MCO graduate student Mackenzie Smith of Ya-Chieh Hsu’s lab in SCRB has received a grant from the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The NSF’s GRFP provides fellowships with up to five years of funding to promising graduate students. The award will support Smith’s investigation into whether parity, or the number of times an individual has given birth, accelerates aging in the skin.
Smith feels honored and grateful to receive the award. She adds that she’s excited to continue her experiments in the Hsu Lab. “I really admire Ya-Chieh’s approach to both mentorship–she really prioritizes individualized mentorship–and storytelling,” Smith says. “I’d seen her give some talks and was mesmerized by her ability to frame complex scientific problems as simple yet captivating questions.”
In her research project, Smith will collect data from same-age lab mice that have gone through varying numbers of pregnancies. Previous scientific work has proposed that there might be a trade off between reproduction and tissue repair, where organisms that have given birth many times may age faster than organisms that have invested less in reproduction. Smith will use mouse skin as a model system for testing this idea. “I was really interested in the skin and was drawn to the opportunity to study biology from the microscopic to the macroscopic, because with skin, a lot of the phenotypes you can see in the living animal,” she says. “You can open the cage, see the phenotype, and just gasp.”
Smith is particularly interested in skin stem cells. She will use techniques such as RNA-seq to look for signatures of aging in the skin and for differences in cell type composition. Monitoring hair growth and the number of gray hairs will yield insights into how different types of stem cells are faring. In addition to studying skin in its resting state, Smith will also test how the skin reacts to challenges, such as infections and wounds that need to be healed. Losing the ability to heal as completely after injury or infection is a sign of aging. She expects that mice that have given birth five times will not recover as well as virgin mice.
Prior to joining MCO, Smith attended Carleton College, a small school in her home state of Minnesota. She then worked as a lab assistant for three years in Leonard Zon’s Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her research projects centered on a type of white blood cell called macrophages and their role in “quality assurance” for blood-forming stem cells. Spending time in the Zon Lab solidified her interest in pursuing a research career. “I think the most valuable aspect of being a research assistant, for me, is learning what it’s like to work a full-time job in the lab,” Smith says. “It was a really great experience in everything from experimental design to experiment execution to data interpretation.”
When she’s not observing cells under a microscope, Smith is also an enthusiastic contributor to outreach projects. As a high schooler in her hometown of Lino Lakes, she established an afterschool science course for kids at the local YMCA, where she worked. During her time in the Zon Lab, she helped evaluate applicants for Zon Camp, a research experience for high schoolers. This past fall, she served as a teaching fellow for SCRB 10, an introductory course in regenerative biology. Leading her section was a very positive experience, Smith says. Every week, she baked for her students.
Aside from baking, Smith’s other pastimes include bouldering, cycling, reading, and hanging out with her fiance–who proposed during the recent solar eclipse–and their cat.
Smith would like to thank several colleagues and mentors. These include Leonard Zon and Sam Wattrus, a former graduate student in the Zon Lab. Smith also expressed gratitude toward two senior graduate students in the Hsu Lab, Rebecca Freeman and Liana Tellez, as well as Hsu herself. Smith adds,“As a Graduate Research Fellow, I hope to uphold the NSF’s mission of progressing the scientific enterprise not only through my work at the bench but also by advocating for increased inclusivity in STEM and being a positive role model for my mentees and peers, like the incredible mentors and colleagues who have supported me on my scientific journey so far.”
SCRB faculty member Ya-Chieh Hsu is enthusiastic about Smith’s potential and is looking forward to seeing where Smith goes in her career. “Mackenzie is a talented scientist and a passionate teacher,” Hsu says. “Her ability to make difficult concepts accessible to inexperienced students and her patience and dedication to her students is truly unique in my experience. She served as a teaching fellow for SCRB 10, a gateway course for HDRB concentrators, and the students LOVED her…She is dedicated to her work, exceptionally intelligent, and always kind and generous with her time when others need help. I am overjoyed to be her mentor at this important stage of her scientific career.”
