Betsy Ryerson

Betsy Ryerson found that conducting cancer research is exactly what her brain was made to do.

After spending time in a biochemistry lab at Winthrop, at a summer honors program at Harvard Medical School and then at the University of Florida, she has found exactly the field she wants to pursue.

“As far as research goes, I find the complex and minute details of biochemistry to be simply beautiful and humbling,” said the junior biochemistry major from Rock Hill who is in Winthrop’s honors program. “I find such joy in learning these complexities, and doing research allows me to learn them first-hand. I am also a problem-solver at heart, so knowing that my work may solve a current issue and help other people is particularly motivating.”

She would love to have her own research lab and mentor Ph.D. students because she knows how much her own mentors have positively impacted her life. “They have supported me, encouraged me, and pushed me to test (and thereby expand) my limits. Their mentorship has helped me develop as a researcher and as a person, and I hope that I can serve my future students in the same way,” Ryerson said.

Her academic advisor, Chemistry Professor Christian Grattan, said Ryerson stood out during her freshman year and was invited to join Professor Jason Hurlbert’s laboratory in the summer. For two months, she spent time isolating, purifying and testing crystallization conditions for human acid ceramidase 1, which is an enzyme that can be targeted for cancer treatment. 

From there, the professors encouraged Ryerson to apply to the Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program (SHURP) at Harvard Medical School. She spent 10 weeks there during the summer of 2024 working in the lab of Andrew Kruse, under the mentorship of Victor Calvillo-Miranda, a current graduate student.

After her summer stint at Harvard, Ryerson was encouraged to apply to present her research findings during the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) on Nov. 13-16, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was one of more than a dozen students awarded a Presentation Award in the discipline of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for her poster presentation.

In the summer of 2025, she was one of five students accepted to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the University of Florida. She participated in research in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, working in the lab of Jonathan Bird.

She said the Bird Lab studies the molecular mechanisms of hearing loss in order to design treatments. Her research, specifically, examined a motor protein called myosin 15a, which is essential for the development of stereocilia. Those are structures in the ear that are necessary for hearing. Under the guidance of Bird, her independent research project focused on tracking the movement of single myosin 15a molecules in animal cells. In the end, she successfully developed a workflow for monitoring myosin 15a movement in cells using fluorescent microscopy and collected preliminary data about the velocity of myosin 15a. “Excitingly, my work was the first in the Bird Lab to apply these techniques,” she said, adding that she will present her work in the fall at the same ABRCMS conference that she attended last year.

In preparation for teaching, Ryerson has tutored general chemistry students since the spring semester of her freshman year through the Academic Success Center.  She started tutoring organic chemistry in the spring of her sophomore year through the chemistry department, as well as mentoring new students about lab techniques and explaining the theories behind them. “Both tutoring and mentoring are ways that I can practice empowering my fellow students to help them achieve their goals,” she said.

Ryerson doesn’t just spend time in a science laboratory. She loves playing the French horn with the Carolinas Wind Orchestra and is a member of the Christian campus ministry, Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). She sings on its worship team and helps organize volunteer events for RUF and the Winthrop Chemical Society. 

“Outside the lab, I value making time for what brings me joy, since those communities and creative outlets are what make me fully ‘Betsy.’” In everything, though, whether I am doing research at Harvard or laughing with friends, I aim to live to the glory of God alone,” she said.