RANDALL WESTRICK
GRADUATE STUDENT
University of Michigan

Randy Westrick’s career in genetics started on his family’s 1,300-acre dairy farm in Michigan. “We had hundreds of animals,” says Westrick, now a Ph.D. student in HHMI investigator David Ginsburg’s lab at the University of Michigan. “We were always trying to improve the quality of our dairy cattle through genetics.”

As an undergraduate at Michigan State University, Westrick initially pursued his interest in agriculture. He worked in a pesticide research center studying biological-control agents—managing pests such as insects by using their natural predators. Through his undergraduate science coursework, however, he discovered his passion for human physiology and genetics. After graduating in 1993, Westrick worked as a technician in Ginsburg’s lab with the intention of enrolling in medical school. After several successful years in the lab, Ginsburg advised Westrick to pursue a career in research.

Now Westrick studies a disease called venous thrombosis, a disorder where the blood forms clots inside blood vessels. He examines mice with increased blood coagulation and tries to find the genetic component behind the disorder. “I have been working on it for about five years, and I think I’m getting close to isolating some of the genes involved,” Westrick says.

Westrick has seen many generations of mice come and go throughout his years of research. “My research involves a lot of mouse breeding,” he says. “Taking care of the mice is actually similar to the way we took care of our dairy cattle. We had to monitor them, make sure they were healthy, and keep careful records. The recordkeeping schemes are similar, so it was really easy for me to transition into mouse genetics.”

He still helps manage the farm, in fact. His family has shifted from dairy farming to raising beef cattle and growing genetically modified crops. He believes that advances in genetics will improve crop quality, increase yield, and reduce the workload for farmers. “Basically, advances such as herbicide resistance have been driven by transgenic technology, which is the same technology that I am using in the lab,” says Westrick.

Outside the lab, Westrick stays active. He swam competitively in college and continues to swim and play other sports in his spare time. He also works on the farm when he can, planting and harvesting his crops and tending to his cattle.

Westrick is quick to emphasize the scarcity of true free time for a scientist. “I think that to really contribute to science, you have to live it,” he says. He believes that scientists must invest themselves in their research and constantly bounce concepts and questions around in their heads. “Some people think they understand the science if they understand the techniques that they are using,” Westrick says, but research requires more than simply using the latest experimental techniques, and scientists must keep the greater goals of human health in mind.

Westrick participates in Ask a Scientist because, he says, “I like curious people. Curiosity has driven the development of modern human civilization. Besides, I enjoy asking lots of questions myself, and I want to have answers.”

Author: Shelley Dubois
Updated: 10/15/07 00:11