Kade Townsend is a senior studying Microbiology and has been doing research on antibiotic-resistant pathogens in the Chandler Lab since his freshman year. He has been awarded the Astronaut Scholarship, Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence, & Goldwater Scholarship.

Kade's Research at KU

“I study social behaviors in bacteria and how they relate to antibiotic resistance. Specifically, I'm looking at bacteria that commonly infects people with cystic fibrosis and how [that bacteria] undergoes different changes that affect the way cells communicate with each other and how they respond to antibiotics.”

How did you first become interested in doing this kind of research?

“When I was in high school, I took a microbiology class, and I thought it was interesting that these microscopic organisms that we can't even see with our own eyes are able to cause such pressing concerns in public health. […] I also had a major interest in DNA in general, […] so when I found Dr. Chandler's lab, I was like, ‘This is exactly the kind of work I want to do’ and I've loved it ever since.” 

”That really stood out to me, not only could I be pursuing my own passion, but also potentially contributing to bettering the lives of other people.”

What does your research look like on a day-to-day basis?

“It varies depending on the point in the semester. At some points it might be a lot of searching through literature figuring out a plan for how to proceed next. Then when it comes to experiments, I'm in the lab messing with a lot of bacterial cultures, testing how certain amounts of antibiotics might prevent them from growing. [To do this] I make a lot of different bacterial mutants where I create different mutations in their DNA [...]and then I use liquid cultures where I do assay experiments and test their resistance to different antibiotics.”

Have you made any discoveries?

“We identified a certain mutation that reverses how we thought quorum sensing affected antibiotic resistance. Quorum sensing is the specific behavior where […] bacterial populations secrete a signal and when there's a lot of signals 
[released] cells start responding to it by either worsening the disease or become more resistant to antibiotics. 
We found a mutation that actually reverses [quorum sensing] and if bacteria have this mutation, turning off quorum sensing is actually making them more resistant [to antibiotics]. This is interesting because bacteria that couldn't do this social behavior [...] are actually more common in people who have cystic fibrosis. [Before] nobody understood why they were popping up if they seemed to be less advantageous., now we have a potential explanation as to why.”

What did you find most challenging about doing your project?

“Getting involved in research, I definitely struggled with this when I started. Talking to professors sometimes seems very daunting, especially if you're just coming to college[…] the more experience you have talking to professors the less you have this fear, once you realize that they are also just people it becomes a lot easier to just have conversations with your professors and not like, you know, sit there and think like, “Oh my gosh, here's an expert in whatever field that they're in”. I feel like that was that was probably my biggest challenge, learning how to communicate with professors that I was interacting with.”

“After I graduate, I definitely want to pursue a PhD in Microbiology, where I hope to focus on bacterial pathogenesis and the genetic aspects of infectious disease. Moving forward I'm ultimately hoping to continue research. I don't know if I want to go into academia or industry. I definitely would like to lead my own lab because I want to be coming up with my own research questions to be able to pursue.”

Final Thoughts

“I would say something that I've learned throughout my undergrad career is that, yes, it's super important to do well in your studies, especially if you want to stay in the field. It's best to learn as much as you can when you're an undergrad but don't like break your back trying to be the best because you're learning this stuff for the first time. Give yourself a break when you need it.
 For me to do that, I love to go kayaking. It's very peaceful. It's very therapeutic. I think finding something like that, especially in college,[…] is super important. Find something that can help take your mind off of all things academic.”