Jess Sevetson began her postdoctoral fellowship in the Baskin Engineering Biomolecular Engineering Department in August 2020. She works on the Braingeneers team, where she researches the electrical activity of neurons in brain organoids. Recently, Sevetson was awarded a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is given to postdocs who make significant contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of California. She has a passion for teaching and research and is looking forward to becoming a professor in the near future.
Tell me about where you did your undergraduate and graduate studies and what led you to join the Baskin School of Engineering.
I did my undergraduate studies in neuroscience at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and graduate studies in neuroscience at Brown University in Rhode Island. For my postdoc, I really wanted to try life somewhere else. I had been in the Baltimore to Boston radius my whole life and wanted to venture somewhere new. I applied to schools in the south, California, and Europe.
How I ended up at Baskin Engineering is kind of a funny story. I was at a conference talking to different speakers who were early career faculty at their institutions. My friend then introduced me to a professor at UCSF. Through that interaction, I was recommended and introduced to Sofie Salama and David Haussler from Baskin Engineering. They just so happened to be looking for someone with my skills to do the kind of research projects I wanted to do. I was brought out to UCSC in February 2020 to interview and tour the campus. I officially began as a postdoc in the Biomolecular Engineering Department at Baskin Engineering August 2020.
What interested you in applying to become a UC Chancellor Postdoctoral Fellow?
My primary funding is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA). It’s a training grant that provides postdocs mentorship and experience in teaching. The IRACDA fellowship offers workshops in public speaking and grant writing and provides each postdoc with a teaching mentor. My mentor is a faculty member at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) named Zurine de Miguel. I’ll get the chance to design my own curriculum and teach a class next semester, under the guidance of Zurine.
Like UCSC, CSUMB is a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), which gives me practice teaching students from diverse backgrounds—something that is very important to me. Having tutored at my own community college, I know how important it is to give all students equal access to quality education. This experience and drive for equal opportunity is what led me to seek the Chancellor’s Fellowship, an award given to postdocs who have and will continue making significant contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What projects are you working on in the Biomolecular Engineering Department?
My work has primarily centered on the Braingeneers project, a collaboration between three faculty labs at Baskin Engineering and labs at UC San Francisco, Washington University in St. Louis, and UC Santa Barbara. The idea of this project is to use brain organoids, or small balls of stem cells that have been given chemical cues to become a group of brain cells, to learn more about the evolution and development of the human brain.
My role in the lab is somewhere between an independent scientist and project manager. It’s my job to make sure that our engineers, computational biologists, and geneticists are working synergistically toward common goals. The particular area of research I focus on is the electrical activity of neurons in brain organoids. I’ve troubleshooted and implemented a new piece of equipment—a multi electrode array—that allows us to take recordings from these organoids in a high density way. It’s a grid of tiny electrodes that allow us to listen outside of the neurons for the electrical signals that are happening inside of them.
What are two of your most memorable experiences at Baskin Engineering so far?
One memorable experience was just a few weeks ago when I received the Chancellor’s Fellowship notification email. I screamed incoherently across the lab in excitement, which eventually turned into my entire lab joining in on the celebration.
Another memorable experience was when I got my first recorded signal from a neuron. I ran out of the lab I was in and directly into Sofie’s office. My team and I then celebrated during our next lab meeting.
What are a few things you like to do in your free time?
I like to salsa dance. I recently tried a new Muay Thai studio. And, I haven’t done it in a while, but I used to refinish my own furniture.
Interview Date: April 13, 2022