An Interview with Edna Chiang
Edna Chiang is a passionate and articulate graduate student studying microbiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Suen and Carey labs. Edna, an accomplished researcher who was recently awarded an NSF GRFP, also runs the Suen lab twitter. Outside of running #MooMondays and studying ground squirrel hibernation, she works with her lab to develop outreach activities about hibernation and microbiology for children.Â
Soleil: Could you tell me a little about how you got interested in microbiology, or science in general?
Edna: When I was really little, I wanted to be a vet or a zoologist. Sadly, one day I realized, âEdna, you canât do that, youâre pretty much allergic to any warm-blooded animal thatâs not a humanâ. So that kind of dashed my biology dreams into the dust until high school. My school offered this dual genetics and microbiology course, taught by a teacher who had gotten his Ph.D. in microbiology. I took that class, realized it was a lot of fun, and have been into microbiology ever since then.
S: Could you tell me a little bit about your thesis work and research at UW-Madison?
E: I use hibernation as a way to address various problems, including biomedical issues like diabetes, obesity, and induced comas. Hibernation is an ecological strategy that some animals use to survive the winter when it is very cold and there arenât a lot of resources available. What Iâm interested in is how mammals, specifically thirteen-lined ground squirrels, survive hibernation with the help of their gut microbes, bringing in the really complex symbiosis between microbes and their hosts. During the summer the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, which is local to Wisconsin, gorges itself on food and becomes obese. When fall rolls in and the weather gets cooler, they start hibernating, which is basically a slowing down of everything in the body including metabolism. The squirrels stop eating, stop drinking, and their body temperature drops down to about 4 degrees Celsius, the same as the temperature outside during winter. This is really crazy when you think about it, because they are doing this for about six months in a year, not eating and not drinking. How do they survive and how do their microbes help them? Once the weather warms up in the spring, they start eating and drinking again, and repeat the whole cycle. Itâs this really dynamic change that happens in these animals that live right in our backyard and we have no idea how they are doing it, so the goal is to try to understand better how the microbes are helping the squirrels survive, and vice versa. It would be amazing to one day induce hibernation in non-hibernating animals, like humans. If we could get astronauts to hibernate in deep space travel, we would save a lot of energy and resources during space flight.
S: I never really thought about deep-space travel and hibernation, but thatâs really cool.
E: Yeah, itâs kind of science-fictiony, but it is something we as a scientific community are definitely considering. Hibernation scientists, including my co-advisor Hannah Carey, have interacted with the European Space Agency and NASA to discuss the possibility of human hibernation.
S: When did you first get interested in using twitter to connect with other scientists and engage in science communication?
E: I really disliked Twitter; I just didnât understand the point of it. My graduate student mentor, Marian Schmidt, whom I worked with when I was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan was the one who actually first got me interested. She really pushed me to have an online, professional presence. She got into science twitter, and I kept hearing from her âoh, look at this cool article I found on twitter, look at this discussion thread thatâs happening on science twitterâ. After hearing about all the interesting science she was finding online, I jumped into science twitter. I was surprised by how supportive and interactive it was. Itâs been a very unexpectedly useful tool to have.
S: When did you take over the Suen lab twitter?
E: The Suen lab twitter began because another Suen lab graduate student, Madison Cox, took a class on social media for scientists. Part of the class was to create an online presence for your lab. She kept it active during the summer when she had more time, but she got busier during the school year and wasnât updating it as regularly as she was during the summer. So, when I joined the lab, I was like âyou guys have a really sad lab twitter, can I help liven it upâ, and everyone said âgo for it.â That was one of the first things I did when I joined the lab actually.
S: Is twitter the main way that you engage in science communication?
E: Twitter is probably the way that I engage with the broadest audience, but I like to do a lot of outreach activities outside of that work as well. The Carey lab, has, and are continuing to work with the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Research to develop outreach activities relating to hibernation and microbiology. With the Carey lab, I have participated in the Wisconsin Science Festival, which is a state-wide festival that happens every fall. We are also a part of Saturday Science, which is an outreach activity which happens on the first Saturday of every month, with an overarching theme and various science exploration stations to explore different topics. My outreach, at least currently, is more catered toward younger kids.
S: Why is science communication important to you?
E: For me, it was something that was very important from the beginning. Iâm a second-generation immigrant and first-generation college student. My parents moved here, and  I was born and raised in the US. Because my parents didn't come from a very strong academic background, they didnât know a lot about science, which was something I was really interested in from when I was little. One of the only ways I gained exposure to science was when my mom encouraged me to participate in a lot of after-school outreach activities. If it werenât for all those activities, I donât think I would have learned enough about science to want to pursue a career in it. I think most of my interest in science communication comes from the impact outreach had on me, and wanting to provide those same opportunities for children in Madison, and more broadly speaking, anyone that comes from a slightly more disadvantaged background.
You can find Edna on Twitter here










