属于这里
加州大学伯克利分校, Aaron 乔伊纳’12 is doing important research on the protein structures implicated in two neurodegenerative diseases, 包括肌萎缩性侧索硬化症. His commitment to that work 和 to helping younger scientists of color feel at home in his field attracted a major honor from 贝洛伊特 last fall.
作为一个在南伯洛伊特长大的高中生, 12岁的结构生物学家Aaron 乔伊纳最初并不确定贝洛伊特是否适合他. 他想“去很远的地方”上大学，看看威斯康星州南部以外的世界. Second, he had already logged many hours on 贝洛伊特’s campus by participating in a local chapter of 向上的束缚 当我即将成为第一代大学生的时候. 然后, 他必须在众多奖学金中做出选择, 他在伯洛伊特大学获得了全额学费.
“我很感激能有机会上大学, but I was slightly unsure whether I was making the right decision to stay so close to home,他说. “我最终爱上了在贝洛伊特的每一分钟.”
一到学校，乔伊纳就加入了. 他在校内玩飞盘、篮球和排球，并参加了 田径队他担任了两年的队长. 他还参与了学生会和Tau Kappa Epsilon兄弟会, 为仁人家园做志愿者, 和 在国外学习 在西班牙. 所有这些都是在文理学院医学预科的基础上完成的.
“It provided me with a lot of good time-management skills 和 being able to juggle many things without letting anything drop,他说. Since then, he’s gone on to build a successful career as a research scientist, earning his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2020 和 now working as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California-Berkeley. In fall 2022, he received a high honor from 贝洛伊特’s 校友 Association: the Young 校友 Award.
有机 化学 教授 劳拉有土豆的 是乔伊纳在伯洛伊特学院的学术顾问之一，对他记忆犹新. “在我的印象中，他是那些积极向上的学生之一, 但也真的很善良，很体贴，和你在一起很开心,她说。. A memory st和s out — one day he appeared at her office door carrying a tray of her favorite frosted sugar cookies. She adds that his trajectory from a first-generation college student to successful scientist is impressive. “他开创了自己的道路，现在作为一名科学家和一名人类正在做着伟大的事情, with his strong advocacy work in training 和 mentoring other first-generation students 和 students of color,她说。.
M.D. or not to M.D.
During a summer medical school prep program at the University of Louisville in Kentucky after his sopho更多的 year at 贝洛伊特, 乔伊纳体会到了当一名医生的真实感受, 这是他的家人鼓励他从事的职业.
他能够跟随医生学习行医的细节. 在那个项目结束后，他马上去了西班牙阿利坎特一个学期. “这两件事的时机非常关键，”他说. “整个夏天，我都在思考成为一名医生意味着什么, 然后我远离了外界的影响——家庭, 朋友, 预期, 我不得不独自坐下来反思.” It was there that he realized being an actual medical doctor — “not the TV version” — wasn’t for him.
But it wasn’t until his last semester at 贝洛伊特 during a career advising day that he discovered a life in biological research — with a sponsored graduate degree — was a possibility. 下水前总要先试水, 在伯洛伊特大学毕业后, 乔伊纳 embarked on a six-month research internship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in 巴拿马 City, 巴拿马. 这使他更加坚定了从事科学研究的愿望.
归属感
当他开始攻读生物化学研究生课程时, 分子, 康奈尔大学的细胞生物学教授, 乔伊纳, 谁是黑人?, 他很快意识到自己属于极端少数派. “刚开始几年，我会环顾四周，然后说, ‘Oh, 我是这个教室里唯一的黑人学生,’”他说. “当然，这让我想知道:‘我属于这里吗? 他们为什么邀请我参加这个项目?’”
他知道他想改变学校的情况，为了他自己和未来的有色人种学生. “Having to ask those questions undercuts your confidence 和 weighs on you like a dark cloud that is always bogging you down a little bit,他说. “即使它只占你脑力的5%到10%, that adds up when you could be spending it thinking about your research questions or something 更多的 productive.”
随着时间的推移，他遇到了其他有同样想法的学生. “We had our own little critical mass, agitating 和 making noise about the environment,他说. 一位支持他们的主管和其他盟友也加入了他们. “我能够建立一个社区，试图改善环境，所以未来的博士.D. students wouldn’t have to feel the way that I did or overcome the same hurdles that I had to tackle,他说. He also collaborated with New York’s Science 和 Technology Entry Program (STEP) to start a shadowing program for under-served high school students to learn about higher education 和 careers in scientific research.
在某一时刻, 乔伊纳 heard an episode of the “PhDivas Podcast” about imposter syndrome — something he had been grappling with at Cornell. 乔伊纳说:“这部剧以一种完全改变我的方式重新塑造了它。. “而不是质疑你是否属于这个体系，是否适合这个体系, 记住我们国家有很多制度, 包括学术界, 是故意排斥有色人种的吗. 而不是质疑你是否适合, 把你自己想象成潜入这个系统的间谍, 和 you’re learning as much information as you can to navigate 和 survive 和 to pass on to other people. 那个移码对我很有帮助.”
In 2020, he graduated from Cornell with a doctorate in bio化学 as a Dean’s Excellence Scholar 和 with an Exemplary Service Award, 在其他荣誉中. In 2022, 他被霍华德休斯医学研究所选为25名汉纳格雷研究员之一, 该奖学金旨在支持生物医学研究领域杰出和多样化的领导者.
一个复杂的问题
图片来源:Alison Yin
The field that ultimately spoke to 乔伊纳 was structural biology — the study of how biological molecules are built. “在我的脑海里，这是一个有意义的领域，”他说. 自2021年以来，乔伊纳一直是加州大学伯克利分校赫尔利实验室的博士后. “我想看看蛋白质是什么样子的, 它是如何构建的, 以及它的结构如何让它在细胞内完成特定的工作,乔伊纳说。.
Learning how healthy cells function on the micro level can help us underst和 what happens when macro things go wrong in human bodies. 这一领域在两个领域发展，彼此相互影响. 其中之一是观察蛋白质如何在群体中相互作用. “我们一直在捕获越来越大的蛋白质复合物, [asking]: ‘What is the architecture of these proteins when they come together to perform a task? 以及他们的合作方式是如何让他们完成工作的?’”乔伊纳说.
The other direction involves observing the intricacies of proteins in their native ecosystems. 多亏了最近用于捕捉图像的相机的进步, 蛋白质不再需要被移除并在试管中进行研究, 而是可以在它们通常居住的细胞中观察到.
乔伊纳’s work focuses on three proteins implicated in two neurodegenerative diseases — Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) 和 Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), 演员布鲁斯·威利斯最近被诊断出患有这种疾病.
“My job at the moment is to try to underst和 what these proteins are doing normally in cells that are happy 和 healthy 和 functioning,乔伊纳说。. “一旦我们弄清楚了, 我们希望能够理解其中的原因, 当这些蛋白质没有发挥作用时, 这与这两种神经退行性疾病有关.”
拥抱失败
虽然他的实验室工作令人满意, 努力增加科学的多样性对乔伊纳来说仍然很重要. Mentoring has been logistically challenging since he began his new role during the p和emic, 但他已经能够在他的实验室里指导研究生. One of the main things he aims to teach is that the path of scientific research is exciting, 但也很艰难，充满了错误和失败. 他说:“我只是尽力在他们需要的任何方面给予支持。. “通常是意识到研究是困难的, 它失败的次数比成功的次数要多得多, 但这并不是对他们个人的反思, 只是事情很困难，没关系——你会从失败中吸取教训的.”
他给自己的建议和给学员的建议一样:“我们正在做的事情很难. 如果不是很难的话，我们早就有了所有的答案。. “We are literally working at the edge of what we know about biology, which is very complicated. 细胞中有成千上万的蛋白质, 它们都是相互联系的, so trying to tease apart one or a few of their individual contributions to cellular health 和 homeostasis, 这真的很棘手——即使你的实验一切顺利.正如每个科学家都知道的那样，他们通常不会这样做.
图片来源:Alison Yin
他给自己和他人的另一个建议是:花点时间走出实验室! “I think a lot of people don’t necessarily remember to try to stay happy 和 try to do things outside of the lab,他说. 今年夏天，他正在进行DIY铁人三项的训练. (“我不喜欢为比赛买单，”他笑着说.)有些地方他会和伯洛伊特大学和研究生院的朋友一起骑车. 他的妻子，14岁的亚历山德拉·欣克(Alex和ra Hinck)可能也会和他一起跑步. 他和欣克, 他是旧金山州立大学的社会科学家和助理教授, 他在伯洛伊特大学大三时认识的，当时他们在田径队. In 2019, 在访问他们中西部的母校期间, they got engaged; they married in July 2022 in Gr和 Rapids, 密歇根.
这对夫妇一起旅行、一起园艺、一起攀岩——他们也一起烘焙. 乔伊纳’s 推特 bio reads: “Delighted by exercise, chocolate chip cookies, 和 protein structures.” His go-to cookie is one that he bakes himself — “The Worst Chocolate Cookie Recipe” (Google it 和 discover how it earns its name). 他的科学大脑用毫微克来衡量每一粒面粉吗? “很多人都是这么想的，”他说. “但问题是，我整天都在实验室里遵守协议, 下面的食谱, 本质上, 所以当我回到家的时候，我不想那样做.”
瓦莱丽·赖斯(Valerie Reiss)是马萨诸塞州西部的一名作家和编辑. 你可以在 valeriereiss.com.
