Finding your feet in research sometimes means traveling in unfamiliar territory. For Kelci Schilly, the first SLAS Visiting Graduate Researcher, the journey leads from creating tools to search for extraterrestrial life to diagnostics for disease detection as she expands her growing repertoire of research accomplishments.
“There are good and bad days in the lab, but to keep pushing through you have to think about what you want out of life and how things that you experience are helping you get there and make certain you have a solid support system throughout it,” says Kelci Schilly, B.Sc., a graduate research assistant in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS, USA), who recently earned the 2018 SLAS Visiting Graduate Researcher Program grant.
SLAS is a part of the solid support system for young researchers. As one of two graduate student grants offered by SLAS, the SLAS Visiting Graduate Researcher Program offers North American or European degree-seeking graduate students an opportunity to conduct short-term doctoral research or participate in a mentored or independent research project with a faculty member at a different institution. This SLAS grant allows Schilly to work in the laboratory of SLAS President Sabeth Verpoorte, Ph.D., at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) to broaden her understanding and advance her research in paper-based microfluidics and peptide labeling for mass spectrometric detection.
The exchange provides additional training and exposure to techniques to support Schilly’s current work in the laboratory of SLAS Nominations Committee member Susan Lunte, Ph.D., who develops analytical methods to probe conditions of cellular nitrosative stress in the context of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. To test for nitrosative stress, Lunte’s group uses microfluidic separations that feature small sample volumes, short analysis times and the potential for miniaturization for point-of-care analysis.
During the three-month research exchange, Schilly will learn, evaluate and apply a paper-spray ionization procedure currently in use by the Verpoorte group for introduction of peptide samples into a mass spectrometer. The ultimate goal of her thesis project is to develop a mass spectrometric detection method to determine the extent of mitochondrial protein nitration in the blood of Alzheimer’s patients, shown in preliminary studies to indicate the severity of the disease.
The successful method will isolate the mitochondrial proteins from white blood cells, which Schilly will digest and then label with a fluorescent reagent developed at KU that selects nitrotyrosine residues. This reagent includes a cis-diol affinity tag for selective isolation of the derivatized proteins. The resulting derivatized peptides can be captured on a boronate affinity matrix for fluorescence and/or mass spectrometric detection. Schilly’s proposed work will integrate the steps of this procedure into a microchip format.
Schilly is excited about the potential learning experience in Verpoorte’s lab. “I would recommend that graduate students apply for the SLAS Visiting Graduate Researcher Program because it gives you the opportunity to travel to another lab, meet new researchers and learn from their work,” says Schilly, who intends use her new knowledge of the cutting-edge technologies to expand microfluidic fabrication and detection methods in the Lunte group.
Lunte and Verpoorte, who have collaborated in the past, anticipate increased research capabilities for both groups as a result of the visit. Lunte comments that Schilly is an excellent candidate for the SLAS grant. “Kelci received this opportunity because of her ability to collaborate and communicate with team members. She is a natural leader and has proven that she is comfortable working in diverse research environments,” says Lunte, adding that a recent example of this was an internship Schilly completed last year at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA (USA).
“This SLAS grant opens a door for students to broaden their experiences,” continues Lunte, who also is a member of the review panel for the 2018 SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant, which she helped to establish. “I encourage students to study abroad and discover how research is conducted around the world. I tell my students that it's good to be a stranger in a strange land to really get to know yourself well. You can't send someone abroad who is in a shell; they wouldn't benefit from the experience. Kelci is very open, a good student and a good listener who will go, bring back new ideas to share and implement in our lab,” she continues.
Schilly made a pre-assignment trip to the 2018 SLAS Europe Conference and Exhibition in June and visited with Verpoorte and her new colleagues from the lab in which she will work. The team developed helpful work lists and short-term projects that Schilly hopes to accomplish before she travels to Groningen in September 2018.
Schilly is accustomed to busy summers. During her internship at JPL in 2017, she contributed to the search for extraterrestrial life through the development of a portable analyzer for amino acids, the structural building blocks of all life on Earth. The analyzer employs a simple chemistry method that uses a liquid-based technique known as capillary electrophoresis to separate a mixture of organic molecules into its components. According to news articles from JPL, the method is 10,000 times more sensitive than current methods employed by spacecraft like NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.
Another pastime Schilly uses to refocus her thoughts is reading Greek and Latin texts. Latin is a long-time love of Schilly’s. She first pursued it in high school, then continued it in college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where it so consumed her that she added Greek studies to her academic schedule and earned a double major in the Classics.
“During my undergraduate years, reading Latin and Greek texts was an escape. I worked on chemistry homework until I got frustrated, then switched to Greek and Latin homework,” she says. After moving to KU for graduate school, she joined a Latin reading group to keep her skills fresh and goes there to take a break from science.
At Schoenfisch’s suggestion, Schilly applied for graduate school at KU to work with Lunte, who also works with nitrosative and oxidative stress. “The more I looked into KU’s program, with its strong focus on bioanalytical chemistry, and how the analytical chemistry groups intertwine with biology, the more I wanted to pursue studies there,” she says. On a personal level, she also appreciated the Lunte group’s focus on developing methods to understand neurodegeneration.
Adding to her growing list of out-of-the-lab experiences was the 2018 SLAS Europe Conference and Exhibition, held in June in Brussels. Not only did it give Schilly a great opportunity to meet and make plans with her new lab mates from the University of Groningen, it also opened her eyes to the global scientific community.
Advance your research with financial support from the SLAS Grants Program, which is now accepting applications for 2019 awards. The SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant facilitates educational opportunities for outstanding students pursuing graduate degrees related to quantitative biosciences and/or life sciences research. The SLAS Visiting Graduate Researcher Program offers North American or European degree-seeking graduate students an opportunity to conduct short-term doctoral research or participate in a mentored or independent research project with a faculty member at a different host institution. The deadline for both applications is Dec. 10.