Rhea Jakhwal

Green Fellows project abstract: Lipid droplets (LDs) are organelles that serve as reservoirs for energy which is stored in the form of triacyclglycerol (TG) and sterol-ester (SE). Defects in lipid storage contribute to metabolic disorders such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. Many studies, including efforts from our lab, have found that LDs can be separated into functionally distinct subpopulations due to their unique proteomes. Work from our lab has shown that a yeast protein of unknown function, Bsc2, enriches on a TG-containing LD subpopulation. Data indicate that Bsc2 negatively regulates Tgl3-dependent lipolysis on this LD subpopulation, although a specific mechanism remains elusive. Interestingly, Bsc2 has a paralog, Irc23, that shares a homologous transmembrane domain but has no characterized function. Here, we dissect whether Irc23 works in concert with Bsc2 to regulate TG lipolysis. Genetic deletion of Irc23 results in reduced TG levels, similar to loss of Bsc2. We find Irc23 displays ER targeting at logarithmic growth phase but can be retargeted to LDs upon oleic acid stimulation. Double deletion of both Irc23 and Bsc2 results in an additive TG reduction, suggesting that Irc23 may work together with Bsc2 to regulate TG stores in LDs. I hypothesize that Irc23 and Bsc2 may form a complex at ER-LD contact sites to negatively regulate Tgl3-dependent TG lipolysis. Investigating the mechanism of this functional relationship between Irc23 and Bsc2 remains the focus of my ongoing studies.

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​​What does research mean to you? 

I want to discuss a more personal take on this. Research is an amazing choice and helps individuals around the globe in many different industries: healthcare, food, environmental, etc. However, research to me personally gave me so much more. 

 

The freedom to tap into creativity is an integral part of what I involve myself in. To me, research is the perfect avenue for this. Research allows you to deep dive into scientific niches, and there are so many to choose from that you may have never come across before! The best part is, you are not tied down and most of the time your project may involve many different niches to answer the question at hand. Researchers have to use their creativity in conjunction with their vast knowledge of their scientific niche to ask new questions, make new experimentation plans based on past results, and draw conclusions while hypothesizing the intricacies of their scientific models. Research is also a very self motivated task, something I truly love due to the freedom it comes with. If independence is something you value in the workplace, I recommend trying out the Green Fellowship. This freedom to explore my own understanding of science through my project allowed me to develop my inner fire and thirst for knowledge regarding my scientific niche. The hunger to learn more to develop new avenues of experimentation, to read as many papers as possible about topics close to your project and gain insight, and to keep asking questions (no matter how elementary they may seem), seemed natural while I was a fellow. I really realized that research was the perfect balance for me. The perfect balance of a scientifically technical career where I was free to explore the bounds of my creativity and feel a passion for discovery and knowledge. Research to me means something I feel I can finally be passionate about and truly makes me happy. 

 

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Tell us about your journey​!

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be involved in a career path based in science. Throughout high school and early undergrad years I went down the path of being a pre-med student. While getting older and coming to an age where I started to question almost everything around me (that early 20s existential crisis) , I asked myself if I would be content as a doctor. After years of ruminating this, both consciously and subconsciously, my answer was no. I spent a lot of undergrad with conflicting ideas about who I was and who I thought I should be in terms of my career. Society places a lot of pressure on us to be successful (and so do we to some degree), so straying from my chosen career path was not an option I really entertained at that time and I continued to feel very lost and like I would not be able to be happy in may career path. 

Things starting looking up when I applied for the Green Fellowship. I had no prior research experience and due to the onset of the pandemic, had never been able to familiarize myself with the field. I was accepted into the program, which was a turning point in my life. I was still a pre-med student and at this time leaning towards pursuing an MD-PhD because I thought this may be able to reconcile the conflict I was feeling with pursuing medicine. Perhaps adding research (something I may be interested in but didn't really experience yet) to my medical track would help me feel better about the whole thing.

 

During the fellowship, I became very immersed in my project and discovered the nuances present in research that really distinguished it from medicine for me. At the same time, I was studying for my MCAT that I had planned to take. From my experience with volunteering and shadowing, I did not enjoy patient care and the day-to-day duties present in medicine. However, I couldn't get enough of what I was doing in lab. After a lot of back and forth with myself internally and the best support system I could ask for (my best friends), I decided to take the leap and pursue research. I switched gears to apply to PhD programs after graduation, cancelled my MCAT, and focused all my efforts on learning as much as possible about research and the different fields I could go into. 

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I am still trying to navigate the research space every day and am in the process of applying to graduate school to pursue a PhD in Biophysics with a focus in Pharmaceuticals. It's really difficult to choose the option that doesn't feel "safe" in your mind. But through the Fellowship, I realized that I couldn't ignore the fact that being passionate about what I do is something so important to me. Your biggest hurdle is yourself. Trust your gut, work hard, take every opportunity to learn, and remember that no matter what, everything is going to work out. I have to remind myself of this constantly and am not perfect. But the best anybody can do is try their best. 

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What was your favorite part about the program? 

My favorite part of the program was honestly the stability of a 9-5 work day. Although I did have to stray from this a bit if there were certain experiments that took too long, it was a relatively stable 40 hour work week. I think the program is structured really well where you get a taste of what it is like being a graduate student. After work days I would often spend my time pursuing my hobbies and catching up on the latest new movies. Since UT Southwestern is in Dallas, I also got to spend my 5-9 after my 9-5 in the city, exploring the local bars and breweries along with museums, coffee shops, and live music nights. The biggest up-side for me however was the fact that there is no homework, no exams, no studying, none of that weird stuff. Although reading papers outside of lab is encouraged, it did not take up nearly as much time and energy as a regular semester packed with science courses. 

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What was the biggest thing you learned from the program?

Meticulous organization and literally the copious amounts of it that researchers have to do, was definitely the most surprising thing I learned from the program. I had to learn this the hard way during the beginning of my Fellowship when I proceeded to have to (quite literally) dig through the pages and pages of data and strain information to find the 2 word code of a strain I needed. This happened multiple times a day. With the help of the amazing graduate students and research technicians in the Henne Lab, I was given actual gigabytes of organization templates. Research constantly requires updating current strains, planning ahead to have certain strains and reagents ready for future experiments, recording replaced products (usually with short shelf lives), and more. This level of attention to detail was definitely something I had to learn and come to apply in my day-to-day during the Fellowship.

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Advice for Future Green Fellows

• never say never: not just because Justin Bieber coined it, but because life throws out so many opportunities we didn't even know existed before the happen. You don't know what you don't know. Keep an open mind!

• be intentionally inquisitive: make asking questions your superpower, at first a lot of "stupid questions" may be asked, but that's ok! Once you get more acquainted with your scientific niche in your lab, your questions will become more refined and may actually help your team uncover new perspectives they never acknowledged. 

• read papers, both involving your project and in topics that just interest you in general

• !!don't compare yourself to others!!: this is difficult, but we all logically should know that comparing ourselves to others does nothing but provide us with a false sense of fear-based motivation and is honestly just not helping anybody. The next time you feel inadequate, remember that everyone has their own path and their own timings in life. You will too! Just keep working hard and stay focused on your own growth. 

• reach out to other fellows (past and present)

• don't forget to stop and smell the roses: Have fun!! Be present in your Fellowship (:

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