Focus on Students with Nina Bertaux-Skeirik

Nina Bertaux-Skeirik, 25, is a fourth-year graduate student in Systems Biology and Physiology and a Ph.D. Candidate in the lab of Yana Zavros, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology in the College of Medicine. She is the recipient of the Albert J. Ryan Fellowship—an honor awarded by UC, Harvard University, and Dartmouth College to students interested in conducting research that will contribute new knowledge in the biomedical sciences—and holds the UC Graduate School Dean's Fellowship. The dean's fellowship is awarded to eight doctoral students in the final year of degree work to support superior scholarship that enhances the reputation of their program, the department and the University of Cincinnati. Each award includes a $20,000 fellowship and a full one-year tuition scholarship.

I went to Xavier University for my bachelor of science in biology and a minor in chemistry. During that time I met a professor who was doing some collaborations here at the UC Cardiovascular Center (CVC) and I asked if I could participate in his research project. As a sophomore in college, I started working at UC. I've associated with UC for a little over six years now—from undergraduate research assistant to acceptance into a Ph.D. program. I did cardiovascular research in mice, studying the effects of high fat diets in mice on heart attacks. The following summer, I applied for the summer undergraduate research fellowship—American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (SURF-ASPET) in the lab of Keith Jones, Ph.D. That was the first time I had been actively engaged in developing a research project and contributing to new knowledge, and it caught my interest and my passion. After graduation from XU, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to medical school or graduate school so I took the MCAT, but after spending time in the a laboratory setting and meeting both medical students and graduate students, I found that research was more exciting and stimulating for me. I liked being at the beginning of the scientific process instead of towards the end. Doctors are limited, in that they must work with the tools that they have, and the technology that is currently available.  As a scientist, you get to create new technologies and novel approaches to solving health problems. You are truly at the beginning of that innovative process. Your passion for understanding the unknown is helping to make the discovery, and I loved that element of freedom and creativity.

I want to conduct my own research, mentor graduate students, and teach in the classroom. I would like to have my time split 50-50, if possible, between research and teaching.  I feel like teaching is a way to give back knowledge to future generations. I think that's really important. And if you continue research, you remain current in the field and can bring that new knowledge back to students, which is very important. My hope is to be at a school like UC someday and be a full-time faculty member that is tenured, have my own lab and have graduate students doing research but also be in the classroom with undergraduates and graduate students teaching them physiology.

I have been very lucky at UC, such that my research in the lab of Dr. Yana Zavros has led me to interact on a regular basis with surgeons, pathologist, and medical residents, in the pursuit of highly translational research projects in the areas of gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, I owe so much of my love of research to the spectacular mentorship of Dr. Zavros, who has supported me fully as a graduate student and scientist in training. Without her, the achievements I have today would not be possible. UC also is the reason I ended up in graduate school, because of the SURF program. If I hadn't gone in that SURF program, I don't know where I would have ended up. I highly suggest it to undergraduate students interesting in health and research. 

This lab is focused on the stomach. We are interested on what happens after the stomach is injured. For example, if you get stomach ulcers, how does the stomach repair, and how is that different in a person who is young versus an older person? The way that we approach this health problem is by studying stem cells. Stem cells are within the tissue in the stomach, and it is believed that they help regenerate an area that is injured. We believe that there are differences in the regenerative capacity for young versus aged stem cells. After injury, older individuals are not able to heal their tissue normally, and they are at greater risk for other complications. So in this lab, we are interested in developing ways to help people who are older heal similarly to a young person, perhaps using a stem cell based therapy. In particular, in our lab, we grow human stomach organoids. They are derived directly from the stem cells in the stomach, and these stem cells can be grown in the lab in cell culture dishes as a rudimentary miniature version of your stomach. In our lab, we really want to know how can we take these mini organs and put them back in a patient to provide some regenerative benefit.  

I am vice president of the Health Sciences Government Association (HSGA). It's the student government body that organizes and maintains events for graduate students on the medical campus. We set up volunteer events, for example we are setting up Relay for Life this year to benefit cancer research, an effort led by my fellow graduate student Matthew De Gannes. We organize and set up the graduate student research forum, an effort led by Ryan Makinson, president of HSGA, and that's a place where graduate students can show their work and share it with other students, mentors and professors. I really like to be involved with these events because I think communication among the graduate students is essential. We are all working in all these isolated labs, and don't often communicate with each other. It's important for students to interact because they can help each other.

I run in many different parts of Cincinnati. The city has some of the best park systems in my opinion. We have beautiful forests and lots of hills. I like to go to the Mt. Airy Forest and French Park. I have two wonderful pets, and enjoy cooking, and going to concerts with my wonderful boyfriend at Music Hall in downtown Cincinnati. 

I grew up in Cincinnati, in the neighborhood of North Avondale.  I went to North Avondale Montessori, and then to the School for Creative and Performing Arts for high school. I was a ballet dancer and a clarinet player. I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer, but I was injured, and that's partly how I ended up in science. The first semester at Xavier was a challenge, but I got a tutor and I worked very hard. Science was never easy for me. It was something I had to spend a lot of time studying, however I always enjoyed putting the work in. I don't think that you put that kind of determination into something you don't enjoy. You had to fall in love with it, and I did.

My sister is an actress in Washington D.C., and my brother is going into a health administration master's program at Xavier. He is interested in health as well, but not the research side— the administrative side. Both my parents work at Xavier as professors. My mom, Nancy Bertaux, is a professor of economics and is the director of the sustainability program there. My dad is Kaleel Skeirik is a professor of music, and a contemporary composer.