#2024UMMCGrad: Nathan Campbell’s scientific training at UMMC began in high school

Published on Monday, May 20, 2024

By: Rachel Vanderford, rvanderford@umc.edu

Photos By: Jay Ferchaud/ UMMC Communications

For PhD graduate Nathan Campbell, the Guyton Research Building at the University of Mississippi Medical Center isn't just a place of study—it's a second home filled with found family and memories he’s built over the past 11 years. 

 “I grew up on these hallways,” he remarked. 

Campbell’s connection to UMMC began in 2013 when he was a 15-year-old sophomore at Murrah High School through his involvement with the Base Pair program. 

Students in the program go through a semester of training at the high school where they learn about research labs and how to handle basic lab equipment. The following semester, they come to UMMC for an hour each day to work in one of the research labs. Campbell was encouraged by his older brother who participated in the program, working with Dr. Stephen Stray, professor of cell and molecular biology. 

“He made it sound like a lot of fun-- getting to go to the hospital, get treated like an adult, getting to work in this really cool environment,” he said. “After watching him get to experience that for two years, because he’s two years older than me, I always thought, ‘That. I want to do that.’ 

“So, I applied when I was a freshman, even though I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to, because I really wanted to do it. Normally, you would apply as a sophomore and start when you’re a junior, but I was a good student, and I was able to start a year early.” 

Campbell interviewed with Dr. Babbette LaMarca, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and director of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, during the first semester of the program and has continued to work in her lab doing pre-eclampsia research ever since. 

“I have had the pleasure of watching Nathan grow from a young high school student interested in science into a thoughtful, diligent, meticulous, compassionate scientist who is full of exciting ideas and energy,” said LaMarca. 

“I was fortunate that he chose my lab for his research journey beginning at Murrah in the Base Pair Program,” she said. “In addition to being very determined, creative and productive, Nathan is honest, reliable, and friendly and respectful toward others and in general a wonderfully nice guy and supportive colleague and young mentor.” 

Toward the end of his senior year of high school, Campbell realized that his time in the Base Pair program was ending. Determined to continue his lab work before starting college, he applied and was accepted to the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program at UMMC. The future George Washington University freshman would return to Mississippi from Washington D.C. every summer throughout his undergraduate career to take part in the program. 

“I thought I might do some sort of tissue engineering one day, like growing kidneys or livers or something,” he said. “But with product design, the professors would ask you to do this impossible thing and your assignment was essentially to fail for a semester straight, and if you failed correctly, you pass. I didn’t like that.  

“I like to fail a little bit, but then start to succeed and see those efforts come full circle,” he said. "With my experience in the lab, seeing projects go from start to finish, that didn’t really meet my expectations. So, every year I would apply to the program and come back and work the whole summer because it was just such a wonderful opportunity.” 

Between his sophomore and junior year, Campbell was encouraged by Lamarca to write a review paper. Campbell, who much prefers conducting experiments to writing about them, said the experience made him hesitant to pursue a career in research.  

"I actually applied for medical school and graduate school because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do,” he said. “I knew if I went to graduate school for research, I would have a lot more paper writing in my future. But now, I enjoy it a lot more, and it's much easier because it’s a skill that I’ve developed. I look back on writing that short review paper and realize that was nothing, but it did give me the confidence I needed to keep going on this trajectory.” 

“Throughout his time in my laboratory, he has mentored and supervised 21 trainees from all different career phases, from high school to MFM fellows and has helped each one of them complete their works for publication,” said LaMarca. “Overall, Nathan is well positioned to grow as an independent, motivated young researcher and compassionate mentor that will contribute to the growth of immunopharmacology and its use in today’s medicine. More importantly, I feel that his compassion for others will benefit him as he becomes a mentor for the next generation of scientists here at UMMC.” 

After studying pre-eclampsia for a while, he decided to broaden his skillset for his dissertation, so he began working with Dr. Barbara Alexander, professor of physiology and biophysics. 

“Pre-eclampsia is very closely associated with fetal growth restriction,” he said. “So instead of just focusing on what’s happening in the moms, I started looking at what is going on with the immune system of the babies.” 

Campbell said it was great to work with Alexander on this because although she has over 20 years' experience in the field, he brought something new to the research through his experience in immunology. Collaborating on these shared projects with Alexander while working in Lamarca’s lab has allowed him to carve out his own niche in research.

Through his years at UMMC, Campbell has published over 20 papers, won seven national and international awards and has been funded by the NIH for his doctoral studies. After graduation, he will continue developing his research in pre-eclampsia as he moves forward in a post-doctoral position at UMMC.