Many of us have heard how to find a job: ‘Go network.’ But what does that mean and look like? 

Since 2009, the annual Student Industry Networking Event (SINE) at the BIO5 Institute has connected University of Arizona students with representatives from the Arizona bioscience, biomedical and biotechnology industries. As part of its trifold mission, BIO5 is deeply invested in students, equipping them with the skills and real-world experience, be it through events or hiring student staff throughout the institute. 

Sponsored by BIO5 and the Bioindustry Organization of Southern Arizona (BIOSA), SINE strives to provide a learning opportunity to prepare trainees for future jobs. Even during the pandemic, the event pivoted to a successful online format in both 2021 and 2022 to continue to facilitate those critical connections between students and prospective employers. 

In recent years, the event has included both virtual and in-person opportunities. From career coaching by the UArizona Student Engagement & Career Development (SECD) Center and insights on hiring trends from leading life sciences and biomedical industry representatives to an in-person networking event with dozens of biosciences organizations. 

“Students are so immersed in their course work that they often miss out on reflecting about what they might do once they graduate,” said Uwe Hilgert, director of industry relations, STEM training and workforce development at the BIO5 Insitute. “Our Student Industry Networking Event is instrumental in providing University of Arizona students opportunities to connect with current employees in the biomedical industry, learn from the way their careers unfolded, and become part of a network that may help them in their own career development.” 

Over 1900 trainees have engaged in SINE with almost 400 representatives across industry, government, community, and academic organizations in the last 16 years of the event.  

BIO5 caught up with Michael Abrahamson, UArizona alumni and director of operations at Reglagene, to learn how SINE helped him in his career.

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Q&A with Michael Abrahamson, PharmD 

Science ignites curiosity about the natural world, leading people to explore and advocate for it. Amy Randall-Barber from the BIO5 institute was joined on Science Talks by Caroline Mosley, the senior manager of communications and content at the BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona. Caroline's journey into science began with a fascination for ecosystems, studying invasive species in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Later, she moved to Washington, DC, where she worked on protecting marine life and the environment. Now at the UArizona BIO5 Institute as the senior manager of communications and content, Caroline crafts compelling narratives that highlight the institute's groundbreaking research and innovations. She tirelessly bridges the gap between science and society, utilizing innovative communication channels to highlight the institute's pioneering work.  

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

ARB: Let’s start off with rapid-fire questions. First, Netflix or Hulu? 

Netflix. 

ARB: Dogs or Cats? 

I have cats, but I love dogs. 
 

ARB: Art gallery or history museum? 

Can I say science museum? 

ARB: That is great. I love it. Tell us a little bit about how you first developed an interest in science. 

I grew up in Wisconsin and was fortunate to live out in the country around ponds. I always loved going outside and thinking of all the little critters in the ponds. I loved to catch frogs, learn about all the different bugs, and look at the algae. I was always interested in how everything was connected and how there was so much life in such a small little area.  That to me was a starting point of seeing the natural world around me. My parents were very encouraging, so we went on a lot of nature walks and hikes, and I was immersed in nature which got me curious about how the natural world works. 

ARB: Absolutely, curiosity is usually what sparks an interest in science. Before you got into science communication, were you a researcher? Can you tell us about your experience in the field? 

Before I started writing about science and talking to scientists, I went to graduate school and I did environmental chemistry studying lake ecosystems in Milwaukee on Lake Michigan.  

My project was looking at nutrient cycling. Basically, studying mussel poop. Nutrients means you follow the poop in a system like Lake Michigan, which is very oligotrophic, meaning extremely low nutrients.  

In Lake Michigan, we have a lot of invasive species. I studied the Dreissena mussels, also called the zebra mussels or the quagga mussels that came from Russia through the St. Lawrence Sea Canal in ballast water around 50 to 60 years ago. Since mussels filter water, they draw the nutrients from the water down to the lakebed.  

My job was to study that and it was fun. I spent time both in the lab as well as the field. We would go out on these little boats on Lake Michigan and scoop up mussels from the lake floor to count them and see how many were present in a square meter. I would also take these mussels onto the boat and do- little experiments to see how much they could filter. 

I loved being on the water, being an active part of science. It was fun to see the mussels in their ecosystem, while at the same time also taking them out of that and studying the nutrients. We did chemical analysis to better understand how they filtered, how fast they filtered, and what they filter. I had a wonderful experience.  

It was funny, I originally wanted to study ponds and did not want to study big bodies of water. But my parents told me there is a new program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee you should check it out. They thought all water research was the same, but limnology on the Great Lakes is more like marine research. Since those lakes are so deep, all the equipment we use is the same used for marine science. Another funny thing is that I get motion sick. Even though I had a fun time, looking back I do not think I would do it again because I spent a lot of my time being sick on the boat. I learned that about myself, but it was still great!  

ARB: Oh goodness, well, we always learn new things all the time. So, what made you realize you liked science communication, more than being in the field? 

I always love to write and read and I was a voracious reader. Growing up, I also loved the natural world. When I was in college, I thought about going into journalism. But there was a time back in 2008 when the economy was not doing too well. It was more about job security, so I thought going into science it would be more secure.  

But as I was doing science and going through graduate school, I thought, I am so curious about everything, I could not focus on one thing! I loved talking to different researchers, faculty, and students, and I would rather talk to people about what they do and support them.  

I found the field of science communication, and I could see there is a place for me. After I graduated, I did not want to go to work where many people at my school would go work, mostly in the field. 

One of my lab mates got a fellowship in Washington, DC. I applied for this fellowship too, through Sea Grant and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Hence, I moved to DC, which opened this world with all these different people who are supporting science. And I started to see a path for me in these supporting roles.  

Now, I have been on this journey to find a way to write and explore science while supporting research. So that is where I decided science communication encompasses that in many ways.  

ARB: Moving on, what are you most excited about in your role here at BIO5? 

I am most excited to talk to all the faculty members and students. The best part in whatever role that I have had at the University of Arizona is connecting with the people who do the work and learning from them. It is the highlight of my job. This is the reason as to why I got into this, getting to know people, and building relationships.  

My goal is to show: How can I help you, to help me. How can I promote your research? How can I help you find services?  If it is a student, then how can I help you get a portfolio piece? Making those connections is important.  

Here, I am at that intersection that highlights the connection of multiple disciplines. Because that's where innovation happens. It is as cheesy as it sounds, but it is true. When you get people that come together, who think differently to solve problems, that's how cool things happen.  

The role is challenging, and I like to be challenged. 

ARB: Do you have any advice for the next generation? 

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, and I have come to terms with that.  

For context, my parents are retired physicians. They were always on a set path, and I always thought that's how life was. I have some friends who are lawyers and I have a friend who is a vet. Those are very set paths. You do step A to get to step B to get to step C. I always was looking for that path. I think realized is not easy to figure out what you like. But knowing what you do not like has been helpful for me.  

People ask me, what do you want to do? Well, I can tell you what I do not want to do, and that might be more helpful. You might really like science and or science communication, but you do not like writing. That is okay! There are all kinds of science and communication. You can edit written stories, be a photographer, build websites, or learn coding. There are diverse ways to support science.  

Plus, you do not have to know right away. It does get easier as you get older, and as you gain some experience and learn more about yourself. I would also say, do not be afraid. When I first graduated, I was in Wisconsin, and there weren’t any jobs for me. There was nothing that interested me, so I had to push myself outside of my comfort zone, and I did that by talking to people. So, another piece of advice would be to network, work on your LinkedIn, send messages to people with a specific ask. For example, ‘Hey, I see you work at NOAA, I am really interested in marine policy! What is your favorite part of your job?’  

These little things can help you gather bits of information. Don't feel like you must know what you want to do now. 

ARB: That is good advice. So, we have a fun question for our final question. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? And it does not have to be related to science. 

I would love to talk to animals.  

One of my favorite book series as I was growing up was Animorphs. I do not know if you have heard about it, but basically there was an alien invasion in this book series and these kids get these superpowers where they turn into different animals and that is how they save the world.  

So, I would say turning into animals or talking to animals. You look at animals and you cannot help but anthropomorphize them and wonder about what they are saying. 

ARB: Always wondering like what's going on in their little heads. Thank you so much for joining us today! 

This year, the BIO5 Institute's KEYS Research Internship received an unprecedented 430 applications, showcasing a tremendous interest from Arizona's high school students aged 16 and older in the field of bioscience.

College of Medicine – Tucson’s Michael D.L. Johnson doesn’t miss a beat as a dedicated scientist who inspires the next generation of researchers.

Few cities worldwide today are treating wastewater and then putting it directly into drinking supplies. Tucson plans to do so in the future.

Governor Hobbs urged attendees to take the lead in making medicine more equitable. Celebrating the impact that women are making in medicine and science and supporting their growth as leaders was the focus of the 6th Annual Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS) Fall Networking Event.

Experiences in biomedical research during her BIO5 Institute's KEYS Research Internship helped local Tucsonan Destiny Hodges break out of her shell and sparked a passion for research product development.

Unfortunately, many aspects of women’s health are underfunded and understudied. Better understanding women’s health conditions and microbiomes can help lead to better health outcomes and improve the quality of life. Amy Randall-Barber from the BIO5 Institute was joined on Science Talks by Dr. Nicole Jimenez, currently in the Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz lab, at the University of Arizona College of Medicine — Phoenix with a focus on women’s health research. She received her doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and was awarded two postdoctoral fellowships in 2023, one from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona and the other from the BIO5 Institute. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

ARB: Before we get started, I’d like to ask a few icebreaker questions. What’s one of your nicknames? 

I don’t have a unique nickname, just Nikki.  

But I was thinking more about this. I play Dungeons and Dragons, and one of my character’s names is Sin Nombre, which means ‘without name’. And the funny thing is that my PI, Melissa, worked early in her career on a virus called the Sin Nombre virus. I recently found this out and thought it was so interesting and serendipitous! 

ARB: That’s too cool!  

What’s your hidden talent? 

I would say my hidden talent would be cooking, and more recently mixology. During the pandemic, I was working on my dissertation, but I also picked up mixology. More recently, I've been focusing on non-alcoholic cocktails. I have many different wood burning tips for smoking as well as different bitters. It's a really fun experience. With the no-alcohol craze coming around, you still want to socialize and create a beautiful experience to share with others. 
 

ARB: What’s your favorite drink to make? 

As far as an alcoholic drink is concerned, I would say a Negroni. That has Campari, gin and some other bitters in it. Then for non-alcoholic, I usually make a rose mule with rose syrup and ginger. 

ARB: The rose mule sounds delicious. If I come to Phoenix, you’ll have to make me one! 

Let’s get into your research. What is your current research and what got you interested in it? 

I was recruited to the University of Arizona to work on the microbiome. In my graduate career, I was working on the microbiome and its relationship to pregnancy and preterm birth. Here, I get to work on the microbiome, including rectal, vaginal, endometrial, and how it relates to gynecologic cancers as well as benign gynecologic conditions such as endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain.  

I got into this research because when I was picking my major at Arizona State University, I became a nutrition major since I wanted to see how environmental factors impact health. I learned about the gut microbiome, and it got me fascinated with how that impacted human health. And so, I switched my major to microbiology and stayed in this vein of research. 

ARB: I love to hear those kind of journey stories and what the pivotal moments are.  

Can you tell us about the overall research goals of your lab? 

The Herbst-Kralovetz lab focuses on women's health research. We incorporate metabolomics, microbiome, and immunoproteomics to better understand how certain conditions occur. We also think about better ways that we can modulate the microbiome to have better health outcomes.  

Right now, our focus is on gynecologic cancers. Mostly cervical cancer and endometrial cancer, as well as these benign gynecologic conditions. Some of them have similar characteristics to cancers such as adenomyosis — an overgrowth of cells in the muscles of the uterus — as well as endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain. 

ARB: Can you tell us about the most exciting part of your research and how it fits in to those overall goals? 

As a woman working in the women's health space every day, I discover something different. It took me researching in this area to learn about the different symptoms. The most exciting part is not just learning all that information, but also trying to create change in the management of those symptoms.  

We're creating early diagnostics. For example, it currently takes six to seven years for a patient to get diagnosed with endometriosis. And that's not acceptable. My social science background has helped me understand some of these discrepancies and why they're happening.  

ARB: How do they diagnose endometriosis? 

Usually it's through symptoms, MRIs or other diagnostics. To fully understand endometriosis, you have to have surgery or biopsy, which is really invasive. Our lab is focusing on other ways that we can diagnose sooner and less invasively.  

ARB: That would be great for all women. 

Can you talk more about the difference between your two fellowships? Are the projects for your postdoctoral fellowships the same or different? 

Both fellowships that I was awarded are on a particular bacterium called Atopobium vaginae, now called Fannyhessea vaginae. During my graduate school career, we identified that this one bacterium is three. 

However, not a lot of research has been done on those three. Are they different from one another? Are they similar? This particular bacterium has been associated with bacterial vaginosis (BV), increased inflammation, and more recently, endometrial and cervical cancer. So, you can see how that ties into our lab’s overall goals.  

My project is focusing on those three newly identified species in our clinical cohorts for cervical and endometrial cancer. I’m also looking at associations for different clinical factors, metabolic profiles or immunoproteomic profiles.  

Then we also have this sub-study of my postdoctoral work in the Herbst-Kralovetz lab focused on a 3D cell culture model. It looks similar to human tissue, and we can infect these cells with bacteria. Then, we look at how they change the immune and metabolomic environment. That gives us better understanding of host pathogen interactions, such as how those bacteria are potentially progressing cancer. 

ARB: Have you had any influential mentors in your personal life or educational career? 

Many of my mentors are so important. I think I had my first mentor when I was in high school. And then when I went to undergrad, I had a whole bunch of different mentors because I was part of this scholar program called Los Diablos where you're assigned a mentor for each year that you're in the undergrad program.  

Then during graduate school, I obtained even more mentors, because I was part of the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program and prep programs funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  

Currently, through the BIO5 Postdoctoral Fellowship, I created a mentorship committee where I have mentors in Tucson and Phoenix who are guiding me not only on my project, but also on career advice. Right now, as a postdoc, I’m wondering, “Where am I going next? How do I get there? What advice do they have that made them successful?”  

Because giving back to the community is important to me, I’m currently mentoring students in our lab, which is predominantly 90% women.  

I want to get more women interested in science and women's health, which tends to be underfunded and under researched. So, I’m involved with the WISE program, the Women in Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona as well as the Los Diablos program. Now instead of just being a mentee, I'm a mentor. 

ARB: That’s full circle! Thank you for all your mentorship.  

What’s next for you? Do you tend to live in the moment or have a big plan? 

I think it takes a bit of both to be successful in academia and in science. For me, I like to plan out major goals and how I can get there. But you also have to be flexible. Your experiment might not go right, or a grant opportunity might just pop up and you have to quickly apply for it.  

My next step is to work towards a K-99 grant, so that it can transition me from my postdoc position to an academic professorship position. I'm working on a few other grants now, too, and our lab is working on publishing many, many manuscripts.  

ARB: We will definitely be on the lookout for those papers. Thank you again for joining us and sharing your story.