‘Millennial’ makes her mark in science’s next generation
When other seventh graders were grooving to Green Day or spending hours playing video games, Kelsey Sivick was right there with them, a typical member of the generation known as Millennials. But she had another interest that not all her classmates shared: a fascination with the inner workings of the living cell.
“What intrigued me was the fact that cells were compartmentalized – there were tiny parts that each had their own specific function, just as the human body is made up of organs with specific functions,” Sivick says. As enthralled as she was with organelles, however, Sivick didn't always see biology as a career choice.
“I wasn't sure what you could do with it,” she recalls. So she explored psychology, economics and other possible professions in her early undergraduate years at Penn State, but nothing had as much allure as the natural sciences. Then, toward the end of college, two pivotal things happened. Working on an undergraduate research project under microbiologist Sarah Ades, Sivick got a glimpse of the world of academic science and the path to becoming a professional researcher. At the same time, she became as absorbed with bacteria as she'd once been with cellular structures, and when she took a course on disease-causing bugs in her senior year, she realized she could turn her esoteric interests into a career that would serve not only her intellectual interests, but also society.
Now a graduate student in Harry Mobley's lab, Sivick is helping to develop a vaccine to prevent urinary tract infections caused by the bacterium Escherichia coli. And because the graduate program offers students the flexibility to pursue their particular interests, she is making a unique contribution to the project.
Through the interdisciplinary Cellular Biotechnology Training Program, Sivick had a chance to spend six months as an intern at a biotechnology company in California, helping test cancer vaccines on mice and acquiring expertise in immunology techniques. She arrived back at U-M from the internship just as other members of the Mobley research team had finished identifying and preparing proteins to incorporate into vaccines for testing in a mouse model of urinary tract infection. Sivick was able to step in and do the immunological work, collecting blood samples and analyzing the responses of the mice to the vaccines.
“It was great to come back and pursue something I was excited about,” she says.
In the course of the vaccine work, the research team discovered that a messenger molecule known as IL-17 is produced in large quantities in mice with urinary tract infections. IL-17 is something of a superstar in scientific circles these days. Produced by the immune system in response to infections, its overabundance can lead to autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus, so there's great interest in understanding the role of this two-faced molecule in both normal immunity and diseases that result when the immune system is out of balance. Although Sivick is trying only to understand exactly how IL-17 is involved in urinary tract infections, anything she learns will help fill in blanks in the larger picture of the molecule's role in sickness and health.
With her internship in the biotech industry, her work in the Mobley lab and a panoply of other career preparation opportunities -- from classroom teaching to journal discussion groups to seminars to individual consultations with faculty -- Sivick feels qualified to take her place in the next generation of scientists.
And whether she chooses a career in academia or industry, she says she'll be grateful to the current generation of scientists who helped prepare her for her future.
“The faculty here at U-M take us seriously,” Sivick says. “They challenge us and sometimes ask hard questions, but it's all aimed at making us better scientists.”
