Q&A with CBI Fellow Shoshana Williams
Shoshana Williams is a recent graduate of the Chemistry PhD program at Stanford and part of the Chemistry/Biology Interface (CBI) training program at Sarafan ChEM-H. CBI is an interdisciplinary training program that supplements traditional degree-granting PhD programs at Stanford. The program aims to help scientists speak multiple scientific languages spanning chemistry, biology, engineering, and medicine, and enable them to tackle the most challenging and important problems facing human health. Williams sat down to talk with us about her journey to interdisciplinary research and her time in the CBI program.
How did you get involved in your research and what question were you trying to address?
When I started in grad school, I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do. I was interested in the intersection between chemistry and biology—chemistry is an amazing tool to answer life’s biggest questions on a molecular scale. I rotated through several different labs and joined the Appel lab in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. I barely knew what materials science was, but I enjoyed the lab’s collaborative environment and ability to take a problem from the fundamentals of developing new materials to making products or therapeutics for people to use. The research topics ranged from wildfire management to diabetes to vaccine development. I started a project exploring the use of polymers as antibiotics. That’s what I’ve been working on for the last several years—developing polymers that can avoid antimicrobial resistance.
What is the most exciting thing you’ve discovered about these polymer antibiotics so far?
There’s so much that I like about them! I’m going to give two examples. One is that we have intentionally designed them to be scalable and affordable, something that would be suitable for global access. The other is that they can kill a broad array of bacteria, and they do so without becoming subject to resistance. Bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to the antibiotics we have in our arsenal. There’s this idea that developing new antibiotics will buy us some time until bacteria develop new defenses against our existing antibiotics. Our lab took a different approach. Instead of asking whether we could add a new antibiotic to the arsenal, we asked, what if we could create an antibiotic that worked differently? Our antibiotic polymers work in combination with existing antibiotics to protect them from developing resistance, and this approach has been really interesting and exciting.
How did you become interested in the CBI Program at Sarafan ChEM-H?
I knew that I wanted to do interdisciplinary research. I was interested in Stanford because graduate students are allowed to rotate outside their home departments and join groups that work at the intersection of disparate disciplines. I was excited to have additional mentorship through CBI and a community of people who are interested in collaborative research. One thing that I underestimated, at the time, was the importance of the scientific community at ChEM-H. I’ve been able to work collaboratively with many other labs and to think about my project from different angles.
How has the environment at ChEM-H shaped your research?
There is one example that stands out to me. At the end of my fourth year, I presented at the CBI retreat that happens every June. Professor Christine Jacobs-Wagner, an Institute Scholar at ChEM-H and co-director of the CBI program, was in the audience listening to my talk. She came up to me after my talk and said, “This is really cool stuff. Let me tell you about what my lab does. I think we could combine our strengths and come up with something really cool!” This turned into an amazingly fruitful collaboration. She and her postdoc, Alessio Fragasso, have been able to help us do amazing, time-resolved fluorescence microscopy to figure out how our antimicrobial polymers kill bacteria.
Do you have any advice for people thinking about applying to the CBI program or starting grad school?
Two pieces of advice. Maybe three! One is, keep an open mind. Keeping an open mind enabled me to explore, to build relationships, and to find a research project that I ultimately found really interesting. Also, consider what skills you want to develop in graduate school besides research. As someone who is interested in teaching, being able to dedicate part of my energy to chemical education and outreach was important to me. My final piece of advice is that the people matter—and that breaks into two pieces. First, talk about your work with people. You never know who is going to inspire you to do something interesting or who will become a collaborator. Second, the research group you join will have a huge influence on the course of your PhD and on your personal enjoyment of your PhD. To have a lab that’s supportive and collegial and where you’ll enjoy going, even when the research is tough, is invaluable. Having a mentor who cares about your interests and fostering those good, collaborative relationships is also important.
Eric Appel is an associate professor of materials science and engineering and, by courtesy, professor of bioengineering and pediatrics - endocrinology. He is also a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, a faculty fellow at Sarafan ChEM-H, and a member of Bio-X, the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Human Performance Alliance, the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI), and the Cardiovascular Institute.
