Biography:
Colin Burdette is a graduate student at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he develops chemical tools to study protein interactions.
Research Focus:
“Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) direct most of the activities happening inside the cell, but identifying these pairs remains challenging. As a graduate student at Weill Cornell Medicine, I build new chemical tools and platforms that use light-activated reactions to ‘tag’ proteins that are proximal to each other, giving scientists a new way to map PPIs.”
What first inspired you to pursue research or STEM?
In high school I was originally interested in medicine, but quickly fell in love with chemistry and science research during my Freshman year of college. I would recommend keeping an open academic mind when going to college.
How did you find your first research opportunity?
I went to a small primarily undergraduate institution for my undergraduate education. There were only ~20 chemistry majors in my class, which made it less intimidating to talk with professors about their research, tour their labs, and ask for a research position.
What was the biggest challenge you faced entering the research world?
The biggest challenge I faced in undergraduate research was feeling as if I was sitting at the base of a massive mountain of science. At times it felt I did not understand enough to even know which questions to ask. However, most people will understand that students in their freshman year of college have very limited research experience.
What surprised you most about working in a research environment?
How collaborative the lab environments can be.
Can you share a meaningful moment or accomplishment from your experience?
Not one moment, but I have been lucky that in all the labs I have joined, there are great mentors and researchers that I have become close friends with.
What advice would you give to high school students hoping to get involved in research?
You must advocate for yourself. There are not a lot of opportunities for bench research as a high school student, but emailing professors or graduate students is a good way to start. There are plenty of skills that have been increasingly easy to learn at home; taking the time to learn these skills will make you a more competitive candidate for labs you apply to in college.
If you had to describe your research experience in three words, what would they be?
Exciting, dynamic, interesting
Note: Consent was received to sharing full name and position