Undergraduate Eliza Klos has already crafted a sturdy foundation to flourish as a physician. 

One of Klos’ first pivotal steps when she got to Binghamton University was declaring a major in neuroscience — an interesting choice for a pre-health student. Klos said she sought a concentration that would allow her to learn about people holistically. 

“I wanted something that was going to be different,” says Klos, a member of the class of 2024. “I like that (neuroscience) is interdisciplinary and it involves more than just biology. It has more of a human-basis so it’s been a really good fit for me so far.”

The next step Klos took was getting involved in research early — even before getting into college.  Klos grew up in Buffalo, which is where she discovered her passion for helping others. Through a high school summer program at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Klos was able to gain her first taste of what it would mean to be a physician and a researcher. She was given an independent project where she examined a type of cancer called mantle cell lymphoma, which targets the lymphatic system. 

“The summer before my senior year, I worked in a lymphoma and myeloma cancer research lab,” Klos recalls. “My research focused on examining a potential mechanism for resistance of the cancer to chemotherapy drugs. If the pathway can be discovered, it could be targeted with drugs, hopefully eliminating the problem of resistance.”

As a First-Year Research Immersion Program (FRI) participant and a member of Binghamton University’s Scholars Program, Klos has had plenty of research experiences since then. For FRI, her project focused on creating a novel model of the effect coronavirus-related stress had on children. Their chosen schematic? Rats.

“This was the first time this project was done in the neuroscience stream,” Klos says. “Really we were trying to find a way to model what that kind of stress that came for kids during the time of COVID-19 would look like in rats. So that involved socially isolating the rats for short periods of time and then analyzing both their behavior and their neurochemistry.” 

Following her last semester in FRI, Klos knew she wanted to continue doing research, so she emailed several professors with similar interests. That’s how she landed her next research opportunity as an undergraduate research assistant in Assistant Professor Laura Cook’s biology lab. 

The lab’s main focus is on streptococcus A, the bacteria that may cause strep throat symptoms in some patients, but not in others. It’s important to understand differences between bacteria that require treatment and those that don’t. As a means to deter the onset of antibiotic resistance, physicians need to be able to narrow down whether certain patients need to be prescribed antibiotics, even despite their strep tests coming back positive.

Within the Cook lab, Klos is something of a head researcher, helping with the organization of the lab’s undergraduates, training them and keeping Cook informed on their progress. According to Cook, she’s also in charge of collecting samples, testing them, reporting all the data and forming training initiatives. 

“She’s a leader, both socially and scientifically,” Cook says. “We had some issues with contamination, especially with all of the new workers, but she’s been helping us troubleshoot that. She streamlined the undergraduates and their processes, taught them sterile technique and suggested training. She always goes above and beyond!”

Klos serves as the vice president of the American Medical Women’s Association on campus. It’s an organization devoted to advancing women and others in medical careers. 

“It’s really meant for anyone who has an interest in medicine, whether they’re hoping to go into medicine or just find it interesting,” Klos says. “We try to be open to everyone.”

Klos’ antibiotics research did not stop in the Cook lab. As a university scholar, she had access to the Guthrie Scholars Premedical Internship, where besides helping with research, she also had the chance to shadow different doctors and present a research lecture before a panel. Her main focus for the lecture was her collaboration with an orthopedic surgeon, studying the necessity of antibiotics among elective foot and ankle surgery patients.

“One of my favorite things [about research] has been communicating it to other people,” Klos says. “I’ve done quite a few presentations and a pretty big research lecture at Guthrie, and it’s very exciting to share the research I’ve been working on. I’m very proud of all of it and it’s so nice to get positive feedback and bounce ideas off of different people who are even more knowledgeable than I am.”

While she isn’t set on any one medical career yet, Klos knows medical school is her next step following graduation. Anesthesiology has been the most interesting focus for her, given the personable nature of the position.

“Being an anesthesiologist involves talking with patients at a high-stress time for them, so you have to focus on making sure patients are comfortable,” Klos says. “It’s been one of my favorite specialties so far, but I still have more to explore.”

Matthew Wersebe studies the effect of antibiotics on wetland ecosystems. “I realized no one was really looking at the effects of antibiotics as a contaminant, so that’s where we started,” says Wersebe, a biology major.

Antibiotics kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Agricultural companies treat animals with antibiotics for a variety of reasons, such as the reduction of pain or suffering, or to ensure their health or survival.

Wersebe studies sulfadimethoxine (SDM), an antibiotic used to treat dairy cows, chickens and other animals.

Antibiotics, which are present at low levels in the environment, are considered “practically non-toxic” by the EPA. However, Wersebe found low levels of antibiotics do have an environmental impact. SDM, for instance, had a negative effect on zooplankton, which is an important or “keystone” consumer for the proper functioning of an aquatic ecosystem. Green algae is a main source of energy for zooplankton, whereas blue-green algae (BGA) is toxic or unpalatable to zooplankton. Blue-green algae populations increase in the presence of SDM.

“We should expand the assessment of chemical toxicity to include community interactions, so that we can better determine the impacts of antibiotic pollution on natural systems,” Wersebe says.

According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. livestock producers use an estimated 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics annually. Considering the variety of antibiotics in use, as well as their varying methods of disrupting the growth of microorganisms, it is important to consider their effect on the environment even at low levels, Wersebe says.

SDM is just one antibiotic chemical used by agricultural companies; there are many more. “That’s what makes the research complicated,” Wersebe says. “Antibiotics are a diverse group of chemicals with different modes of action.”

Wersebe began his research after receiving a 2016 Summer Scholars and Artists grant. He works in the lab of Jessica Hua, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Binghamton.

“One clear example of his leadership is his work with the Friends of Recreation, Conservation and Environmental Stewardship (FORCES),” Hua says. “This organization aims to develop relationships between faculty and students that lead to a mutually beneficial relation with state park units. Matt has been working to develop a FORCES chapter here on campus and has taken the initiative to involve my lab in his efforts.”

While many undergraduates put in a lot of time and effort in the lab, Wersebe extends beyond that and is very independent, says Vanessa Wuerthner, a doctoral student in Hua’s lab. “He spends much of his time in the lab and is continuously coming up with new research ideas that he carries through from start to finish,” she says. “He is currently working closely with another graduate student in the lab to publish his first manuscript.”

Next, Wersebe wants to see how zooplankton affected by antibiotics interact with other chemicals in agricultural runoff, such as insecticides that get sprayed on crops. He wants to know if antibiotics make zooplankton more or less resistant to insecticides, using antibiotics and algae that will be cultured in the lab. Wersebe’s work this summer is funded by the Garden Club of America.

“As consumers, we vote with our dollars,” Wersebe says. “Seeing firsthand how antibiotics have an environmental impact, I’ve become more conscious of what I consume and where it is sourced from. I try to have the smallest impact on the environment.”