Union’s annual Steinmetz Symposium is approaching quickly, with less than a month before its arrival. Making its 35th annual appearance on May 9, 2025, the event will take over campus once again to give hundreds of undergraduates the chance to present their research, projects, and performances to an array of peers, faculty, and family alike.
Our first student research spotlight features Winston Lee ‘27, a Biochemistry and Psychology Interdepartmental major with a minor in Spanish. As a part of Professor Fox’s lab (a part of the Biochemistry department), his research focuses on fine-tuning an analytical method to observe, analyze, and study proteins.
Lee explains, “I worked with the Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) instrument in the Instrumentation Lab, and right now, I am using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as my protein. BSA is a versatile, stable, and well-studied protein, so it is easy to compare my results to standardized ones.” He elaborates on the focus of his work, “Our hope is to apply what we have learned about DLS instrumentation to metacaspases, a protein that is less stable and less studied.”
When considering why he chose this topic, Lee described that their lab struggles with understanding how metacaspases cleave themselves: “Ideally, DLS will allow us to see if metacaspases, after cleaving, exist as one cohesive entity or two separate entities; if there are two, what are their relative sizes?” In addition, he noted, “This topic was also very approachable and easy to learn for me, someone who hasn’t been in the Fox Lab for very long. Lastly, although this topic is quite general and not specific, I can still explore other biochemical procedures as well later on, such as making my own protein.”
Getting involved in research and working to understand more about complex processes comes with inherent difficulties. Lee identified the most challenging aspect to have been persevering through setbacks throughout the term. “Redoing the same procedure not twice, thrice, but four times can be quite demoralizing, but it is very worth it. Along the way, with each new trial, we make sure to adjust, correct, and modify the procedure as needed to ensure that our time isn’t wasted.”
While setbacks are bound to occur, the overall process was a positive one. When asked about the best part of working on this project, Lee cited his team, saying, “The most rewarding aspect has been working alongside such a fun and friendly research group. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people: Jake Karp (‘25), Elma Dema (‘26), Adithi Chellappan (‘27), Amy Gagliardi (‘27), and Erika Canaveral (‘28).” He added, “Last but certainly not least, I am eternally grateful to do research with Professor Kristin Fox; she has been instrumental in my success, and I look forward to seeing where this research project goes next!”
Lee’s work and hundreds of other students’ can be fully appreciated at Steinmetz in just a few weeks. Attendees can look forward to oral and poster sessions from 8:30am to 5:20pm in the ISEC, Wold, Lippman, and Karp buildings, with a full program to be released soon.
This story has been updated to correct administrative errors with the original article.
