Nissa Medwid

Nissa Medwid is full of firsts. She is both a first-generation college student and a first-generation American.

A native of Yonkers, just north of New York City, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences from UB’s College of Arts and Sciences where she studied protein translation machinery in yeast.

Medwid feels fortunate to be working toward a Master of Science degree in the genetics, genomics & bioinformatics (GGB) program at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

“I’m truly grateful for the things I’ve learned as a student in GGB, such as programming in R, Python and Linux, to analyze biological and statistical data, and also for being able to explore my interests in evolutionary genomics and how evolutionary principles are applied to study human medical conditions like cancer for modern benefit,” she says.

Medwid appreciates that the GGB program is “so multidisciplinary in terms of the classes and the research ideas one is exposed to, and yet the program allows students the flexibility to pursue their individual interests in such a versatile and arguably young field of study.”

She currently works in the lab of Vincent J. Lynch, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences in UB’s College of Arts and Sciences.

What first attracted you to the GGB program at UB?

It was essential that I pursue a degree doing research that would not only intrigue me, expand what I knew about DNA and cell biology, and would help both my wet and dry lab skills — but one I could pivot toward any relevant facet of industry or research I wanted to work in when the time came.

When you peruse the GGB faculty list, you can choose a principal investigator (PI) from practically every part of UB that works with genes and genomes for human biomedicine in so many different capacities.

The freedom to delve into genomic research that suited my own interests, while taking required courses that gave me programming and analytical skills — and choosing courses to strengthen project-specific skills in statistics and cancer genetics — is what attracted me to the GGB program and has given me a positive outlook on my future.

I could have joined the graduate program in the department I received my bachelor’s degree from, but I felt like I needed to push myself toward the unfamiliar and challenging, and liked that all the classes were ultimately aimed at changing human health realities from diverse, current approaches to different body systems.

What has been the most satisfying aspect of the program thus far?

I think it is looking back at who I was before and realizing just how much and how uniquely the GGB program helped me shape both my internal and intellectual self.

During the first year of the program, I traveled through all three UB campuses every single day — from my apartment near South Campus to early morning biochemistry, immunology and bioinformatics classes at the medical school downtown, and then to lab on North Campus and back home again.

I admire how I rose to the occasion of settling into that routine for the sake of expanding my knowledge in the field. I was surprised with the lasting confidence it imparted on me, which I’ll take for the rest of my life.

I have learned so much more than I anticipated about the intricacies of biology, genomics and navigating professional life in the sciences and feel immensely more prepared to embark on a lifelong career. This outcome wouldn’t have been possible without the extremely supportive GGB program administrators, the friends I made in my program and classes, and the support and encouragement of my PI and labmates.

Can you describe the focus of your research — the cellular and genomic mechanisms of cancer resistance in turtles and tortoises.

My research involves the cells of the world’s longest-living terrestrial animals, the giant tortoises of the Galápagos and Aldabra islands and their turtle and tortoise relatives. Their cancer prevalence rates and those of other animals like elephants, whales, armadillos and bats are under 4%, while such rates in humans and mice are between 30 and 40%.

Age is the single biggest risk factor for developing cancer in humans, yet giant tortoises can live well over 150 years and it’s hard to find any with tumors, and nearly impossible to find any that have died from them.

In the Lynch lab, our goal is unpacking the independently evolved genomic and thusly cellular mechanisms permitting the existence of long-lived, cancer-resistant animals, inspiring new ways to alleviate human cancer.

One fascinating technique in our lab is malignant transformation, using gene editing to create cancer-like cells from a cancer-resistant animal. We can learn a lot about evolved cancer suppression mechanisms by knowing which genes and the proteins or functions they encode must be altered to yield cancer-like responses.

What does your dream job look like?

It is not necessarily in the field of evolution or cancer, but involves applying my knowledge and wet/dry lab experiences toward solving human problems, be they related to health and medicine, genomic or experimental data, or even crime.

Conserving biodiversity in plants and animals is also a human problem if you think about it, and using what I’ve learned to solve such problems is the essence of what I’d like to do. I’m currently enamored with the idea of becoming a DNA analyst for a private company or government agency working with human or animal samples for any meaningful purpose.

This program and degree afforded me a lot of versatile skills bestowing me flexibility in what I can do in the future. That’s ultimately what I wanted coming into the program.