AKARI MIKI
’19
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone blooming with so much passion for an academic subject…that isn’t her major at all. Akari Miki ’19 is clear from the start, “I’m a biochem major. I love biochem. My research isn’t in biochem.” Instead, she devotes the bulk of her scientific and extracurricular efforts to research in nutritional epidemiology, exploring the role of nutrition in the development of disease. If this area of study rings a bell, you’re a step ahead of where Akari was at the end of her sophomore year. After attending a summer biostatistics lab that proved transformational, Akari reached out to professor and scientist Nicola McKeown of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy and the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. Despite Akari’s limited experience in the field, McKeown welcomed the opportunity to leverage Akari’s programming background in performing data analysis. The next summer, with the guidance of Professor McKeown, Akari participated in the Tufts Summer Scholars Program, which allots living stipends and research budgets to students invested in a ten-week independent research project that culminates in a journal publication or academic thesis. “She taught me what good research is,” Akari recalls, now an accomplished researcher in her own right.
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A grad student familiar with Akari’s newfound skillset then pulled her in to join the Adhering to Dietary Approaches for Personal Taste (ADAPT) project, which Akari has begun to make her own. As an increasing number of researchers descend on college campuses to conduct nutritional research—on account of the bountiful vegetarian population— Akari places her focus on the rationale, mapping why vegetarians are vegetarian with relation to trends in their age groups. For example, teens are more mindfully plant-based for ethical and environmental reasons, while older populations tend to favor such diets for their health benefits instead. Conclusions? While Akari is not a vegetarian, she has started studying the sources of her food and making access to such information more accessible. As to considering a more plant-based lifestyle, Akari responds, “People demand clear-cut answers on what is healthy and what will kill you. There has been increasing evidence in favor of plant-based diets, but yes, there are still nuances we don’t know yet. So you don’t have to take drastic steps; just adapt your mindset.” From biochemistry to biostatistics to nutritional data analysis to epidemiology, Akari’s evolution illustrates how areas of interest can morph seamlessly at Tufts. But it wasn’t always that clear-cut,
Akari shares. Prior to her matriculation, her father was diagnosed with a neural degenerative condition, and with a choice between affording healthcare for himself in the US or paying her tuition, he returned to Japan. That decision opened Akari’s eyes to the burden of chronic illness plaguing Americans, and in deference to her father, she embarked on the pre-med track. Still, she insists her most critically formative moment was an interview with the Tufts Medical School Early Assurance Program—an application process that for her never progressed beyond the interview. “Before,” she explains, “all I knew was that I wanted to be a doctor. Doctors have prestige and live comfortable lives. The interview challenged my own motives for becoming a doctor. I didn’t get in, but I realized I wasn’t taking full advantage of my time and resources at Tufts.” If anyone has taken full advantage, Akari has. And she hasn’t given up on her goal of becoming a doctor. Now, with a deeper understanding of human health, she endeavors to become an MD-PhD. “I know it’s greedy,” she admits. “But there’s so much data out there, and it can be used to help provide viable and affordable ways to prevent illness, especially in a country like ours. I think that’s empowering.” —JACOB SHAW ’21
PHOTO BY KATHLEEN DOOHER
BIOCHEMISTRY MAJOR FROM NEWTON, MA