“We Have More Transformative Power Than We Think”: Dr. Kristen Skruber on Diversity in STEMM

I’m really interested in how dynamic cells are and how the processes that govern them seem to be complex and emergent, meaning their properties are more than the sum of their parts. I always use the analogy of an engine: you can take an engine apart, figure out what every part does, and then when you put it back together you should probably include all of the parts—or it won’t work. But cells are not like any engines or machines we’ve ever experienced. We can take them apart or remove some of their parts by knocking out genes, and they don’t behave predictably.

It’s a really exciting time to be in cell biology because I think we are all reckoning with how much we don’t know about basic cellular function.

I study cellular function in the context of the actin cytoskeleton. Actin is a self-assembling protein, which forms long polymers. I love the fact that when we take it outside of a cell and watch it form polymers, it’s very different from polymer formation inside of a cell—and the field has spent most of its time watching this happen outside of a cell. So, what’s happening inside?

We’ve built a panel of novel fluorescent probes to watch processes that are hard to capture in space and time in the organelles of mammalian cells. The structures we are interested in capturing are below the diffraction limit of light, and don’t seem to stay intact during fixation, so we have had to get creative about how to infer their presence and track them over time. We are also interested in amoeboid motility across scale and are exploring ways to quantify motion—there’s no single metric that captures motion; for instance, you can’t just measure velocity. We’ve been playing with different tracking algorithms and manufacturing different environments for cells to move in to probe them and see how they respond from a motility perspective. 

Every mentor I’ve had has really shaped and continues to shape my career path. My postdoctoral mentor’s ethos to life and doing research was particularly transformative for me. Now, I’m at a primarily undergraduate institution at the nexus of both higher education and research, and it’s a tough time to engage with the institutions that fund and influence each of those spheres. So, I view it as actively choosing to be in science each day, and there are many reasons to be here.

A contemporary throughline is job safety around whether to come out at work, which I think, for many, feels like a step back from a decade ago. I’ve been talking to an oSTEM group at an Eastern University led by an enterprising student who has been putting together career advice for upcoming graduates. He has found that job seekers’ biggest considerations are how to feel safe at work while navigating an increasingly difficult job market.

Open and unwavering support comes in many forms, but for employers, I think showing an active interest in recruiting LGBTQIA+ individuals goes a really long way.

There’s no downside to recruiting with diversity in mind—stronger teams and enterprises require it. A monolithic and homogeneous group experience stifles innovation, productivity, and creativity.     

I think, like all scientists, I love a good mystery and getting to chase questions professionally. I find that understanding how things work is a really transformative outlook on life. It expands our umwelt, a German word that speaks to our sphere of perception of the physical world. So, in the classroom, I’m always hoping that even if students don’t remember the exact things we discussed, like the steps of oxidative phosphorylation, they’ll at least reenter the world with a transformed view of it, for example, why and how we use oxygen.

Practically, I’m proud of every experiment I’ve ever gotten to work on because most experiments don’t work, particularly in vitro reconstitution. As a microscopist, I’m proud anytime we can (literally) shed light on something very small, some cellular process, or watch a single cell move. I’m super energized any time a student watches actin polymerization in a cell or gets to witness a cell move and gets excited by it. 

We have more transformative power than we think we do, perhaps by design. I’m always trying to remind myself and convey in my classroom that we create the world we want to live in, even through our smallest actions. Sometimes that’s hard to see because the institutions that we engage with are intergenerational projects and we don’t always get to witness the direct results of our actions. But by being out in STEMM, we are in conversation with everyone from Ben Barres to Lynn Conway, and we are having a direct impact on who gets to participate in the scientific process. That’s pretty powerful.