Co-ops prepare University of Cincinnati grad for career in laboratory research

University of Cincinnati students receive hands-on experience at co-ops across the country and around the world. But recent biomedical engineering graduate Katelyn Jansen did not have to go far to find the right co-op for her.

Jansen completed a co-op at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center’s Head and neck Experimental Advancement Laboratory (HEAL) this spring, conducting cancer research under the mentorship of Trisha Wise-Draper.

An Indianapolis native, Jansen said she was unsure exactly what she wanted to study when she entered college, but biomedical engineering seemed to offer a wider variety of potential career opportunities compared to other science majors like chemistry or biology. She said two major factors led her to becoming a Bearcat.

“I went to the University of Cincinnati for the co-op program and also because of the Indiana reciprocity opportunity to get virtually in-state tuition being out of state,” she said.

For her first two co-ops, Jansen worked in hip product development at DePuy Synthes, a division of Johnson & Johnson. During her time there, she learned that working as a product development engineer in an industry setting did not appeal to her, leading her down the path of laboratory research instead.

Jansen next completed a co-op in a UC tissue engineering lab led by Greg Harris, PhD. As part of the biomedical engineering research track, she was also required to find a mentor, which brought her to Wise-Draper and HEAL.

“I had emailed Dr. Wise-Draper, and she responded to my email pretty quickly, and we were able to have a meeting where she was very happy to have me and was very welcoming,” Jansen said. 

Co-op experiences

Under Wise-Draper’s mentorship and lab manager Maria Lehn’s training, Jansen said she was equipped to take ownership of her research and follow her interests and research questions as they came up.

“My hands-on experience in the lab made me realize that I find that work really exciting,” she said. “I really like the multitude of things you get to do day to day, versus working in product development, where it’s really dependent on the stage of a project you’re in. There’s always so much to be done.”

“Katelyn is very diligent and detail-oriented, which has allowed her to optimize difficult assays,” said Wise-Draper, MD, PhD, professor in UC’s College of Medicine and co-leader of HEAL. “She achieved more in her short period here than some of my more senior trainees.” 

Jansen said she learned the importance of being meticulous and thorough when planning out experiments and of understanding your hypothesis in depth rather than “just going through the motions and running an experiment.” This process takes time, and she was grateful to be in the lab full-time to learn what it takes to conduct meaningful, high-quality research.

“I think the best part about me doing a co-op is I was working 40 hours a week, and so I really got to see everything that is done in the lab. It’s really hard to know what you do and do not like when you’re only in the lab part-time,” Jansen said. “Co-op gave me the freedom to basically tell Dr. Wise-Draper whatever project I wanted to pursue. If you’re only in the lab five hours a week, they’re going to be directing you toward getting one project done, rather than having the ability to think through your own problems or help other people think through their research.”

Being in the lab full-time also gave Jansen the time to author and submit two abstracts to the American Association of Cancer Research conference, both of which were accepted. About a week prior to graduating on UC’s campus, Jansen was in Chicago presenting her work alongside cancer researchers from across the country — a rare accomplishment for an undergraduate student, according to Wise-Draper.

“I wasn’t sure either abstract I submitted to AACR would be accepted, but they both were,” Jansen said. “It was a great opportunity for me to showcase the work that I’ve done but also especially to get our lab’s research out there to find more collaborative opportunities and more grants.”

Drawing on her co-op experiences, Jansen will begin a doctoral biomedical engineering program at the University of Wisconsin this fall, working in the lab of David Beebe, PhD. Beebe’s lab focuses on personalized medicine to treat cancers, including head and neck cancers.

“Katelyn is extremely ambitious with great follow-through,” Wise-Draper said. “After having Katelyn in the lab, I'd love to take on more co-ops.”