Natalie Kuldell (00:02):
All right. Hi, max. It’s Natalie, how are you?
Max Kazman (00:05):
Good. How are you?
Natalie Kuldell (00:06):
Oh, very good. Thank you so much for joining this idea accelerator and career conversation. It’s really nice to finally meet you. We’ve been trying to connect for a bit. Yeah. I know you were in Boston for a while, but you’re not here now. So maybe you can start by introducing where you go to school and what you’re doing.
Max Kazman (00:25):
Yeah, so right now I’m in Atlanta at Georgia Tech studying chemical and biomolecular engineering and then also doing a minor in computer science. And, yeah, I’m from the Boston area, but I go to school here, so I’m familiar with both, but
Natalie Kuldell (00:40):
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Well your, your major and your minor sound like they keep you very busy <laugh> uand that you,are in an awesome place. Uwhat do you, what do you like about,Georgia Tech and the, the things that you’re studying there?
Max Kazman (00:56):
Yeah, so you’re definitely right about being busy. There’s a lot of work and yeah, but it’s been, it’s been pretty fulfilling, so it’s definitely challenging, but there’s also a lot of other opportunities here. So I’ve been doing undergraduate research, which has been really good and it wasn’t too hard to get into either. So I think that was a benefit of being someplace like Georgia Tech, where there’s a lot of opportunities like that. And, yeah.
Natalie Kuldell (01:22):
That sounds great. So what, what is your research and do you wanna give a shout out to your, your lab PI and maybe you’re working with anyone.
Max Kazman (01:30):
Yeah, so I’m in theStyczynski Lab here at Georgia tech and it’s sort of, there’s some chemical engineering people and bioengineering people and what a lot of them do or what I do there is biosensors. So making cell-free biosensors and yeah, the, a lot of my work culminated in a paper we published last year. And that was about using a glucose monitor to quantify the readout of a cell-free biosensor. So in our case, we could measure zinc or the viral load of like the amount of a viral load in a blood sample, and then quantify that using the glucose monitor. So…
Natalie Kuldell (02:18):
Wow. Well congratulations on your paper publication, that is a major achievement and that’s wonderful. And I, I think by the example that you gave the idea of what a biosensor is, is clear, and then do you wanna just say a little bit more about cell-free extracts and why you’re working in them versus cells?
Max Kazman (02:37):
Yeah. So cell-free versus well, I guess starting with what cell-free is, is instead of using like an entire cell that’s sort of doing the operation that you’re trying to do in the sensor you can take the cell extract, which is all of the translation and transcription machinery for the most part, as well as it’s kind of crude, so you get a whole bunch of other stuff as well. And then you can use that sort of extract. And if you give it your own DNA you it’ll transcribe and translate it and do what you programmed it to do. And since it’s no longer a part of the cell, it, it doesn’t last forever. It doesn’t, you know grow or divide or anything like that. So it sort of has limited shelf life with that. But or I guess not shelf life, a limited reaction time, but the shelf life is another interesting part is people have figured out that you can freeze dry cell-free reactions and then store them at room temperature. So that’s another reason why people might use cell-free versus whole cell sensors is that you can sort of freeze dry them and then transport them at room temperature and then rehydrate them and use the sensor again. And it still works pretty well. So that was another part of the paper and, yeah, it’s super exciting. There’s a lot of other cell-free applications, like protein production and stuff like that, ’cause they go a lot faster. They just don’t last as long. So yeah, it’s a super interesting area.
Natalie Kuldell (04:06):
Yeah, I think so. And for biosecurity reasons and all, all kinds of things, there’s a lot of cool stuff. And when you said you put your DNA in it, you don’t mean your DNA. You mean the DNA that you’re interested in making a protein of, right. <Laugh>
Max Kazman (04:18):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Natalie Kuldell (04:20):
Yeah, yeah. That’s cool. Yeah. So actually for the BioBuilderClub this year, we’re gonna do an inter-high school study of cell-free extracts and their performance under different conditions. So we will tap you for that expertise as well. That’s cool. But I am going to venture a guest that you did not sort of wake up and turn, you know, go to kindergarten on your first day and say, I wanna study biosensors and cell-free extracts. You probably had other ideas about you know, what you wanted to do now. Were you always interested in science?
Max Kazman (04:53):
Yeah, I’d say I was definitely interested in STEM like my, throughout my whole life and yeah, in high school I definitely got more into science. I really liked my AP biology class and AP chemistry class, so I took those like as soon as I could. And that sort of started me, I guess, down this path. So I did a couple things in high school, but not, not BioBuilder, unfortunately. And then yeah, in college as sort of right away, I’ve been, I’ve been doing this research almost the entire time I’ve been here. So I started in my second semester and I knew I wanted to ’cause I had sort of been peripherally, exposed to research and I knew that was, that was definitely a good way to learn more and experience what it’s, what it’s actually about. So I, I reached out right away and then sort of learned more and more and, and liked it even more as I went along.
Natalie Kuldell (05:51):
So I think that’s such great advice ’cause I mean not research is definitely not for everyone, but I do feel like it is one of the most enticing parts of, of being in science or it’s, it’s something that I do wish we could pull back the curtain on more and invite people in because research and I’m sure you will tell me if I <laugh> there, there are lots of frustrations to it, but it is also a chance to sort of have ownership of a project to discover something that’s not been done before to do a lot of problem solving. Yeah. So research is also what brought me into science. I found that just to be different than how I was learning science, this feeling like I could actually add to the body of knowledge was really exciting for me. Are there any surprises to you about the, the research piece?
Max Kazman (06:38):
Yeah. Well, I, I definitely agree with you on, sorry, yeah. I feel like I’ve learned a lot more as well through research rather than like, you know, taking a class or something like that. Um and it’s, it’s really exciting to, to be able to come up with something new or do something that, that no one’s done before, so no one knows what’s gonna happen. And then you see the result and learn. And there are a lot of frustrations with that too for, for those same reasons ’cause, ’cause no one’s done it and no one knows what’s gonna happen. And there’s a lot of stuff, especially in biology and with cell-free, like I mentioned the extracts can be pretty crude, so there’s a whole bunch of other stuff going on that, that we just don’t know. And it’s sort of impossible at this stage to, to learn all that stuff like exactly how everything’s mechanistically going on. So sometimes, or, a lot of times there’s unexpected results that you can’t really explain and things you think should have happened didn’t happen and you, you repeat the experiment, but it still messes up the second time. And so there’s a lot of stuff like that just because there’s so many moving parts that you don’t really see.
Natalie Kuldell (07:47):
Thing I’m sorry. Mm-Hmm. One thing I love is that, you know, that’s where controls come in, right? That’s where the whole scientific process comes in is that yes, you think, you know what you’re gonna get for, you know, anticipated results and it’s great to try to anticipate what you’re gonna see, but when it doesn’t happen and it doesn’t happen a lot of the time you have other tools for trying to figure it out. So, it’s much more of a, of a sleuthing than a recipe, right?
Max Kazman (08:14):
Yeah. It’s definitely fun. Yeah. Failures are also exciting ’cause yeah. You get the opportunities to sort of investigate and figure out what went wrong. So yeah. Those are also really cool.
Natalie Kuldell (08:25):
Yes. Especially when you fix ’em <laugh> so well, that’s really cool. So if if you’re now doing research as a, as a college student, what, what would you have liked to have seen in high school? Or was there maybe some an experience in high school that you thought was sort of pivotal or a, a sort of aha moment or maybe a teacher that, that helped you reach this this point?
Max Kazman (08:55):
Yeah, so I definitely, I had a really unique experience being near the, the Boston area. There was a program I did called the Broad Summer Scholars Program. And I think, unfortunately I think it’s just for people in Massachusetts. But that gave me six weeks to work in one of the labs at the Broad Institute. And I got paired with a really awesome mentor who was a PhD student there and she just had me do some sort of like a cloning project. Six weeks wasn’t a lot of time. And especially when I didn’t know anything. But I, that was really exciting for me. And I learned a lot about just the major cloning techniques were super cool to me, like learning about PCR for the first time. And yeah, that, that was, it was really exciting. And Gibson assembly was, was my favorite at the time. Um
Natalie Kuldell (09:48):
<Laugh> It’s still pretty cool. Yeah. Well I love the, the Broad Summer Scholars Program. We actually in BioBuilder placed two of our apprentices in their program this past summer. They will be thrilled that you gave them a shout out. So and that, that it has been such an important part of your experience ’cause I’m sure they’re very proud of you, so that’s great. Yeah. And it sounds like you’re interested in giving back and doing additional outreach and teaching. Is that something that you’re looking forward to, or if not that, what, what is the next thing that you’re looking forward to?
Max Kazman (10:21):
Yeah, so I’m definitely interested in, in giving back. I’ve I’ve been very busy, so I, I sort of did some volunteering in high school, but since college that sort of fell off my plate. So I’m definitely looking to, to get back into that more. And yeah, next steps are, is a big question for me. So I’m actually, I’m gonna be graduating this fall. So this is actually my fifth year. So I’ve done. I, I will have graduated in four and a half years. Wow. And yeah, there, there are several reasons for that, but yeah, there’s a lot of things I’m thinking about for, for future next steps. And it’s definitely a big question, but yeah, I think the biggest thing for me was just exploring all these different opportunities. I, I mentioned research and I’ve also done several internships in industry which have been really eye-opening for me. So sort of get both sides. Yeah. And yeah, so I, those are big. Yeah. Very nebulous idea of what’s coming next. But
Natalie Kuldell (11:22):
No, I, I think it’s great as part of these career conversations, we often with each cycle we try to talk to a student, but we also talk to somebody who’s pursued academics as their career path and another person who’s pursued industry as their career path. And sometimes there’s a lot of back and forth, so it doesn’t have to be a, a road of no return. So that’s, that’s always helpful when it comes time to decision making. Well, I have no doubt that great things are gonna be for you, Max and, and I sure hope that you know, we can loop you more and more into BioBuilder. That would be awesome.
Max Kazman (11:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Natalie Kuldell (11:59):
Thanks.