Sarah Tsuruo came to the University of Connecticut knowing she was interested in biology, citing the positive influence of her high school science teachers. At UConn, she has turned that interest into a productive undergraduate research career.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo is a biological sciences major with a double minor in molecular and cell biology and women\u2019s, gender and sexuality studies (WGSS). Tsuruo believes her WGSS minor helps inform her understanding of the biology field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love talking about the different intersections that no one talks about in biology,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo knew she wanted to do research as an undergraduate and reached out to professors whose work aligned with her interests, including professor Daniel Bolnick in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen everything matched up, I was really excited to join his lab,\u201d Tsuruo says. \u201cSo here I am three years later.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Bolnick\u2019s lab, Tsuruo studies the interplay between the immune and endocrine systems, which led to a Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) award from UConn\u2019s Office of Undergraduate Research this past summer. Tsuruo continues to explore how a fibrosis immune response affects sex hormones in stickleback fish.<\/p>\n
As someone who wants to pursue a career in medicine, Tsuruo is interested in how these sex-specific immune differences can be translated to humans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the evolutionary and ecology aspects of my EEB lab provides a more holistic picture of health and how that translates to humans,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo credits Bolnick with helping her understand the work when she first started.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a really incredible mentor who takes the time to break things down,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
For Tsuruo, this patience and close mentoring is one of the things that prevented her from becoming discouraged and helped her learn about research.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn STEM fields, a lot of undergraduates may be unsupported by the higher ups in the field, so it\u2019s great to have a mentor who walks you through it,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo also worked at UConn Health as a clinical research intern with professor Ernst Reichenberger, where she researched quality-of-life measures for keloid patients who suffer from abnormal, tumor-like growths on otherwise healthy skin.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the ability to bring a new topic into the research field I\u2019m working in and bringing more intersectionality is really exciting,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo\u2019s ability to bridge fields and topics is also evident in her work in the community. Through a Change Grant, Tsuruo developed a trauma-informed STEM curriculum for children in a domestic violence shelter this past summer. These children often have different classroom needs from those who have not experienced that kind of trauma. She says she was inspired to take on this challenge thanks to her experiences as a WGSS minor and STEM mentor at UConn\u2019s Community Outreach 4H Vernon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to understand how to interact with these kids as appropriate for what they\u2019ve been through in the way that\u2019s going to help them be the best they can be,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
The curriculum included a focus on fostering connections between children to form a support network.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really useful for these kids to be accepted as they are,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo is currently working on her honors thesis where she devised her own question and is performing this independent project in Bolnick\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo is looking at the interaction between sex hormones and the immune system. She hopes to discover what tradeoffs organisms make in this interaction in order to optimize survival.<\/p>\n
While research can be a challenging puzzle at times, Tsuruo says the end results make the effort worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you finally get it, it\u2019s so rewarding to complete work that is significant and is leading to something,\u201d Tsuruo observes.<\/p>\n
After graduating from UConn, Tsuruo plans to go to medical school to become a pediatrician or OB-GYN. She intends to continue to incorporate research into her career with a special focus on the social determinants of health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think research is very important to my career,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
Tsuruo recommends undergraduates interested in joining a lab take the time to find one that aligns with their interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important to give yourself the confidence you need to pick something that fits your goals,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
One thing Tsuruo has learned from her experiences at UConn is that research calls for determination.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be a quick thinker, resolve problems, and keep working on it,\u201d Tsuruo says.<\/p>\n
Students interested in learning more about research opportunities at UConn can check out virtual events during the <\/em>Month of Discovery<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Follow UConn Research on<\/em> Twitter<\/em><\/a> &<\/em> LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sarah Tsuruo ’21 (CLAS) says pursuing a multifaceted career as an undergraduate researcher requires determination. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":165170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2076,2235,2225,2458],"tags":[2236,80,2241],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-165164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-research","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-undergraduates","tag-college-of-liberal-arts-sciences","tag-research","tag-undergraduate-research","series-meet-the-researcher"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 07:38:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165164"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165183,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165164\/revisions\/165183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/165170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165164"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=165164"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=165164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}