Following her graduation last December, AU Alumna Lexi Butterbaugh Roberts (Biology, ’20) joined the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the University of Michigan as a research lab technician. The focus of her lab is to better understand what causes graft versus host disease (GvHD) following a bone marrow transplant. Mice are used as a model organism to study this disease, and the laboratory director is particularly interested in the role of a novel long non-coding RNA sequence in acute GvHD. While at Ashland, Lexi was a member of the AU Honors Program as well as being a Choose Ohio First Scholar.
How did your time at Ashland prepare you for the future?
The research skills that I developed in my independent research as well as in my classes at AU definitely helped prepare me for the skills I need in this position. For example, my cellular biology class taught me proper aseptic techniques when working with tissue cell culture, and this is now a skill I use every day. My lab also often extracts bone marrow and harvests spleens from mice, so I was thankful that my labs at AU previously exposed me to these types of intricate tasks. In addition to these technical laboratory skills, the emphasis from AU professors to learn how to read primary research articles was especially helpful. I was so thankful that my professors at AU helped me develop the skills needed to more easily read and comprehend primary research articles because I have been able to gain so much new knowledge in my new field of research in this way.
What did your research as an undergraduate at Ashland focus on?
For two years of my undergraduate experience, I conducted independent research with Dr. Mason Posner. Dr. Posner’s lab used zebrafish as a model organism to study eye lens development with the hopes of better understanding lens cataract formation. My research specifically focused on the lens-specific protein, αA-crystallin, and understanding how the loss of αA-crystallin in the lens impacts zebrafish lens development and cataract formation. This was the research experience that led me to complete my honors capstone thesis at AU.
Dr. Posner comments about Lexi that "When I spoke with the professor that runs Lexi’s current lab for her application reference call, he was impressed with the wide range of techniques she had learned as an undergraduate. But maybe even more, he felt that she stood out above other applicants in her writing and presentation skills and the deep understanding Lexi had of her honors capstone work. Lexi shared with him portions of her capstone thesis and recordings of her research talks, highlighting how well developed her science skills were at this stage in her career."
What were the highlights of the AU Science Program for you?
Although I really enjoy my new position in Ann Arbor, I still miss my time in Ashland. The best part of my Ashland University experience was the relationships I was able to develop with a lot of the professors and I cherished the closeness of the AU community. Since Ashland is a smaller school, I loved that wherever I went on campus, I knew I would always see a familiar face, which is something I am really going to miss! One-on-one time with the professors was also not hard to come by. I feel that this was beneficial for me because whenever I needed a little extra help understanding something, my professors were not difficult to find, and were always eager to offer additional explanations. The smaller class sizes were especially nice when it came to the lab sections of classes because I was able to be very hands-on. This was definitely one of the highlights of the AU science program for me because it helped me gain more confidence in my skills and independence as a lab technician. I am so thankful for my time at Ashland University where I developed the various skills needed to help me land my first job, and for the professors who instilled in me the curious mind that is so important in research.
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