From CRISPR to Courtside

How Two Honors Students Are Setting the Stage for Success in Male-Dominated Fields

By Jenna Crowley

On Sunday nights, third year Sophia King shows up to Shambaugh Auditorium for her sorority’s weekly chapter meeting, dressed to the nines in business casual-wear, her hair pristinely curled over her shoulders. She does not look like she spent a third of her day in class, a third supporting Foundations of Biology as a Teaching Intern (TA), and another third taking care of homework the moment she returns home. But in reality, King’s calendar could give the average person a headache just to look at, let alone live.

Nearly three-quarters of her way through her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, King’s research topic is difficult to describe in layman’s terms. “I research early events in the homologous recombination pathway of DNA double-stranded break repair using C. elegans as a model system,” she explained–and according to her, this definition was the watered-down explanation of her work.

Homologous recombination (HR) is a method by which a cell repairs harmful broken DNA, where two similar molecules exchange genetic information. Under the mentorship of Dr. Sarit Smolikove, King examines HR in C. elegans, a microscopic, transparent worm that allows researchers to view nuclei in the stages of DNA repair. HR is one of the most effective ways to cause repairs without error, and while King does not work directly with the gene editing tool CRISPR, her lab does use it to generate strains of C. elegans and create gene knockouts: a strategy that renders a specific gene inactive and allows researchers to study its impact/function.

King has maintained her role as an undergraduate student researcher with the Department of Biology for over a year, and her time in the lab has helped illuminate her interest in becoming a doctor. She noted a particular interest in Iowa’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). She would endure another twelve years of schooling, at least, but her tone remains level and unphased as she discusses such a long commitment. 

“[Research] is just a great exercise for your brain,” she said. “Like, you’re thinking of problems, of potential reasons why this might happen, creating protocols and executing those protocols, looking at and analyzing data.”

Although her path might not lead exactly to research, she believes her experience in Dr. Smolikove’s lab will be clinically relevant to her future career, as well as contribute to her senior honors thesis. Finishing her thesis will allow her to graduate with Honors in the Major, as well as round out her experiential learning requirements for University Honors in one fell swoop.

According to the Department of Biology’s website, the University of Iowa receives over $6 million in annual funding for its biology programs alone. Students have the opportunity to engage hands-on with the many experts and pioneers leading their fields, and Dr. Smolikove’s lab is one of many that believes in the research contributions of honors students.

As many positions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remain heavily male-dominated, King is glad to find her foot already in the door before she crosses the stage at Spring 2027 commencement. She mentioned that many of the students in her medicine-based classes at Iowa are women, but that there is still a disparity in many professional medical specialties where women struggle to find a strong footing, especially for mothers who face the social pressures of giving up their career.

King specifically recalled when she shadowed her father, an orthopedic surgeon, in a procedure, and was asked by a coworker if she was hoping to become a nurse. “I have so much respect for nurses,” she said, “and I would never want to talk down on them, but it is the stereotype that women are nurses and men are doctors. I know that if my brother was shadowing my dad, she would have never asked that.”

King noted that the Honors Program was a great motivator to get involved in a variety of her STEM-related interests and display her strengths for medical school, while also allowing her to befriend other honors students in her field, many of whom she has studied with since first year. She was also able to elevate core classes, like Principles of Chemistry, into an honors course, broadening her scope of understanding by attending and reflecting on three campus-based scientific presentations.

“My biggest piece of advice for women coming into college and STEM is just put yourself out there,” she urged. “Go to office hours, go to that scientific talk. Go to everything. Don’t be afraid even if you feel like you’re being annoying, even if you feel like you’re scared. You never know what doors will open when you do things like that.”

Not dissimilarly, second year Malaina Elliott is striving to take full advantage of her honors experience to prepare for a future in the sports world, where she too finds herself operating within the shared constraints of a largely male-dominated career path.

Elliott has already heard it all, including those few voices trying to be louder and more frequent in the room than her own.

“I would say that the landscape [in sports fields] is changing, which is great, and there’s a lot more women in these classes and fields,” she said, “but at the same time there’s also people who maybe don’t want women there, or their implicit bias says that women don’t belong in sport. They might believe that, yeah, their sister should play sports. But when I’m in a classroom talking about the WNBA or gender and sexuality in sport, it becomes uncomfortable sometimes.” 

Elliott can often be spotted on campus wearing the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) merchandise and happily discussing the most recent games played in Unrivaled, the 3v3 summer league that many WNBA athletes participate in during the off-season, with anyone who shares an interest. 

Elliott is currently enrolled in Cultures of Basketball with Visiting Associate Professor Ashley Loup, and is completing an honors contract to research unions and collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in the WNBA. She plans to compare the legal history of their CBAs to that of other professional organizations like Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

She hopes that this project will shed light on a community of outspoken female athletes growing in popularity around the world, and will help clarify the Players Association’s attempt to foster a better revenue sharing relationship between athletes and the league. 

In essence, Elliott explains that revenue sharing–similar to the college formula of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) earnings–primarily involves a player getting a percentage of revenue generated from their image and likeness being used, such as on jerseys or other merchandise. The athletes of the WNBA, she says, are attempting to increase their percentage of that portion after the massive growth of their league’s popularity in the past few years. As of March 2026, they are requesting 26% of gross revenue, compared to the less than 15% of league revenue they have now.

“They’re not even asking for the same share the men [of the NBA] have,” Elliott explains. “They’re asking for a much smaller share, which they want to grow over time, hypothetically, but they understand that their league hasn’t been around as long.”

Following her English degree on the pre-law track, with which she hopes to graduate in 2028, Elliott plans to become a lawyer and propel herself into sports law. Her dream is to work for the WNBA’s Players Association to directly impact future negotiations in favor of athletes, using her two minors in sports and recreation management and sports media and cultures as the cornerstone of her plan. The honors program, her contract, and the university’s history of Title IX advocacy, she says, is already laying a steady groundwork.

“I couldn’t have played sports in high school and realized that I loved basketball so much if it wasn’t for these sorts of things,” she said. “For me, being an advocate or learning about women’s sports is sort of paying homage to the women before me, and I want to continue to create a space where other women and girls feel like they can go out and do the things they’re really passionate about.”

From King’s delicate and lengthy STEM research to Elliott’s sporting deep-dive, both honors students are more than confident in their abilities to achieve their aspirations, regardless of any glass ceilings.