Name: Mallory Spencer
Job Title and Current Employer: Researcher I in the Drummond-Barbosa Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Home Town: Glouster, OH
Current Location: Madison, WI
Short Description of your time in the Bacteriology MS Program: I studied natural product synthesis in the lab of Prof. Michael Thomas as part of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. One project was examining the contributions of certain gene clusters to branched-chain fatty acid synthesis in Streptomyces. My other project involved uncovering mechanisms of substrate specificity in nonribosomal peptide synthetases. Both projects had an ultimate goal of utilizing fatty acid and nonribosomal peptide synthesis to engineer desired bioproducts.
MS Degree Received in: 2023
Describe your career path from graduate school to your current position. Throughout graduate school, I wanted to continue on the path of studying bioenergy or environmental microbiology—areas of research that improve our ability to understand and coexist with the world around us. I knew it would be beneficial for me to expand my skill set while I worked toward this goal, so I started a position as a Research Specialist in Prof. Tu Anh Huynh’s lab in the Department of Food Science, studying virulence factors of Listeria monocytogenes. After about a year, I decided to pivot and began my current position as a Researcher in the Genetics Department, in the lab of Prof. Daniela Drummond-Barbosa. Currently I work mainly with Drosophila melanogaster, or fruit flies, though I do use E. coli to carry out cloning.
Describe a “day in the life” of your current job. The work of the Drummond-Barbosa lab involves studying physiology and metabolism of the fruit fly ovary. My primary project at the moment involves roles of sugar transporters in different steps of oogenesis. The main hands-on skills I learned from graduate school that I still use in my current position involve molecular biology and cloning. More subjective skills from my time in the Thomas lab include how to think about research problems and asking the right questions. Currently I perform lots of fluorescence microscopy as well to visualize the ovaries that I dissect and immunostain.
What is your favorite story/memory from your time in the Bacteriology MS Program? I look back fondly on how many of the people in the program with me would make plans to spend time together, such as going to lunch as a group. We enjoyed each other’s company, and several of us are still friends a couple of years after our time in the program.
What is your best piece of advice for current graduate students preparing for their careers? Become the expert! Not everyone in graduate school will go into research for their careers, but I believe that it is important for anyone to know that becoming the expert is vital to success. From a research perspective, I mean that your PI is not supposed to master all knowledge of the project—you as the primary researcher are. This is a skill, so don’t freak out if it’s difficult at first to know how to ask the right questions and find the right answers. I believe this advice will serve you in many different ways—whatever path you pursue—by enhancing your understanding of your work and opening new avenues to follow.
What are your interests outside of work? Outside of work, I like to go on walks, play soccer, and learn to crochet. I also write fantasy stories such as a podcast that I am currently releasing and a novel that will come out in October 2025!