Independent High School Research at BioCurious

At BioCurious, we are proud to support the next generation of scientists pushing the boundaries of independent research. This series highlights driven high school students who utilize our community lab resources and mentorship to take their passion projects beyond the traditional classroom setting—tackling real-world challenges in biology, medicine, and biotechnology.

Bryce Mikolajczak - Senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, California

Over the summer, Bryce studied persisters cells, bacterial cells responsible for chronic infections because of their ability to stay dormant during antibiotic treatments. Specifically, Bryce was investigating if—and how—different carbon metabolites could help the antibiotic Gentamicin kill E. Coli persister cells. The hope is to add to the the growing body of knowledge about persister cells and to ultimately reduce the impact of chronic infections. Working independently at BioCurious, Bryce was grateful for the access to resources beyond high school classroom lab (where the project was started last year), and he really appreciated the feedback and support of researchers there!