Nisha Durand, PhD, likes to read, cook, volunteer, and go hiking on nature trails.
She volunteers with a mobile food pantry, high school boot camp, and Jacksonville, Florida Science Festival.
And she definitely prefers warmer temperatures over the colder northern climates.
So, when the 2012 INBRE Scholar and Chadron State College graduate had her choice of Mayo Clinic locations – Minnesota or Florida – well, as Dr. Durand puts it: “This island girl does not do cold.”
As a manager of process development in the human cell therapy lab in the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., Dr. Durand oversees the development of clinical grade stem cell products to be used by patients who are taking part in clinical trials.
A native of Dominica, where her family still lives, Dr. Durand embarked on her research career with her first stop as an undergraduate student at Chadron State College.
The smaller class size and community appealed to Dr. Durand, along with the robust biology department and in-state tuition package for international students.
“Everyone was so nice, I had so many invitations from people that first Thanksgiving I was there, it was unexpected but welcoming,” Dr. Durand said.
While at Chadron State, Dr. Durand took part in the INBRE program and did research on antibiotics from native plants that could potentially be used to fight MRSA.
“The INBRE program gave me my first real research experience outside of a chemistry lab or biology classroom,” she said.
Dr. Durand was invited to give a keynote address at the 2022 Annual INBRE conference in August and there she encouraged other INBRE Scholars to pursue their dreams.
“Everyone should hone in on these kind of opportunities,” she said.
It not only gives students an idea of what research is, Dr. Durand said, but it affords them an opportunity to see what they like to do or perhaps don’t like, and it helps build critical thinking skills, reasoning, and communication skills.
“Skills that are transferable to any facet of life,” Dr. Durand said.