Leader of undergrad researchers - Reece Keller

Contributed by Reece Keller
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​Hello all!
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My name is Reece Keller. I am a third-year undergraduate student here at Kansas State University. I grew up in a small town called Cheney, KS, which resides about 20 minutes west of Wichita. I am currently double majoring in Nutrition and Health and Human Health Biology. While completing my undergraduate courses, I will also concurrently complete a few classes needed to earn a master’s in public health with an emphasis in public health nutrition. After being accepted into K-State’s accelerated BS/MPH program, I was fortunate to be chosen as a recipient for the Kansas Public Health Scholars Scholarship, providing me a “full-ride” to complete my MPH here at Kansas State. After completing my BS/MPH program, I hope to achieve my childhood dream which is to attend medical school to become a physician.
If you would’ve told me that I would end up going to Kansas State, I probably would’ve told you that you were crazy. If you would have told me that I end up being Head Undergrad of Dr. Lee’s bioinformatics research lab at K-State, I probably would’ve laughed in your face. I would be lying if I said that I ever had any intent of working in a research lab. Nonetheless, I have a been a researcher in Dr. Lee’s lab for approximately 14 months and have been head undergrad for about 4 months thus far, and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I first joined the Lee Lab in February 2023, while enrolled in BIOL455, General Microbiology. My recruitment to the Lee Lab happened ever so by chance. Dr. lee’s first year Ph.D. student, Jessica, and I both just happened to “lucky” enough get scheduled for a 7:30am lab time. Jessica and I quickly found out we were complete opposites, which meant we work very well together in the lab! I quickly found a deep respect for her and admiration for her knowledge and expertise.

Jessica and I first started out working together with lots of growth curves. We were still working out the beginning of what she was working on. I was very fortunate to be able to jump right in the wet lab by performing these experiments. The information kept flowing and the knowledge kept coming. Throughout my whole time with the lab, we have done numerous growth curves, media production and plate pouring, cell streak isolation and storage. On top of working on Jessica’s project with her, I have had the privileges of learning other lab techniques such as cell culturing of caco-2 cells, and even DNA extractions of plant rhizospheres. I am grateful to be able to jump in and learn new lab techniques and methods whenever I can.

One of my favorite things in the lab beyond wet lab work has been the leadership skills I’ve been taught. The lab surprised me in November 2023 that I would be taking over as Head Undergrad after the current one had graduated. I had never had such an important leadership role in my life. To say I felt underprepared and undeserving would be an understatement. One of the best things about my job as head undergrad is having the ability to connect and work with everyone in the lab and maintain and build those relationships. Much of my role serves as a point of contact between all the undergraduate students and the grad students and Dr. Lee. I can coordinate between all of them to keep the lab running as a smooth, well-oiled machine. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is that I get to lead by example. If I expect my coworkers in the lab to perform a task up to expectations, or maintain cleaning up to expectations, then I should be able to do it too. I pride myself in providing a good example of what is expected of everyone’s contributions to the lab. This goes beyond maintaining a lab cleaning schedule, attending meetings, or even engaging with everyone to build a good work environment. I hope to show that everyone has a purpose within the lab, and everyone has room to grow in their own way. Everything set aside, we are here to grow, learn, develop, and improve ourselves to prepare us for our futures.

I am beyond grateful to work with such a great group of brilliant minds. Maintenance of these duties while taking on all my other duties of a pre-med student such as volunteering, teaching, gaining clinical experience, shadowing, and my education, are of utmost importance to me!