Brooklynn Venteicher '15: Making her Mark on Medicinal Science

For Brooklynn Venteicher '15, science had always been a fascinating subject. The opportunity to make a difference in people's lives was exciting and rewarding work. Her journey into the science world started at Marian.

Venteicher was involved in music and also had the opportunity to take chemistry at Marian. Marian’s chemistry faculty taught her how to dream big. "Having the availability to dream as big as you wanted and recognizing that you can do anything. That really empowered us. They told us you can be anything you want to be in the world," said Venteicher. That encouragement, combined with Marian's rigorous college prep environment, made her feel prepared to pursue her love for science at the college level.

After graduating from Marian, Venteicher attended the University of Nebraska - Kearney (UNK). Taking organic chemistry her sophomore year became a game changer. She had an incredible professor, Dr. Allen Thomas, Ph.D., who led a phenomenal lab that showed her the astonishing potential of organic chemistry.

This lab led her to an opportunity to be a research student in Dr. Thomas's lab, where she had the chance to study LAT-1 Proteins as well as other proteins - specifically how LAT-1 Proteins can help transport crucial drugs, amino acids, and certain hormones across cell membranes. She held this research position for three summers during her undergraduate years and then worked periodically throughout the school year until graduation.

During her time at UNK, Venteicher published her research in prominent academic journals. She was featured inpublications such as the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and ChemMedChem for her research on LAT-1. Then for her research on a protein called CNT2 which was featured in Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids, another prominent academic journal. She was the first co-author of a paper, which meant she was one of the lead chemists on the project.

A key part of the research process is focusing on telling a story effectively. "You want to tell a story with your chemistry - what you are trying to solve, what you've discovered, and how that is going to make a difference," said Venteicher. Getting published as an undergrad was a core memory for her. "I felt super accomplished and felt like I was making a difference in the medicinal world. In terms of drug development and discovery. It was rewarding," she said.

Venteicher also had the chance to present her research at the National American Chemical Society Conference, the Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, and other notable conferences. "Meeting people at conferences, discussing science, bouncing ideas off each other... I loved the language of it all," she said.

Medicinal research opened the door to a career as a drug discovery chemist. "It allowed me to know the ins and outs of different assays, understanding data and the software we used in undergrad is the same as my job," Venteicher said. All these experiences in the research lab also taught her how medicinal science truly impacts the body. She now serves as an associate scientist at Cogent Biosciences in Boulder, Colorado, where she works on developing life-changing cancer drugs. 

Venteicher offer this advice to Marian girls who want to pursue a career in the medicinal sciences: "Science can be much more specialized, and there is more opportunity in science than people realize."  Brooklynn took the advice of her Marian chemistry teachers to heart and now gets to play a part in making a life-changing difference in people's lives through medicinal science.