Student’s curiosity and drive transform a Centre lab space

Centre College senior Simon Forsting was instantly fascinated when he first learned about patch-clamp electrophysiology, a laboratory technique scientists use to “listen in” on the tiny electrical signals that cells use to communicate.

Forsting’s interest stemmed from a sophomore-year visit to the University of Michigan to meet the director of a summer research program to which he had been accepted. Over a meal, the director mentioned his work in patch-clamp electrophysiology, and Forsting knew he wanted to explore this technology more.

There was one significant hurdle: The process requires highly specialized neuroscience equipment typically found only at major research universities and medical schools.

But the Behavioral Neuroscience major wasn’t going to let his dream end so quickly.

Students are often told they can shape their Centre experience, but Forsting wondered if that included building a piece of advanced technology capable of measuring electrical activity in individual neurons.

When he returned to campus, Forsting mentioned the technology to his advisor, H.W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Professor of Neuroscience Melissa Burns-Cusato. The response surprised him.

"[My professors] basically said, if you want it, do it," Forsting said.

Centre already had some of the components needed but Burns-Cusato knew other expensive equipment would need to be purchased.

What followed was a two-week hunt across campus, piecing together what the College had and identifying what was needed to complete the setup.

"My advisors gave me the number for the technology company and told me to call them up and figure it out,” Forsting said. “I had to determine what equipment we had, what we didn’t have, possible costs, budgets, the list went on and on.”

He had no blueprint and only a basic understanding of how the technology even worked. What he did have was deep intellectual curiosity and a group of professors willing to hand him the ball and tell him to run with it.

The patch-clamp rig building process began in the fall. He worked with other faculty and students from across majors to support various components of the assembly.

A functional patch-clamp rig now lives in a dedicated lab space at Centre, ready to support faculty research and give students hands-on experience with technology that few undergraduates have.

The challenging thing about patch-clamp rigs is that they are continually evolving. They are modular and can be updated and upgraded based on the needs of a specific research project or new, emerging technology.

But Forsting is quick to point out that the equipment itself was never really the point.

"Most students will not use this machine for their own research, and that's okay," he said. "What they will do is come in, solve an electrical grounding issue or figure out some problem I've missed — and there will be hundreds of problems I've missed.

“Through that process of building, using and troubleshooting the patch-clamp rig, they gain experience with the microscope, with electrical systems, with how to work through a giant complicated system and eliminate possible issues one by one. That skill, understanding the whole so you can solve the little parts, is enormously useful."
 

What Forsting learned, and what he believes future students will discover, is that more lessons can be found during the journey than at the finish line.

It also meant learning to write a grant proposal, negotiate with vendors for other components, manage a small team of fellow students and navigate the logistical side of scientific research that rarely makes it into a classroom.

Forsting describes those experiences as among the most valuable of his time at Centre, not because they were easy, but because his professors trusted him enough to let him work through them.

"I made a ton of mistakes I'll never make again," he said. "And I'm so lucky that my professors put that trust in me."

The relationships between faculty and students, Forsting believes, are what make the Centre special. When he visited the University of Kentucky to learn from researchers there, their first reaction to his project was disbelief — not because it was impossible, but because it was so unusual for an undergraduate to be leading something like it.

Forsting graduates this spring and will head to a research assistantship at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He leaves behind a functional lab, a team of trained students positioned to carry the work forward and a piece of equipment that institutions many times the size of the Centre would be proud to have.

"Centre is what you make it," he said. "I wanted to do this, and every professor around me said yes. Having that experience as an undergraduate, that's really special."