Jeff Kusiak, Medical Microbiology and Immunology Student

Can you tell me a little bit about the work you do on campus as a Medical Microbiology and Immunology major?
I have two jobs. The first is that I help PhD students with their research projects on fungal sexual genetics. I study fungus sex to find out how they develop. We eventually hope to find new targets for drugs, as the majority of current anti-fungal drugs are toxic – fungus is more closely related to humans than bacteria, so what harms them usually harms us. The fungus I work with, Cryptococcus Neoformans, kills about 600,000 people a year (Primarily immunocompromised AIDS patients) by causing meningitis (brain inflammation).
 
My second job is with the WI Department of Public Health. I compile information on vector-borne diseases (Lyme, West Nile, Anaplasmosis, etc.) to put in a database and send to the CDC. I’m also part of the Surveillance and Outbreak Support Team in which I do patient interviews and basic epidemiology to help epidemiologist find out what food products are contaminated and making people sick. Remember the spinach outbreak? My job would be to connect the spinach to the sick people.
 
What’s your favorite aspect about either job?
With the research, I love making media and different solutions. It’s like cooking, but hardcore – the ingredients can cause cancer or burn you. With the public health job, I love the feeling that what I’m doing has the potential to stop people from getting sick.
 
Are you ever afraid of catching the diseases you’re working with?
Not really. I don’t think there has ever been a case without the patient already having some other issue. Those that have HIV, cancer, or a transplant are at risk. Normal immune systems can deal with it effectively.
 
Have any advice for aspiring researchers?
Well, I would definitely recommend doing the URS program your first or second year here. I think it’s like a two credit seminar class that meets once a week, and as part of it you find a lab and do research 10 hours/week. This doesn’t have to be in science, either – there were people doing research on languages and minority populations. It gave me the initial experience I needed to land a paying research job here, and since you have to apply and be accepted to the class, putting “Undergraduate Research Scholar” looks great on a resume. To find a paying job, look at the UW job website, bulletin boards in science buildings, and attend club meetings. I got my job by attending a Medical Micro club meeting.