Lance Xu is a junior completing a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and currently conducting cancer research. He is a recipient of the 2025 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. In an interview with The News-Letter, Xu described his research experience and future career plans.
The News-Letter: Could you briefly describe your research?
Lance Xu: My research journey started my junior year of high school. I started my own psychology research project based on the framing effects and I did research on something that hadn't really been researched before in the field, and I got some really good results. I won some pretty decent awards at science fairs. And then my senior year, there was a program that my high school offered where we collaborated with the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center. And I spent a year where I did research on hepatocellular carcinoma, which is a type of liver cancer. And then I liked that kind of wet lab research a lot. Once I got to Hopkins, I joined the Andrew Holland Lab, which specializes in mitosis. In that lab, I worked on finding specific synthetic lethal gene pairs that would allow for the development of cancer therapeutics, taking advantage of the dysregulated mitosis that cancer cells have. Basically, I investigated genes that played roles in cancer and tried to see if dysregulating certain genes could be a possible avenue for therapeutics for cancer. After a year of the Holland Lab, I joined the [Jordan] Green Lab. I work on engineering PBAE (poly(beta-amino ester)) nanoparticles to effectively deliver transcription factors.
N-L: What drew you to this particular field?
LX: Before my senior year, I got into a program, and basically the only option was to do molecular biology research or cancer research. And I ended up doing a year of research basically every day, and it was really fun. That’s what got me into this field. My interest just took me there.
N-L: How has Hopkins been supportive of your research, and how has it created opportunities for you to be able to work on your project?
LX: Hopkins is definitely very good for research. It was actually very easy to get a position. I emailed two professors, and one of them — the [Andrew] Holland Lab — responded. So it's very easy to get a position. And honestly, Hopkins has a lot of research support for undergraduates. The [Hopkins Office for Undergraduate Research] has been very good for supporting me. I got [Provost's Undergraduate Research Award (PURA)] my first year here, which I'm very fortunate to have gotten. And they funded my summer, so I was able to work on a lot of the stuff I wrote about in my Goldwater over the summer of my freshman year. So overall, I think the support for research at Hopkins is very nice, and it definitely helped me to get this award, and it'll definitely help me in the future when I plan to go to grad school.
N-L: What was the Goldwater application process like?
LX: You first get nominated, and there’s four people that can get nominated as part of the internal thing. You have to write a three-page research summary on a project that you've done before, and I wrote it on my [Andrew] Holland Lab project dealing with mitosis and finding genes that are dysregulated in mitosis. It’s three pages: Sounds like a lot, but it's very hard to put everything that you want in three pages. I ended up spending weeks on weeks cutting down, like two sentences. Every single word in that essay was very hard. It took me a really, really, really, really long time, but after meeting with my mentor many times back and forth, like, literally, five or six times, and sending it to my friends, I finally got it submitted. Also, as part of that, you need to write a short two-pager of all the research you've done. I would definitely recommend to start early and to definitely consult your resources.
N-L: Did you encounter any challenges or difficulties during the research process? What do you wish could be changed about the field of research and how the research scene is going?
LX: In research, you will fail. And I have failed many times. I'm very, very, very fortunate that I joined at a place where my mentor had ironed out all the initial stages. So it was just turning out data at that point. But I got to the point where, once my mentor left for her industry job, I started my own projects and became more independent. I realized how much failure is really in research. I spent almost the whole summer chasing different projects and starting different things, and I think, quite literally, none of them worked. So it can be discouraging, but you need to realize that that's how research is. You will always have periods where, especially if you're doing your own independent project, you'll definitely have periods where nothing will work. But if you stick through it and lean on your mentor’s experience a little bit, ask them what's going wrong, collaborate with them, you will get through it just fine. But it's very hard to fail and still find motivation to continue, but you need to in order to survive.
N-L: What are you looking forward to doing in the future with the research and the background that you have right now?
LX: I initially applied to Goldwater as a [doctoral student]. I'm now thinking about a MD-PhD, and my dream right now is to run a lab specializing in finding cellular mechanisms that underpin cancer development, and also applying that to the clinic maybe as an oncologist. I definitely know that I want to run my own lab and deal with cancer. So that's what I plan to do in the future. It’ll be a long journey. An MD-PhD is eight or nine years. But hopefully by the end of that, I want to integrate my research into the clinic with both my MD and [doctoral degree].
N-L: What advice do you have for students who are looking for research or looking to apply to these scholarships?
LX: My advice for students is that if you want to apply for PURA, Goldwater or any of those fellowships, start research by joining a lab where there's a very supportive environment. Set what you want from the lab right from the start; say, “Hey, I'm trying to become more independent. I want to do this in the future. I want to apply to fellowships.” Set expectations. Go into a lab a few times a week, work on the data with your mentor, and then when it's time to apply for a fellowship, start early and consult with mentors often. Maybe they can revise your draft back and forth, and then after that, hopefully get the fellowship.
N-L: This is a little specific, but I know that a lot of students are struggling to find labs who would let them be independent. Getting a good mentor is also really hard. What made you realize that your mentor was a good mentor?
LX: Honestly, sometimes it's just like a vibe check. Other times, I think it's very important when you first start during the lab, maybe the interview part, you definitely want to communicate to your mentor about what you want to do. I think it's important to tell your mentor that you want to become more independent. Some students just want to pipette all day, and that's fine. But some students want to become more independent. They want to lead their own projects, and that's really fine. Mentors see both types of students, but if you don't tell them what you want to do, then they can't help you. So it's very important to communicate to your mentor about what you want in the future, and if your mentor is very supportive, then that's a green flag. I think the best, my best advice is to set your expectations straight away.
