Deepening a love of teaching and research

Molecular science PhD candidate Danielle Olding discovered she might have a talent for teaching when she took up tutoring part-time in high school. She expanded this interest during her undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa, while exploring the connection between lecturer performance and student success in her fourth-year thesis. “I have a knack for explaining things in simple words, and that's always been really important to me. That passion grew and led to me being interested in how exactly I could teach my own courses,” says Olding, adding that TMU’s strong interest in science communication is part of what attracted her to take up her master’s degree.

Yet another pull to TMU was her supervisor, professor Michael Olson, who reached out to invite her to his lab. “He was so enjoyable to talk to, and his lab were some of the friendliest people I had met. They are definitely some of my closest friends to this day,” she says. 

Today, Olding has progressed from the master’s into the PhD program and works on ovarian cancer research. “I study the role of the MRCK protein and how we could one day use it as a therapeutic target, as there currently are no targeted treatments on the market,” says Olding, adding that the project became personal when her mother-in-law was diagnosed with the disease. 

Olding recently had the opportunity to pitch her work, which focuses on how cells adapt when the MRCK protein is inhibited, in an annual competition targeting cancer innovations called FACIT Falcon’s Fortunes. She and her partner won the Audience Choice Award for their project. “It was a super amazing experience to not only look at research from a scientific perspective, but from an entrepreneurial perspective, and consider the funding and all the steps that go behind it,” she says, adding that it was also a great networking opportunity.

Now that she has added research to her teaching interests, Olding aspires to continue with both. “I am extremely interested in teaching, and I do love research, so the best of both worlds would be to become a principal investigator myself and be able to continue not only teaching, but also working on my own research, specifically focusing on gynecological cancers and women's health.”

Olding’s undergraduate thesis explored the connection between lecturer performance and student success.