Abby Swoboda loves to learn -- anything and everything.
So when she entered the lab of Scot Ouellette, PhD, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for the first time as a high school senior in the UNMC High School Alliance, having never been in a research lab before, she thought, ‘Well, let’s give it a try.’
“I came in with no research experience at all,” Swoboda said. “I had no idea what a PhD was, or how to pipette. It was an entirely new world to me.”
This was going to be a new adventure for her -- one she is turning into a career.
“I totally love research,” said Swoboda who is planning to pursue an MD/PhD dual degree after she graduates from UNO where she is a rising senior majoring in molecular and biomedical biology.
Her passion for the health sciences was recognized earlier this year when she was selected as a 2023 Goldwater Scholar.
“I was sitting in the Dr. Ouellette’s lab plating cells preparing for an experiment the next day, when the email came,” Swoboda said.
She turned to one of her mentors, post-doc student Nicholas Woods, PhD, and immediately texted Dr. Ouellette who came running into the lab to congratulate her.
“We were all cheering together. It was a really exciting moment,” Swoboda said.
“When Abby joined my lab, she had no research experience. However, this was more than balanced by her motivation and hard work to learn what she needed to master the techniques and understand the project,” said Dr. Ouellette, an associate professor in the UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology.
“She is a bright and capable student and a joy to have in the lab. Abby is certainly a worthy Goldwater Scholarship recipient and will represent INBRE, UNO, and Nebraska well.”
Swoboda credits her experience working in Dr. Ouellette’s lab, first through the High School Alliance and later as an INBRE Scholar. There she learned how to pipette, ask questions, expect and accept failure as part of the scientific process.
As part of her tenure in Dr. Ouellette’s lab, Swoboda has spent the last four years studying a protease of chlamydia to learn how it functions with the goal of designing a targeted therapeutic to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance.
Her interest in microbiology grew from the first time she was introduced to infectious disease research.
“It was that hands-on experience that really sparked my interest. I learned how to culture and identify different microbes, I could spread them on a slide and see them under a microscope. That really opened my mind to the possibilities of microbiology,” Swoboda said.
“I’ve been really fortunate to work in Dr. Ouellette’s lab this entire time, everyone there has been so supportive. That experience, combined with the INBRE program, has grown my abilities and made me the scientist I am today.”