PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY LOCHLAN KRUPA CC’26
“I saw Jane Goodall speak when I was 9, and she signed one of my books,” he says. “I think that’s when I decided I wanted to be a scientist.”
An environmental biology major from Port Townsend, Wash., Krupa is now putting the finishing touches on his first manuscript as a lead author before submitting it to a scientific journal. The research comes out of his time in Professor Andrés Bendesky’s lab, where he has worked since his first year, focusing on betta fish — specifically the role one of particular gene in the fish’s growth and development, which can be determined by editing the gene out.
“What we’re showing for the first time is that the bco1l gene does have an essential function —without it, the fish have a fatal vitamin A deficiency,” he says.
Krupa’s findings aren’t the only things he’s learned in Bendesky’s lab. The collaboration with and support from Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers and other lab members have given him an understanding of what the science life is like. He’s had exhilarating days with exciting results and days when the work can feel monotonous, but he says he’s come to appreciate that it’s all part of the process.
“Before coming into the lab, I had never even held a pipette. I had this vague conception of wanting to be a scientist, but I had no idea about what that really meant,” Krupa says. “It’s taught me what science really is.”
While Krupa spends most of his lab time now writing and editing his research article, he shared a glimpse into what a day in the lab looks like when he is running an experiment.
“If I’m extracting RNA or something like that, I’ll get that done in the morning. An experiment can sometimes get a little tedious if you’ve been working on it for a while, so I like to listen to audiobooks when I’m doing that kind of work — mostly fantasy, like The Lord of the Rings. We also put fish in pairs for breeding, so I’ll check on those fish a few times before lunch.”
“After lunch I run quantitative dPCR (digital polymerase chain reaction) on that RNA, which is one way we analyzed the effect of the bco1l knockout. It takes about two hours to set up, and then it takes another two hours to run the analysis.
“My favorite part of the day is actually seeing the results, whether it’s a summary or a graph or a quick statistical test. During the first experiment that I designed myself, I remember looking through the results one by one, comparing the mutants with the control group and seeing that we had actually found something. That moment was just like, ‘This actually works!’ Those moments make all the less-fun moments worth it.”
“After a long day in the lab with the fish — like this one! — I like to hang out with my friends and my suitemates, watch a movie and just chill out. I’ll also go to the gym, just so I can get that in.”