Talia Martin
When
the following article was published, Talia Martin,
Shoshone Bannock, was a senior biomedical science
major at the University of Kansas (KU). She was one of
a growing number of students who bridged successfully
from Haskell Indian Nations University to the
University of Kansas.
Becoming a Scientist
“I’ve wanted to be a scientist since I was 6 years old,”
declares Martin. “My Mom read me lots of books about
dinosaurs and other things that made me interested in
science. When I got older I read on my own. I went to the
library a lot with my Mom. I think that was the key to
staying interested in school and other things going on in
the world.”
“First I wanted to go into paleontology, then archeology.
Eventually I wanted to be a medical doctor. I got side
tracked though. Some of the time that I was at
Shoshone-Bannock Junior-Senior High School, I wasn’t
interested in doing anything besides basketball. After I
graduated from high school in 2000, it was kind of hard to
find my way.
“I took a year off and moved from my home in Fort Hall,
Idaho to Scottsdale, Arizona where I have some family.
While I was there I kept hearing from friends who were
going to Haskell. They said there were opportunities to go
from Haskell to KU, to begin at a small university and then
go to a much bigger university. So I decided to go to
Haskell.
At Haskell, Martin’s interest in the sciences were
reawakened by the Bridges Program that helps prepare
biomedical science students at Haskell to continue their
studies at KU or another university. “I saw posters from
the Bridges program that showed the research that people
were doing. The Bridges coordinators got me excited, so in
my sophomore year I joined the program. Deciding to go into
the Bridges was probably one of the best decisions I made
at Haskell. I sort of knew what I wanted to do, but I
didn’t know how to do it. The Bridges program helped me
make those decisions.
“The Bridges Program funds you to conduct undergraduate
research in a laboratory of your choice. I’ve been in the
pharmaceutical chemistry department with Dr.
Middaugh. He’s
awesome and very supportive. He’s always busy, but
whenever you have a question, he answers it. He’s also
Native American. He introduced me to a graduate student,
Jason Rexroad, who was working on a research project for
a Valley Fever vaccine. I helped Jason on this project,
which included studying the stability of the protein
from the fungus that causes Valley Fever. We used
spectroscopic techniques to monitor the stability of the
protein in different physical conditions, such as
temperature and pH.
“I met Dr. Middaugh through one of the seminars we had in
the Bridges program. He talked about research with viruses,
proteins, and gene therapy. He used to work at Merck
Laboratories. All of that interested me because I wanted to
be a medical doctor, and I liked both biology and
chemistry.
“In other Bridges’ seminars we met a lot of other
scientists (faculty members and postgraduate students).
That was cool. It gives you ideas about what types of
research people are doing.
“In my past work with Jason I ran some of my own tests, but
the experiments were his. Now I have my own projects. I
just finished one research project titled ‘The Biophysical
Characterization and Empirical Phase Diagram of Bovine
Serum Albumin.’ My project was focused on studying the
biophysical lability of the protein, bovine serum albumin
(BSA). Serum albumin is an important protein in the blood.
Its many enzymatic functions, include maintaining the
blood’s pH, and binding to various molecules. I used
spectroscopic methods to characterize the biophysical
structure of bovine serum albumin (BSA). BSA was used in
this project as a model protein because of its ability to
bind to many molecules, including drugs. The research I
conducted in Dr. Middaugh’s lab is important to drug
research because it is important to know a molecule’s
physical stability in different environmental conditions.”
Martin wanted to present a poster on her research project
at the October 2004, conference of the Society for the
Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in
Science (SACNUS), so
she submitted an abstract. The abstract, which was
critiqued on the basis of scientific merit and originality
of research, was accepted. This meant that she was able to
attend the conference along with other students from
Haskell and KU. At the conference, Martin displayed her
poster and discussed it with students and faculty and
others from all over the U.S. who stopped by to look at it.
To her delight, Martin won the Best Student Poster
Presentation in General Chemistry. Martin said that she
enjoyed the conference so much that she’d like to go every
year.
In the midst of her busy schedule, Martin somehow finds
time to tutor students in chemistry, general biology, and
math. “This helps me with my own studies,” she explains.”
Tutoring gives Martin an opportunity to review these
subjects, and it also lets her see if she has any holes in
her learning.
Martin is an advocate for careers in the biomedical
sciences. “Science is pretty broad. You can find pretty
much anything you like,” she says. "Students can begin
preparing themselves for the biomedical sciences in high
school or sooner. I’ve been told by scientists and
clinicians that in high school you can never have enough
math,” says Martin. “You should also take required science
classes as well as other science classes that interest
you.”
Classes in the biosciences can be very challenging. “Don’t
let challenges stop you,” Martin admonishes. “Go forward.
You’ll feel good once you’ve met the challenges. Sometimes
you’ll do things that you never thought you’d be able to
do. The rewards are definitely worth all the effort.”
This
article was first published in the Summer 2005 issue
of
Winds of Change.
(The cover
artist is the late Roy Thomas, Ojibwa
(1949-2004).
Update
2007
In May, 2007
Martin received a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the
University of Kansas, becoming the first person in her
family to earn a four-year degree. She plans to earn a
doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry. She wants to work in
the pharmaceutical industry, and she wants to work with
American Indian communities to encourage others to study
science.