Natalie Kuldell (00:02):
Hi, Mark. Welcome. It’s good to see you.
Mark Styczynski (00:05):
Hi, good to see you. Thank you so much for having me
Natalie Kuldell (00:06):
Oh, I’m glad you can take some time to talk. I know time in the academic year is very precious, so thank you for, for taking a little bit of time out of it. Maybe we can just start by having you introduce yourself and where you work and a little bit about what your lab does.
Mark Styczynski (00:21):
Sure. Yeah. So my name is Mark Styczynski. I’m a professor in the School of Chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech. And so I’m trained as a chemical engineer. But our work is all on the biotechnology side. And more than half of our group is focused on synthetic biology and using it to develop biosensors and diagnostics for low resource environments, specifically focusing on the developing world. And then we also do some systems biology work, where basically we try and study entire biological systems, mostly small ones like east, but trying to measure all their metabolites, model them with computation and, and see what we can learn from that.
Natalie Kuldell (01:00):
That, that is two very large project areas and very, very exciting. I don’t know, maybe just for some context, is there one recent, I don’t know, development or success in each of them that you might wanna share?
Mark Styczynski (01:18):
Well the, on on our biosensor side you know, I think the, the things that we’re most excited about are, are where we’re becoming closer to translational potential. So we had one of our technologies that was recently licensed by a startup for them to try and like get it out to the world. We’ve mostly focused on nutritional diagnostics and specifically zinc, which is actually although not a problem you see here in the United States, is globally a tremendous problems in deficiency. And so we have stuff that’s kind of nudging towards translation there. And then, you know, one of the systems biology things that excites me is actually when it winds up interfacing with our synthetic biology side. And so we have like multiple papers and, and, and now kind of side projects that have spun out where like the two different parts of our labs are working together and like kind of studying these systems that we work in in a way that nobody else is really thinking about it and like learning things about them that like people would not have known or guessed otherwise. And so that’s just kind of exciting for me, the like, discovery of the unknown. And especially it’s the, you know, back in the old school, the unknown unknowns, right? Like the things we didn’t even realize were hidden under there and yet apparently were affecting how well all of our sensors and reactions worked to begin with
Natalie Kuldell (02:31):
Yeah. I have always felt like it is just the most wonderful synergy between the try to build something and you realize all the things you didn’t know about it because it didn’t work. And now you’re learning all of those big gaps that you didn’t even know you had and that that then helps you build the next version better. I, I love that. That’s a virtuous cycle. Yeah. There, it sounds like your group must be a thousand people. I don’t know how many people you’d be
Mark Styczynski (02:57):
We’re small, we’re small and I, I couldn’t possibly, you know, I’ve actually done a lot of thinking about that. Like you know, in the academic world there’s often this idea that like, you should bring in as much money as possible and get as many people as possible. But I’ve realized that kind of the way that I work and feel fulfilled and, and feel that I’m doing a good job is with kind of more hands on. Like, I don’t, I don’t walk in the lab behind people, but like kind of lots of one-on-one meetings with my group members and, and you know, not excessively and it’s always up to them whether they come or not. But the, it’s something that I can’t do at a large scale. Like if I had 20 people in the group, like I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have a, an hour in the day to do anything else.
Mark Styczynski (03:40):
Yeah. So yeah, we’re, we’re like, we’re always in the like six to 10 side of things and so we currently have seven people. Just recently we had like, maybe nine, but yeah, so not huge manageable. We have a small army of undergrads and that’s also the exciting thing too, is that like everybody starts to work with like one or two undergraduate students. And that’s a great opportunity for everybody, for the undergrads to learn about research and also for the graduate students to learn about what it’s like to, to teach somebody and mentor them through challenging things like research.
Natalie Kuldell (04:10):
Yeah. Well, you seem like a great player coach for your graduate team and clearly have a lot of focus and interest and thoughtfulness about your approach to education because I do think that yes, when you teach somebody something there is learning on both sides that can happen and, and does happen a lot. So yeah, that’s really cool. In fact, it is a little bit through our educational interests that we have gotten connected through the EBRC and we’ve gotten to know and work together. But I would be very curious about, you know, whether you thought you would be a, a faculty member as you were growing up and you always wanted to pursue academics or were there other, did you wanna be a fireman when you were growing up? You know, like what were you thinking?
Mark Styczynski (04:55):
Yeah, that would be a more normal thing. No, I mean, I always thought I was gonna be something very different, but something much more boring I guess. No offense to the people in the world that are accountants, but up until I was like 14 or 15, I was pretty certain that I was gonna be an accountant. And then like, I took these science classes in high school and I was like, Oh, I actually enjoy this. And then I took the, the AP test like, Oh, apparently I’m actually good at this. And then just like, kind of changed my perspective. And then I went to school for chemical engineering. And then again, at that point I didn’t really know what my life would be like. And, and in fact, kind of like as a sophomore, I had this mini existential crisis of like, how can I do good in this world with this degree that I’m going to get?
Mark Styczynski (05:41):
And you know, there’s degrees of doing good, right? So everybody that works at, at most companies is typically making something that is contributing to the happiness of individual people in society, right? And so, you know, different people have different, like levels of how close they need to be to impact in order to feel fulfilled. And I’m one of the people that like, if I’m kind of somewhere more cog like in a big very important thing, I don’t necessarily feel like I’m doing enough for me. And, and so I kind of like, I had some mentors that helped me to guide me through and figure out where there might be some opportunities. And for a while was, was thinking about kind of more chemical engineering focus things. And then I was doing undergraduate research and I’d been doing it for a while and doing it really poorly, like not actually putting the time in, not actually going to group meetings. But then I had like a summer undergraduate fellowship where I was doing research and like towards the end of the summer I made this breakthrough and it was just like, the feeling was just amazing. And like, when I went and talked to my professor afterwards, he’s like, Yeah, this is kind of like what I’ve been trying to get you to do. And I was like, Oh my gosh, no. This is the
Natalie Kuldell (06:54):
Wait. I could have been doing this all along?! Right,
Mark Styczynski (06:56):
Exactly. Exactly.
Mark Styczynski (06:58):
Um and so, and so that just made me realize like discovering the unknown was like really exciting for me. Yeah. And then the hope was that like, maybe I can put these things together of discover the unknown and then maybe like help people in a more direct way. and over time I realized that I would’ve the best chance to do that in,in academia for me,as a professor. and, and then probably one of the best things to happen to me from that perspective was when we started doing our synthetic biology work. Because I didn’t come into my faculty position looking to do that. And then we’d like, I, I saw a call for proposals and, and I was like, we can do this. And it just becomes such a big part of our lab and a big part of what makes me happy. So,
Natalie Kuldell (07:46):
Well, I do think, you know, the idea that you can do good be connected to good work in synthetic biology as an academic. Right. And there is a real joy in building things and building tools and, and learning things that lead to as you say, direct societal impact and, and people being happier in society and, and being healthier and all the things we want. So yeah. That is, that is really cool. So did you say where you went as an undergrad, what your educational path was?
Mark Styczynski (08:16):
I didn’t so I went to the University of Notre Dame which is a Catholic university in Indiana. They, they play football, sometimes well, sometimes not well this year not well. But yeah, so that, and that was also part like, you know, so one of the people that like tried to mentor me through my, like, my, my kind of crisis was the, the rector, like the priest that lives in the dorm. And he was like, you know, oh, you know, I, I I get it. This is like a good thing. Like, let me see if I can help you figure a path. Yeah. and then for graduate school I went up by you to MIT.
Natalie Kuldell (08:52):
Yep. Awesome. Well, it sounds like you have relied on guidance and mentorship throughout which I will say has, has become a theme in these conversations whether a person has gone into industry or academics or remains a student you know, we, we have all hit sort of questions and bumps and forks in the road and, and it, it really does help to reach out and, and have somebody whose ideas can help, who can listen, who can, you know, be the, the ear that you need at that moment. Sometimes you hear the same advice over and over and only at a particular moment when somebody says that to you, it, it suddenly clicks and makes sense, you know? Yeah,
Mark Styczynski (09:33):
Yeah, yeah. And, and, and for me, like the, the people that have helped me along the way and have made me like happy where I am, kind of motivates me to want to try and do that for others. And like, you know, I’m, I’m probably not as good of a mentor as Joan Brennecke or Steve Newton or whatnot, but like, I should, I feel like I should try. I owe it to people to try. Because yeah, I mean, multiple people over, over the course of my education have really like, taken an interest and, and really cared and tried and I’m sure they probably had other things to do.
Natalie Kuldell (10:05):
Nothing more important actually. I mean, at the end of the day, those are the, those are the things, those connections that you make to people and seeing them advance really matters. So that’s very cool. So if there was something that you could tell your past self that you wish you’d known then other than work harder in lab?
Mark Styczynski (10:24):
Yeah. this is going to, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know to what extent this is like professional versus personal in your question, but the, the, the thing that I would tell people, my, my past selves is that like, it feels really hard right now, but the next step is gonna be even harder.
Natalie Kuldell (10:45):
Oh, that’s not what I thought you were gonna say,
Mark Styczynski (10:48):
No, no. Because like, you know, I look back like, you know, in high school it’s like, Oh my God, there’s so much to do. And then like you get to college and it’s like, oh wow, there’s like so much to do and then you get to grad school, it’s like, I was worried about that college stuff. Like, that’s ridiculous. And now it’s like, oh wait, I’m gonna have a job and also have a family and kid like it just like, you think that you can’t handle more, but you can. But like to enjoy those, those times early on, because although it feels challenging, some of them are like really great times and you look back at them and be like, Ooh, yeah, I wish I could just worry about where I’m going Friday night.
Natalie Kuldell (11:26):
Right. Or learn, or, you know, getting my driver’s license or, Yes. No, I, I get it. And I think it all exercises that same sort of resilience and stretching muscle. Somebody once told me that, you know, it’s like if you’re a rubber band and stretching, that’s not, that’s, that’s tension, Right? But, but that’s what it takes is to stretch and it’s, it puts a little tension on things and it gets you get more used to it and Yeah. Then better able to handle the, you know, higher leverage moments that that happen down the road. So, Yeah. Well, that’s so awesome. Thank you for sharing your story.
Mark Styczynski (11:59):
Yeah. Yeah.