Rasheen Powell, PhD '21

Since graduating from UB the leading professional achievement must be my joining Mimetic Medicines as CSO. This career transition singlehandedly validated a lot of the trials and tribulations I endured up until that point.

My favorite part of PMY were the courses offered by the department. All of the topics were interesting and the inherent nature of pharmacology, as a discipline, demands unique approaches to understanding the material. Courses like “Essentials of Pharmacology” and “Experimental Pharmacology” required integration of all the knowledge I gained from my other courses creating a challenging yet rewarding experience.

I would tell my younger self two things: (1) “All the hard work will be worth it in the end,” and (2) “Not all PhDs are made equal.” Regarding the second point, I learned it is a fool’s errand to compare the pace of one’s PhD to another. So, it is better to maintain your course and produce a body of work you can be proud of. The other point is pretty self-explanatory.

One of the most important things I’ve learned in the PMY program was “What you do in lab is equally as important as what you do outside of lab.” Basically, the work you produce can only be as good as the rest you allow yourself.

It kind of fell into my lap. Or rather, I fell into it. Starting my PhD journey, I had difficulty finding a lab home for my first rotation. All of my requests to rotate were met with “no’s” and I was beginning to fall behind my fellow cohort mates as they were already well into their first rotation and setting up their second. One day I received an email from the Pharm & Tox department about a lab that was willing to take me in for my first rotation. In my first meeting with Arin, I clearly saw how enthusiastic he was about his work. There was a small issue; he was a neuroscientist and I had no prior experience with neuroscience. I always thought I wanted to research microbes in some capacity and always shied away from anything neuroscience. So we had an agreement that I would learn some techniques then rotate to another lab. However, as with many things, it did not turn out that way. After completing my first “experiment” in the lab (I maxi-prepped green fluorescent protein and transfected CHO cells - a very low-risk task) I was hooked. At that point there was no turning back for me. I formally joined the lab and was welcomed into an environment that taught me how to think about neuroscience. Kerri, Sushmitha, Danielle, and Kate were the senior graduate students in the lab, and they really helped me correct course whenever I ran into an issue. A truly serendipitous experience.

One of the most memorable compliments I received came from a prominent electrophysiologist. I reached out to him in attempts to collaborate on a project, and I gave a brief presentation of the data I had until that point. At the end of the presentation, he remarked “wow, this is amazing work. We investigated this almost 20 years ago but did not see anything of interest. It looks like you have uncovered an interesting piece of neurobiology”. This stuck with me due to many factors, but the main one being the validation of all the work I have done to get to that point. There was little to no literature on the hypothesis I had formed, and yet I was able to piece together a story that had gone overlooked for decades by using the skills I had gained during my PhD.

In the lab, my expertise is ion channel biology. I investigate how ion channels contribute to pain states. But I do not consider ion channels as pores that simply need to be blocked, instead I consider the numerous protein-protein interactions these ion channels engage in that promote their function in pain states. By doing this, I gain a unique perspective regarding the pathophysiology of pain granting me the ability to develop peptidomimetic molecules that can disrupt these interactions leading to pain relief. Outside of the lab, my expertise is knowledge consolidation. Everyone has knowledge to give, whether it is through books or conversation. I enjoy exchanging ideas with others and learning a little more each day.

I treat all successes, big or small, the same; any success in science deserves a celebration. For me, I like celebrating by relaxing; watch a movie I’ve been meaning putting off, or enjoy an indulgent dinner, or go see a game.

“The worst they can say is no.” Many times, opportunities can arise by simply asking. I got a postdoctoral position in the lab of Clifford Woolf, a well-established lab in the pain field, by cold-emailing Clifford one day. I didn’t get the position immediately, but when a post-doc position opened in his lab, he emailed me and formally invited me to join the lab.

Decisions can be difficult due to the uncertainty that comes with them. So, if I ever need to turn to someone for advice, first, I turn to my family. Although they are not in the sciences, they offer a personable perspective that is crafted from years of lived experience. Then I turn to my mentor Arin; he always gives great advice filtered through a scientific lens. After that, I usually turn to others in my network who may have specific expertise/experience.

I would love to give a discussion-based course centered around the growing divide between the sciences and the general population. This gap between scientists and those who are both funding and primary benefactors from these research efforts is patently unacceptable, but the efforts to bridge this gap at the are following short. This course would explore the origins of this societal mistrust from the perspective of various subpopulations then progress into current and future solutions. As for required reading, The Two Cultures by C.P. Snow would be mandatory.

I always wanted to be a scientist. During high school conducted research at Hauptman-Woodward during the week and attended UB MedSTEP on the weekends. In college I conducted undergraduate research through UB CSTEP. But before all of that, I had a desire to learn the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of a lot of things. Growing up in Buffalo, I loved to fish with my father, but starting out we didn’t catch much. Like with an experiment or an assay run in the lab, we spent a lot of time trouble shooting, researching fishing spots, learning how to target different species of fish, etc. Those experiences serve as the bedrock for everything that has followed since then.

Many in my family are not scientists, so there has always been a disconnect between what they think I do and what I actually do. However, they continue to support me in every way possible because they know my work has the potential to benefit many people.