Veona Cutinho is a senior majoring in genomics and molecular genetics with a minor in mathematics at Michigan State University. She works in the Cellular Reprogramming Lab underDr. Jose Cibelliand is the founder and editor-in-chief of SPARC, MSU’s first undergraduate-led academic journal. After graduation, sheplans to pursue a doctorate in medical science at the University of Cambridge.

The simplicity of this recipe struck me as a high school student, sparking my (loyal) fascination with genetics. That initial curiosity for this subject has stayed with me ever since. Dr. Jose Cibelli wrote the paper outlining the process of cloning, and following his work led me, at 17, to Michigan State University. In my first semester at MSU, I reached out to him, and I’ve now been working in his lab for nearly three years.

Researching as a freshman is an atypical college experience, and it’s something uniquely possible at MSU. Over the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of working with remarkable mentors across various exciting fields—from epidemiology and public health to generating heart organoids to replace animal models, to designing my own protein tools to study disease—and yes, even cloning!