Kathleen Maguire, Student Intern
High school student Kathleen Maguire has served as an intern at House Research Institute for more than a year. Her avid interest in science led Kathleen to sign up for the honors research
program at the all-girl high school she attends in Los Angeles. Her school assists teens who are interested in math and science by helping to identify a lab and mentor for each student. Kathleen’s mentor is Paul Webster, Ph.D., principal investigator in cell biology and host pathogen interactions at the House Research Institute.
Her first assignment for House Research was to learn all that she could about biofilms through
PubMed, an online collection of citations for biomedical literature from life science journals
and online books. Biofilms are communities of bacteria in a self-produced matrix of
carbohydrates, sugars, lipids and nucleic acids. Next, Dr. Webster and the laboratory staff taught
Kathleen how to perform crystal violet assays, a method of analyzing bacterial biofilm formation in the laboratory.
Kathleen's research project focuses on the relationship between biofilms and antibiotics. Her experiment looks at how certain levels of antibiotics affect bacterial growth. “I studied non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi), a biofilm bacteria that causes otitis media (childhood ear infections). I looked at the effects of beta -lactam antibiotics on 24 hour NTHi biofilm formation. Many people think that antibiotics only kill bacteria. I found that the opposite is true. At high but sub-lethal dosages of antibiotics, where some but not all bacterial growth is inhibited, biofilm formation is actually stimulated. Some bacteria may be killed but with a more developed biofilm in place, it would be more likely that the infection becomes chronic – if this situation were to occur in a patient,” she stated.
Kathleen had never thought about participating in a science fair, but she decided to enter her
project in the Los Angeles County Fair science competition and was pleased when she earned first place. Her first place win qualified Kathleen as one of six people chosen to go to the Intel International Science Fair, (ISEF). Held this year in Los Angeles, ISEF is the world's largest pre-college science fair competition. Each year, more than 7 million high school students from around the world compete in local science fairs with the dream of reaching Intel ISEF. Only 1,500 of these young innovators become finalists, invited to attend the event to share ideas, showcase cutting-edge research, and compete for awards and scholarships.
“ISEF was amazing. I met students there from all over the world," she said. "I knew I did well answering the judge’s questions but I didn’t think that I would place in the top four. When they announced the winners they did so across categories: all 4th place winners, all 3rd place winners. As they called the 2nd place winners the announcer said, “In microbiology, from Los Angeles…” and I knew that it was me because I was the only entrant from Los Angeles in that category. I looked at my mom and I will never forget the expression of surprise and delight on her face.”
Paul Webster says of his young protégé “Kathleen has worked hard to grasp the idea that bacteria prefer to grow as biofilms, a concept that is still not mainstream and it is satisfying to watch her discover that not everything is written in a book. The challenge of working on a subject that has few historical paths to follow can be as daunting as it is exciting. Kathleen has risen to this challenge and is now one of our best ambassadors. Her success in the science fairs is a testament to her ability to communicate the scientific concepts she has had to master."
Kathleen says that what she has learned at House Research will allow her to work in a variety of college research labs. “I think my background in biofilms will come in handy. I’ve been interested in biomedical engineering for some time now. Biofilms are a major problem with prosthetics and that is a large component in biomedical engineering. I could not have asked for a better lab experience.”
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