TRANSCRIPT
Andrea Cobb (00:02):
Hi, Natalie, how are you?
Natalie Kuldell (00:04):
I’m really good and very excited to be able to talk to you. I was thinking about this conversation and realized that we have a lot to touch on because your career has been so very interesting, but maybe we can start with what you are doing now and where that would, and then we’ll back it up a little bit.
Andrea Cobb (00:22):
Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me. So at, at the current moment I am director of student research and internships for the college of science at George Mason University. George Mason University is the largest research university in the state of Virginia. Just this semester we are enrolling 40,000 students and the college of science is one of the larger schools. And in my position I do several things. One of them, one of my favorite things, although I like the other two as well, but one of my favorite things is that I get to interact with high school students to help them figure out what to do with their senior research projects. So we have students in a course called independent student research, much like many of your BioBuilder students. And they are trying to figure out what to do and what they’re interested in and how to do it. So, I work with their teachers and this year we have, I think, 340 plus students involved in that program. So it’s, it’s so important for people like you and, and people like me who are really passionate about getting students engaged into research, that those opportunities are available. In the summer I, well kind of all year long, but in the summer we host students remotely and on campus for the aspiring scientists summer internship program. So I hope that your students will look us up and applications open in November. And we also host a community speaker series called Galileo science cafe. And those are also online and you can listen to them remotely. They’re about all kinds of different topics and they’ll get those, those wheels turning so that they can do BioBuilder projects related to what, what they hear.
Natalie Kuldell (02:08):
Oh, <laugh>, that’s so wonderful. I I think you, do you touch the lives of so many next generation innovators, right. I, I think you really have this mission, this, this work that tells them that yes they can and here’s how we can help you dream your dreams and, and make, make them happen. So that is, that is so positive and impactful and you’re making such a good difference in the world. And it’s amazing that the university invests in that. So tell me about the, the interactions you have at the university that allow that to happen.
Andrea Cobb (02:46):
Right, so with the aspiring scientist summer internship program this program has been going on since 2007 and it was founded by three professors among them Dr. Leo Depetrecoine and Espina, they had moved over here from the NIH where there is a summer internship program as well, and wanted to model a program here like that. And it really took off, we have amazing faculty who do all kinds of research and just all kinds of areas. And they’re very imaginative and they love to work with really talented students to do original research with these students. And we’ve, you know, they’ve come out with papers and patents and so forth. So I think that students find, I, I really appreciate BioBuilder because it does allow students to get a taste of authentic research and, you know, you can sit in a classroom and it doesn’t make you a scientist. You can learn, we learn about science a lot. But really just by doing science, you really get it. And it really brings life to those lessons. It helps put things in context, it helps you remember them and it’s just so much more fun. And there’s so much that a student in high school can do. They’re brilliant, they care and they just need the right tools. So I think with your, with your approach, with our approach as well, lots of colleges and organizations do this, not just ours, but I really encourage students to seek out opportunities to engage in really authentic experiential learning. It’s really, really important. It will change the way you think.
Natalie Kuldell (04:26):
It is. It is life changing. And I will tell you, I was one of the lucky recipients of one of those high school, NIH internships, and it changed my entire career trajectory. So I, I completely believe in that. I think BioBuilder has doubled down on that and amazing that you have also found, you know, a way to, to make that happen for so many students now. So did you have an early experience in research that led you to science?
Andrea Cobb (04:56):
You know, I, I was always one of those people that fiddled around with things and took things apart and, and grew things. And I think I just was a kind of a natural geek, I guess, science geek and I, I just loved to play with things. So I think I was kind of doing that anyway and, and read books and things like that. My family were, were happy to take me to the library and so forth. So and they were all about growing things and fixing things, anyway, we, we didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up. So my dad was always fixing something in our house.
Natalie Kuldell (05:29):
<Laugh>, that’s so funny. Yes. Yeah.
Andrea Cobb (05:32):
There are some advantages, right. To not able to, to get everything fixed
Natalie Kuldell (05:37):
For you just replace everything. Absolutely. Where did you grow up? Where did you grow up?
Andrea Cobb (05:42):
In Texas? Right. So just, we, we moved around a good bit. So I was born in east Texas and, and went to high school in west Texas and so forth. But so I, I think that was the case, but I know when I was in college I really appreciated our professors who did experiential learning my freshman year. We went out and we did surveys of desert animals and you know, and really like did the research and so forth. And that was, you know, here I am so many years later, I remember that we, we did microbiology labs that, that actually were gathering evidence and, and all of that was just so much more fun than just remembering what the right answer is because it’s, it’s so much more fun when nobody knows the right answer and you get to be part of finding it. So, you know, I, I really appreciate colleges that either incorporate that into the curriculum or organizations and nonprofit, citizen science, again, is another outlet for that kind of thing where you can engage in stuff that nobody knows yet. And, and really it’s just transformative
Natalie Kuldell (06:52):
To be part of that discovery process is so empowering and it’s really addictive, right? Once you get going on it, you’re like, oh, you mean I can do this? Right. <laugh> you know, it’s great. Yeah.
Andrea Cobb (07:04):
Yeah. And it’s such a privilege to, to be one, to find out something that nobody knows, and then to share that with people, it it’s really quite a blessing.
Natalie Kuldell (07:13):
I very much agree. So you went to college. What, where did you go and what did you study?
Andrea Cobb (07:18):
So for my undergraduate, I went to Abilene Christian University and I studied chemistry and biology. And then I went sort of circuitously to Texas tech university for my PhD in chemistry, mostly biochemistry. And then I went to the medical school there for a postdoc in reproductive endocrinology. So but my graduate work was on really microbiology. It was on re photosynthetic bacteria. And my mentor’s mentor was Melvin Calvin who came up with the Calvin cycle, the dark reaction for photosynthesis. So we had a lot of protein uh purification. And back then the chemiosmotic was a hypothesis, you know, and trying to figure out how things got pumped. So I, I did a lot of work with transporters and, and a lot of thermodynamics and things like that, but it was, it was actually a lot more fun than it sounds like, you know,
Natalie Kuldell (08:26):
I think it sounds like great fun. I think to do and study photosynthesis is very fun. I think the memorization of all those cycles can be really hard, but when you actually are studying them, it makes a lot more sense. Right?
Andrea Cobb (08:38):
It does. And I would really encourage your BioBuilders to take a look at bacteria. I know that they do, but there are photosynthetic bacteria out there that are being harnessed for all kinds of things like biofuel and so forth. They’re easy to grow. They take a little while to grow. They don’t grow really quickly, but you know, they’re not pathogenic or anything. So they’re, you know, learning about bacteriology and, and tells you so much about the world and the diversity of the world. I don’t think we always get a good dose of that in our early years, but it’s just so fascinating.
Natalie Kuldell (09:13):
I agree, it puts us in context with the rest of our living planet, which is so great. So, wow. So you went from high school to college, college, to PhD, PhD to postdoc, but you and I did not get connected through research as scientists, but rather through teaching. So how did you get from research scientists to teaching?
Andrea Cobb (09:32):
Okay. Well, I actually, I started out after my bachelor’s degree. I I thought I wanted to be a doctor and then I worked for a doctor and I decided I didn’t wanna be a doctor. So she was wonderful. She was a pathologist and she was great. She was a 70 year old pathologist and she was just fabulous. But I, I realized I didn’t like learning and then doing over and over and over again, I liked learning and then doing something new. So I decided to teach for a while until I figured out what my next steps were. And I liked teaching. I thought, thought I did a decent job of it, you know, as a first, second year teacher did, but then we actually moved in the middle of the year and I had to stop my teaching job, and I found a job at a bank and, and for the rest of the school year, because we needed, you know, I needed to work. And so as a teller, I, I actually found a a, a crook at the bank. So that was exciting, but really it was a counter fitter they’ve been trying to catch for a while. So that, that was pretty exciting. I had to talk to them for a while until the police came. But, but that, but really the more exciting personal thing to me was one of my customers came in and he had a stack of chemistry journals and he put them on, on my window and started, you know, writing out whatever he, his deposit or something. And I said, we were chatting. And I said, oh, I majored in that. And I’m looking at graduate schools. And he said, why don’t you come to our graduate school anyway. So after a few weeks of, you know, visiting and so forth I was admitted to their graduate school and he was our men—, he was my mentor, my PhD advisor after all. And so you know, I, I think that just speaks that you keep everything open. You talk to a lot of people people that you think are random, but just be interested in people and what they do. And I think that that will really help you find pathways to really interesting connections and, and important things that you never even knew existed, especially nowadays when things are changing so quickly, you know, it used to be that people would decide, I wanna be a doctor I’m gonna do that for 30 years and then retire. Right. Not anymore. Right. Now, it’s just so many different things. I don’t know if they ever actually did that honestly, I don’t know what people did back then.
Natalie Kuldell (11:54):
Yeah, it is. But I think that notion that things are changing so much and there’s so much to learn and that staying open to the possibilities and, and, you know, allowing these sort of chance happenings to direct new new opportunities and new directions, I think is wonderful advice. I think it’s unexpected. I think many people go into their career thinking, “I have to know what every step along this pathway is gonna look like, and I’m just gonna keep putting one foot in front of the other until I get to the other side.” But I think you are proof positive that that is not, not always the case, or probably rarely the case.
Andrea Cobb (12:34):
Yeah, I think so. And I, I did, I really enjoyed my, my graduate work and my postdoc and I had every intention of staying in science as a working scientist for the rest of my life. But at that point after, well, I did another postdoc in, in Boston, in reproductive endocrinology and, and molecular biology. That was the big, you know, thing was going on with molecular biology, which evolved into synthetic biology. Right. And so so that was a great experience as well. And I kept my foot in the door a little bit with that, but most of my attention then became teaching. I wanted to have a family and at that point you know, it’s just, it’s sad, but true that it was rare that women were able to manage a full time scientific career with raising a family. They women that I know who did do, were able to do that either were women who had they had other help. So a lot of them, their family members would help with the children and or they would hire, they were able to hire, you know, au pair or something like that. And I didn’t have, or they were single and didn’t have children or, or just didn’t have children. And so,I didn’t have any of those options and my husband and I just decided that we would like to have a family mm-hmm. And so I stepped back and, and went into teaching, but was able to still,do some work at George Mason, actually as an adjunct and teaching classes and teaching teachers, and then taking opportunities for intellectual growth, like the BioBuilder foundation offered and, and other,other kinds of opportunities as well. So,it, it was a good balance for what I wanted to do and for my personal goals. And now I’m able to continue that research. I’ve been doing a research on TV diagnostics lately,in the lab whenever I have time. Uso
Natalie Kuldell (14:37):
<Laugh>, you must not sleep <laugh>
Andrea Cobb (14:40):
So it’s okay. There, there are little, there are some periods where it’s a little quieter than others, you know, but it it’s a good shot in the arm. I found that I really need a lot of intellectual stimulation to be fulfilled. Right. And I think that you, I’m sure you do too. And probably the students that you work with, they, they must feel like that or else they wouldn’t be reaching out to you. So, you know, you sort of have to look at what, what makes you feel fulfilled and how to balance that. Hopefully the options for women in science are gonna be more manageable nowadays than they were way back when
Natalie Kuldell (15:18):
<Laugh>
Andrea Cobb (15:18):
When I was starting to have children. I don’t know that I think that’s something that as a society we should probably think about or work on.
Natalie Kuldell (15:26):
I think that’s exactly right. But I do think that you provide such a wonderful model for how success can be defined and then redefined, and that you can continue to find joy and satisfaction in your career, even if it is non-traditional and non-linear I think it’s a wonderful message and a wonderful example that you said, Andrea, I feel so lucky to know you and that BioBuilder brought us in touch with one another gosh, 10 years ago at this point. But yeah. I I’m sure we will continue to work together. You do spectacular impact and work in this world. So thank you for all that.
Andrea Cobb (16:07):
Well, thank you. And thank you for all that you do. You’ve it’s really been a joy to, to know you and work with you for, for many years and hear about all the great things that you’re doing as well.