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Track: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Hometown: Onalaska, Wis. |
Former SURF participant Kasandra Riley has always been interested in science. As a child she loved to mix perfume and talcum powder in the bathroom. Now she conducts research in a biochemistry and molecular biology laboratory at Mayo Clinic. As a Ph.D. student, Kasandra is preparing for a career in biomedical research where she can teach, run her own laboratory and help advance preventions and treatments for cancer.
Kasandra participated in the SURF Program in 2001, just before her senior year at Wartburg College in Iowa. "I had finished several other research internships, but Mayo's program was different," says Kasandra. "There were 80 students that year, and everything was so well organized for us. The facilities were amazing. We had access to graduate students and well-known researchers, and everyone treated us like colleagues instead of interns. The program administrators prearranged housing, transportation and several social outings for us. SURF is a very high-quality undergraduate research program."
That summer she conducted molecular biology experiments to better understand the p53 protein, an important transcription factor that is often damaged in human cancer cells. Transcription factors are tiny molecular machines that turn genes off or on as human cells are constantly reproduced. Kasandra's experiments studied the unique functions of p53 in healthy cells and in cancerous cells.
Her experience that summer convinced her that she wanted to be a researcher and that Mayo would be an ideal place to pursue her Ph.D. Now a third-year student at Mayo Graduate School, Kasandra is pleased to be able to continue the research project she began in the SURF Program. She is also planning to publish her research findings.
"I want to continue working on the same type of basic science research that I pursue now," says Kasandra. "I am the kind of person who finds it satisfying to start at the bottom with a problem, at the atomic or molecular level, and work my way up."
Aside from her studies and research, she is busy practicing tae kwon do, teaching private oboe lessons, singing in a choir and teaching Sunday school. "There are plenty of things to do in Rochester," Kasandra says. "As SURF students, we made a good community for ourselves that summer, and I am still making great friends and keeping a full social calendar as my free time allows."
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