After a brush with chronic illness during her teens, Kaitlin O’Brien recovered and became fascinated by the critical role nutrition plays within human health.
“I just saw how much good it can do, and that got me interested in so many other diseases and other processes that affect us,” she recently said. “I really learned how important what we eat is, from the gross level down to the microscopic, and the more I study it, the more enriched I feel by it.”
Today, O’Brien is a sophomore foods and nutrition major, and she’s about to get even more exposure in her field.
She was recently selected for a Nutrition Undergraduate Research Immersion in the Summer (NURISh) fellowship through Texas A&M University. From late May through July, she’ll rotate through some of the top labs in the world with respect to scientific discoveries in the areas of cancer biology, epigenetics, metabolism and public health.
NURISh fellowships are highly competitive and cover tuition, travel, housing and health insurance, as well as awarding a $7,000 stipend, but O’Brien said she’s most looking forward to the experience itself.
“I’m excited that there’s going to be such an array of people and natural science experts, and I’m going to get a totally new perspective and so much more information about what I’m studying. I’m just genuinely so excited to learn from these people,” she said earlier this month, just one day before she presented an assessment study of cancer-related risk factors at the Virginia Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics conference in her hometown of Virginia Beach.
“As a summer fellow, I’ll be matched with one of five principal investigators (PI) of my choice, and through that, I will be working with other students and Ph.D. graduates in other disciplines of science to work on whatever research project the PI is doing at that time,” O’Brien said.
Associate Professor of Health and Human Performance David Brock was succinct in his praise of his student: “She is one of the best undergraduate researchers I’ve ever worked with.”
O’Brien said she plans to earn her Ph.D. in endocrinology, biochemical science or cell biology through Johns Hopkins University, then forge a career as a PI overseeing laboratory research projects. "I hope to identify the links between metabolism and disease, generating new knowledge in my field and improving health outcomes for others.”
She also said her undergraduate career has already helped give her the strong foundation she’s needed to move forward.
“There’s not many schools that offer a nutrition program, and I will say, I think Radford’s is the best,” O’Brien explained. “They offer the most intimate environment, smaller class sizes, maximum resources, and it’s fabulous. We have so many classes that others don’t. I genuinely love the school.”