because they’re Black and most Black people get this,’ we can end misdiagnosis and racism in healthcare and in the healthcare system.”
Dr. Thompson has also exposed Lee and her lab associates to bacterial genetics. In the lab, she’s studied why a certain bacteria may be yellow or survive in a certain climate, as well as how another could affect the human immune system. She’s currently focused on staph aureus and E. coli bacteria and is exploring sigma factors. As the leader of a lab project, Lee is working with her fellow scientists to begin the work she intends to do as a physician scientist—personalizing medicine.
“Sigma factors is the process of making genes and proteins,” she explained. “We’re simulating reactions in a bacterium to try and understand every single part of that, so that we can then apply that — or someone else will then apply that — to the human body. We hope by understanding this certain sigma factor, we can understand how the immune system in humans works. How we can possibly create different characteristics that would help people not get infected by certain diseases, for example.”
Discovering why some people are more susceptible to certain diseases, and subsequently how to personally treat them, would be quite the discovery. That said, Lee noted the importance of learning the fundamentals of research, in addition to the discoveries and the people behind them.
“How does this impact us?” she questioned. “How does this impact our community and giving back to the community? I feel like that’s really emphasized in every classroom that I go into.”
Those classrooms, and professors like Dr. Thompson, are preparing Lee for her future. She plans to pursue M.D. and Ph.D. degrees before embarking on a career that will allow her to change the way minorities are treated, figuratively and actually, within the U.S. healthcare system.
“The M.D./Ph.D. is where I can work with patients while doing my research,” she noted. “I hope my research will impact the people that I’m seeing and hopefully help to fix the healthcare system.”
Lee believes that Howard is preparing her well.
“I feel like I’ve grown exponentially since coming here,” she said. “From every person that I’ve interacted with at Howard, from the students to the faculty, I’ve just learned so much about myself and my identity, and how I should approach school in terms of learning.”
Article ID: 2251