Rene’s Story

Tell us about yourself and your science.

My research focuses on how cells regulate the amount and expression of messenger RNAs. When these processes don’t work efficiently, this can cause cells to not function or divide properly. The molecules we focus on are important in neurodevelopment and are implicated in various forms of intellectual disability, autism, and mental health disorders. This basic research helps us understand the molecular basis of these diseases and paves the way for future treatment.

I really love what I do for so many reasons. My favorite part is working with students, seeing when things click, guiding them with their own ideas and seeing them move on to do awesome things.

Growing up in a small rural town, I had no idea what a scientist did. I started college thinking that I most likely wasn’t going to finish due to financial barriers and a lot of self-doubt. However, when I did research, I loved and excelled at coming up with new ideas, designing experiments and pouring over data. I decided that was what I wanted to do and ended up being the first person in my family to graduate from college. Based on my own experiences, I also seek to help increase access to and understanding of science through K-12 science outreach and other community events, because science should be for everyone.

Personal Impacts.

It has been demoralizing. As a postdoc trying to get a more permanent faculty position, I’m in a precarious spot: this K99/R00 funding could mean the difference between me being able to pursue a career that I have trained almost 15 years for, or not. It doesn’t make sense to do this to people who were working so hard on important problems, being in the service of other people, who have already been put through a very rigorous review process.

But more broadly, I am worried about how these cuts will impact science, who is included in studies and who will get to do science. Being from rural America, I am familiar with a perception of academics and scientists as “elitist”; but the effects of these cuts will make science so much less accessible to everyone, limiting who gets to do science and what we can study. I think it is really going to limit our potential and progress moving forward.

Your coping strategies.

What moves me forward is hope for the future. Each new result, every student, every new thing we learn gives me hope. And I find a lot of strength in my scientific community, my faith community and my family and friends.

Are there ways we can help others?

This can be hard to answer. But I think just connecting with others is very important right now, even if you don’t immediately know how to help. It is so important that we don’t become isolated and keep supporting each other when we see an opportunity.

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