‘Learning is on a Deeper Level’

Undergrad gains lab experience as research scholar

By Jane Moorman

Listening to Dr. Francis Collins talk about the Human Genome Project sparked a desire in 13-year-old Joanna Beeson to be involved in medical research when she grew up. Now as a New Mexico State University junior, she is beginning that life.

“Ever since hearing Dr. Collins, I’ve been in love with medical research,” said Beeson, one of 30 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholars at NMSU. “He was so inspiring when he talked. His passion for the science was contagious.”

Unknown to her at the time, Beeson would later work with the person who was responsible for bringing the leader of the Human Genome Project to NMSU as a Gardiner Lecturer in 2001 – biology professor Elba Serrano.

Beeson is developing her research skills as an undergraduate assistant in Serrano’s neuroscience laboratory, which is funded by National Institutes of Health to study hearing and balance disorders. Serrano’s goal is to gain knowledge of the workings of inner ear sensory cells that will help develop treatment and cures for such disorders, and Beeson is a part of that work.

“I find it really fascinating because so many people have to live with hearing loss,” Beeson said. “We all have friends and family members who have gone deaf.”

The researchers are studying the ion channel in the inner ear.

“Ion channels are the way the nervous system communicates by creating electrical signals that go to the brain and generate the sound,” Beeson said of the work she joined this year. “We are studying amphibians because they can regenerate their hearing. When humans have hearing loss, it’s permanent. But amphibians, such as frogs, can fix it. I think it’s cool that they have that ability.”

Beeson’s research project looks at whether a certain ion channel that was cloned from the inner ear is expressed in the mitochondria of the kidney.

“Hopefully, it will tell us something about its functions,” she said. “For some reason the kidney and inner ears have a lot of similarities. A lot of the studies in Dr. Serrano’s lab have to do with how antibiotics affect hearing, causing hearing loss, possibly by affecting mitochondria. Antibiotics also affect and can damage the kidneys.”

The daughter of a White Sands Test Facility chemist has been fascinated with the nervous system since she was a student at Las Cruces’ Oñate High School and so she was thrilled to be accepted to work in Serrano’s lab, which is one of three labs at NMSU working with the nervous system.

“The nervous system affects us the most as people, but it’s the one that we know the least about,” she said.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of Arts and Sciences, Beeson wants to pursue a doctorate in neurobiology.

“I’m interested in studying psychotic disorders, mainly schizophrenia,” she said. “They are doing work on schizophrenia at the University of Washington, so that’s my number one choice for grad school.”

The learning opportunities available to Beeson as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar are building a foundation for her future work.

“Dr. Serrano makes working in her lab interesting and intriguing,” Beeson said. “She is very big on making sure you understand what you are doing and that you’re getting something out of the research as well. I like learning the techniques and the theories behind the techniques. I also like the opportunity for the additional education. The learning is on a deeper level because you are actually doing it.”