The University of Vermont Magazine, Fall 2023

Next-Generation Research STUDENTS | The biennial Stem Cells, Cell Therapies, and Bioengineering in Lung Biology and Diseases Conference has served as a powerful platform for scientific discovery and collaboration since its inception in 2005, led by Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine. This gathering of the world's leading regenerative medicine researchers brings together distinguished experts from academic research institutions worldwide, converging with junior investigators, fellows, and graduate students to share knowledge, exchange insights, and push the boundaries of lung biology and disease research.

Lessons in Hidden History STUDENTS | You might think a political science, sociology, and gender, sexuality, and women's studies triple-major who juggled three jobs while carrying a full course load during the past school year would want to take a break over the summer.

But, as with hundreds of UVM students who take part in summer internships and research projects, downtime was not on the agenda this year for Zane Zupan, a junior from Manchester, Vt., with a passion for LGBTQ+ history. Instead, having amassed a sizeable TikTok following over the past few years for their thoughtful commentaries on politics and current events, Zupan (who uses the pronouns they/them) applied for and received an award from UVM’s Brennan Summer Research Fellowship Fund to be used for a somewhat unconventional research project.

Called “Making Queer History Accessible to LGBTQ+ Youth During a Period of Targeted Erasure,” Zupan’s project educates viewers about key historical LGBTQ+ events, parsing them into mini history lessons tailor-made for Gen Z. “I designed the project to help make it easier for the younger generations to digest and interact with LGBTQ+ history, which is more important than ever as states across the U.S. actively work to censor this history,” Zupan says. Their goal is to provide young people, especially those in school districts and states in which virtually anything queer-related has been banned or restricted—think books, drag shows, gender-affirming care—with a reliable source of easy-to-digest LGBTQ+ history via TikTok videos.

ZANE ZUPAN

This summer, amid the esteemed experts and accomplished researchers, Vermont high school students were also granted unprecedented access to laboratories and activities designed to ignite their passion for science and inspire the next generation of stem cell researchers. During tours and demonstrations, the students observed investigators performing state-of-the-art techniques for examining lung function, including using a flexivent—a device that measures respiratory biomechanics—and applying organoids—tiny, three-dimensional tissue cultures derived from stem cells—to investigate diseases.

Henry Nasse, a senior at Essex High School, enjoyed the opportunity to explore and learn more about this cutting-edge field. Nasse recounted a prior experience in a UVM microbiology lab, where he saw a machine designed to isolate stem cells. That experience sparked Nasse’s curiosity about regenerative medicine. Along with his penchant for building robots, Nasse realized that stem cells, the fundamental building blocks of the human body, resonated profoundly with him.

“Research is an avenue to understanding,” Nasse said. “The more we learn, the greater our ability to make a positive change in the world.”

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