28 Research Reflection by Payton Thomas

Faculty Mentor: Chris Myers (Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Utah)

As an undergraduate student, I was involved in research throughout my degree program in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, with a minor in Chemistry. I started working in a lab at the age of 16 and committed myself to a career in research. Over the course of my degree program, I collaborated with colleagues at several institutions, including Utah, USU, USF, and CU Boulder, and also had the opportunity to do research as a visiting scholar at MIT. During my undergraduate research, I mathematically analyzed algorithms that make use of importance sampling to estimate the probability of rare failure states in genetic circuits. Through my analysis, I found that these algorithms were not working as well as they were supposed to in their respective publications. This research is important because rare failure states can have catastrophic consequences in biology, such as causing cancerous phenotypes. One of the biggest impacts of my undergraduate research experience was that it allowed me to develop strong skills in computational and theoretical research, as well as interdisciplinary collaboration. Research has been central in my education, as I pursued my degrees with an eye toward their relevance to my research fields. Additionally, my research experience taught me how to develop novel ideas from literature reviews and lead research projects on my own, which will be important in my future career as a grad student and beyond. My career aspirations were always to become a professor, and undergraduate research did not change that. Rather, it made me feel much more like a member of the department and academic community. Through my undergraduate research, I became a more competent computational and theoretical researcher, and I look forward to bringing these skills together as I work in the wet lab and continue my mathematical and computational research during my PhD program. Looking ahead, my major research goal is to develop models of synthetic genetic circuits using stochastic processes and dynamical systems. I hope to accelerate genetic circuit design to help solve significant medical problems such as cancer and aging. Through my research, I aim to have an impact on my fields and pursue a career as a professor, mentoring future scientists to advance the field of synthetic biology. Overall, my undergraduate research experience has been invaluable in shaping my education and future goals, and I am excited to continue to make important contributions to the field of synthetic biology and beyond.