This week, Macrocosm’s Viggo Kovas got the chance to interview Prof. Chen, who shared his (ricey) experience with COSMOS, his motivations behind becoming a professor, and much more!
Macrocosm: Dr. Chen, how long have you been with the COSMOS program? Where was the program before you took the reins, and what has changed since you came? Shaowei Chen: I started in 2010 because I’ve always been interested in reaching out to a younger age. A few years later, I brought Dr. [Roger] Terrill in to co-teach nanotechnology and nanochemistry. I took directorship in January 2017. One big change is the scale of the program. When I started, there were about 160 students and only eight classes. The classes and number of students have grown significantly since I took directorship, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done.
M: What was the inspiration behind working with COSMOS? What about COSMOS’ mission is important to you? SC: Our mission is to help nurture the next generation of STEM leaders. We want to help students at a college and graduate school level. And I think COSMOS has walked this line very well and followed our mission statement.
M: What is your favorite aspect of COSMOS? SC: My favorite aspect of COSMOS is the enthusiasm I see from our students. They’re not afraid to push the boundaries and learn anything that’s thrown at them. I want the students to do something with their own hands and shape the future of this program. An example of this is when I started the first ever newsletter for COSMOS. I trust that the students can do it and leave a legacy for the program.
M: What is a favorite memory you have at COSMOS, Dr. Chen? SC: I enjoy interacting with the students... A couple years ago, there was a student complaining about the rice in the dining hall, so I decided to cook some homemade rice and bring it to the program for the students. They enjoyed it.
M: What is a fun fact about yourself that many students don’t know? SC: I really enjoy good food, even though I’m not that good at cooking myself. I enjoy sharing good food with other people. I like to have house parties with my students, and we have good conversations and nice food together.
M: What motivated you to pursue a career in chemistry, specifically your interest in nanomaterials? SC: My father was a chemical engineer, so when I went to college, I decided to major in chemistry. At the time, nanomaterials was a very new topic which I felt could impact a number of industries. You cannot work on the same thing over and over again, so I decided to work in a new scientific area.
M: Dr. Chen, What is your favorite memory involving your research with nanotechnology or chemistry? SC: I always get excited when I smell a good paper. I like to tell people that I smell a good paper because it feels like a major breakthrough. Over the years, I’ve been very impressed with the achievements my students have made, and I feel like they open up a lot of research opportunities.
M: What motivated you to become a professor and to start teaching students? SC: A major motivation was how you got to work with the people that would make a contribution to society. And you got to work with young, smart people all the time. I thought that was an interesting path to take, so I got a job as a teacher. I’m grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way, and I’ll never regret the career path I chose.
M: What is your advice for students looking to pursue a career in a STEM related topic? SC: No career is an easy career, and STEM is no exception. I always say, “No problem, no job,” so students should learn how to identify problems and make contributions to society that no one else can. Students should reach out because the textbook is very limited. But students need to go beyond to expand their knowledge and skills. - Viggo Kovas
Discovery Lecture: Telomeres and Telomerase in Health and Disease
This Thursday, COSMOS students were treated to another intriguing Discovery Lecture by Professor Carol Greider, a Nobel Laureate, on her award-winning work on telomeres and telomerase.
For those unfamiliar with biology, Prof. Greider first addressed the elephant in the room: what are telomeres? As she explained, telomeres are caps on the ends of our chromosomes. They consist of short tandem repeats—sequences such as “TTGGGGTTGGGG.” When our cells divide, both oxidative stress and the limitations of cellular machinery cause our chromosomes to become shorter at the ends, so the “junk DNA” that telomeres provide are actually essential in providing a buffer that prevents coding DNA from being cut out.
This still poses a problem: won’t the telomeres be used up over time? Thankfully, our bodies are capable of producing telomerase, an enzyme which catalyzes the lengthening of telomeres. It allows our cells to reverse telomerase shortening.
Prof. Greider emphasized the crucial role that telomerase plays in our lives. In a loss-of-function experiment with telomerase-knockout mice (which lacked functioning telomerase), the mice suffered from problems with their bone marrow and skin (areas requiring the most cell division). Worse yet, the problems intensified after every generation. Therefore, it seemed as if telomerase was required not just for the maintenance of one particular organism, but to preserve a healthy telomere length for all future offspring.
Yet, telomerase is rarely ever used in humans — only active in particular gametic and stem cells. Given how telomere elongation boosts the vitality of cells, why wouldn’t we capitalize on this asset? Would it be better if telomerase were active everywhere? We weren’t alone in wondering. Prof. Greider showed us numerous magazine advertisements for “anti-aging” products claiming to increase our telomere lengths, as if finally the elusive fountain of youth had appeared before our eyes—albeit on the 78th page of Entertainment Weekly.
But such a ridiculous proposition was not meant to be, and indeed, there was a darker side to the telomerase debate. Prof. Greider showed how telomerase, though theoretically useful in fighting aging, was also linked to cancer progression. 90% of cancers involve the faulty activation of telomerase. Telomerase allows tumor cells to divide constantly without being hindered by telomere shortening. In a subsequent experiment with mice, Prof. Greider found that tumor-prone mice lived longer when unable to produce telomerase, a testament to how the enzyme is more multifaceted—and less outright beneficial—than scientists had thought. So, like countless times before, scientists will beat on, unfazed by setbacks and unexpected outcomes. Research on telomerase has already transitioned to its new link to cancer. And as for the magazines? Don’t buy their advertised products just yet. - Kevin Li
Discovery Lecture: Who Glows There?
Bioluminescence is a phenomenon I’ve heard of for years.
Every year, around late summer, I would see social media posts marveling at glowing blue waves, news articles observing seas of lights, and my friends sending pictures of their nighttime sightseeing.
On the matter, I had never looked much further than the beauty of these little ghost lights that dance on the waves like will o’ the wisps. That is, until Wednesday’s Discovery Lecture, when Prof. Steve Haddock presented about marine technology, bioluminescence, and deep-sea organisms.
First, Prof. Haddock taught us about the technologies used in order to sample species from the deep sea, including a MOCNESS, a tucker trawl, and an ROV video.
He then highlighted some creatures that are often sampled, such as ctenophores and siphonophores. He talked about their habitats, their diets, their lives, the way they fit into the tree of life, the world, the universe. It is fascinating how something so small fits so snuggly into something so big.
Then, Prof. Haddock distinguished the difference between fluorescence and bioluminescence: fluorescence is a light in the presence of light, bioluminescence is light in the dark. Particularly, Prof. Haddock noted how in some cases, the glow from bioluminescence can, in fact, trigger fluorescence.
Prof. Haddock also taught us about the various purposes of both fluorescence and bioluminescence for deep sea organisms, as many of them overlap. Defensively, the light from fluorescent and bioluminescent prey can startle or misdirect predators, or even attract their predators’ predators. Offensively, fluorescence and bioluminescence help attract prey, a necessary measure in deep waters where food was scarce.
However, one of bioluminsecnce’s most intriguing purposes is counterillumination, in which the fish uses its luminescent lights to hide from predators. It seems counterintuitive at first. After all, how would light in the ocean’s dark, dark depths do anything but expose the prey’s location? As it turns out, by bioluminescing in beautiful patterns, prey species of fish are able to hide the rest of their bodies against the dark backdrop of the deep sea, using the shadows cast by their own light to hide themselves from prying eyes. Throughout the lecture, Prof. Haddock wasn’t afraid to emphasize the difficulty of his job. He didn’t hide the stamina and determination required to succeed, telling us about the field with, what some would call, brutal honesty. But, it prepared us, and for those of us who want to follow this path, they can now do so with Prof. Haddock’s valuable advice and insight to light the way. - April Zuo