It’s Women’s History Month, and we’re highlighting
#WomenInSTEM, including recipients of NSF Graduate
Research Fellowships in fields where women are
underrepresented. In her own words, #GRFP Fellow Brittany
Allison describes her path to research in chemistry.
Before I even knew what STEM meant, I had a stronginterest
in science, and women’s contributions to the field. As a
middle-schoolstudent, I competed and placed at state level
for a project highlighting thefirst woman, first American
woman, and first African American woman in space.
Overcomingchallenges and adversity, these women were not
only exceptionally smart butextremely resilient, and that was
the key to their success.
Now, being achemistry Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt
University, these are the same strengths I hope to radiate in
my career as a chemist. Currently I am studying the basis of
protein-ligand interactions, by using protein design computer
methods. Design of protein-ligand interfaces has proven to
be a difficult challenge, so I hope to achieve success by
starting with protein-ligand complexes with known weak
interactions, and then modify the protein to create tight
interactions. I call this approach ‘a shot in dim light’ as
opposed to ‘a shot in the dark’. The computer program I use
is called RosettaLigand, of the Rosetta design suite, which
has been used in many protein design experiments and
achievements. The predicted designs are experimentally
tested to assess binding. Successful as well as not-so-
successful designs all provide critical feedback for improving
the computer programs, which is how we make progress.
The ability to recapture and predict native-like interactions
with high accuracy and efficiency would be an asset in
biotechnology and medicine, and I am contributing a piece
to this puzzle. As a Black female in STEM, I know I can
succeed because I see so many women, past and present,
being successful and making strides in the STEM
community.
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