My name is Miriam Fenniri and I am a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Rosado and Castellarin Labs.
My current research centers postharvest characterization and bioactivity profiling of phenolic compounds from wild berries. Berry phenolics have shown to exhibit numerous health benefits, including an elevated antioxidant activity, antidiabetic activity, and cardioprotective effects. While much is known about common commercial berries, such as blueberries and cranberries, wild berries have often fallen to the scientific wayside. Vancouver and the surrounding areas have an extremely rich diversity of wild berries, making UBC an ideal location for their study.
I also received my undergraduate degree at UBC (B.Sc. in Biology), where I ended up falling in love with plants after taking Biology 210 (Vascular Plants). Later, I volunteered then worked with Shona Ellis, helping out with her Biology 321 (Introduction to Bryophytes) class and eventually also Biology 210, which was a huge full-circle moment for me!
Since starting grad school, I have TA’d Biology 260 (Fundamentals of Physiology), Biology 335 (Molecular Genetics), and am currently TAing Biology 342 (Integrative Biology Laboratory) for the second time.
What do you most enjoy about being a TA?
This is a tough question to answer because I can’t hierarchize what I enjoy most about being a TA, so I will choose one thing out of my list, which is: seeing student’s faces when you debunk a misconception or teach them something interesting. I absolutely live for their reactions, which are usually followed with a “whaaat?” or “that’s so cool!”. This is a very small aspect of teaching but I find it very rewarding.
What has being a TA brought to your graduate studies experience?
- I have learned a lot of actual academic material. For instance, I TA’d Molecular Genetics (Biology 335) with no molecular genetics background. I approached the course from the perspective of not just a teacher but also as a student. Attending the lectures as such was very interesting and enlightening.
- Communication skills in general, but one example that stands out is when I delivered a guest lecture in Biology 342 which was tailored to 3rd year undergraduate science students. It was my first ever guest lecture and I had to curate the material to an audience that had general scientific knowledge different to my own. Very rarely do I get the opportunity for scientific communication to audiences outside of my field.
- Social interaction! Sometimes when you’re deep in the research hole, it can get lonely. TAing ensures a consistent supply of human interaction, which is healing in its own way.
What has been an interesting outcome of your TA experience?
I got a new labmate out of TAing! Back in 2022, I was working on a summer project at the UBC Farm with Abel Rosado which was aimed at restoring a native salmonberry patch that had been overrun by invasive Himalayan blackberries. We solicited volunteers from the class I was TAing at the time, Fundamentals of Physiology (Biology 260). Christopher Cote was one of several students who volunteered; he was very dedicated to the project, so we hired him as a Work Learn student the following semester to work in the lab. Finally, after working with us for a year, he officially joined the lab as a M.Sc. student.
What is something you are currently doing that you are excited about?
I am currently very excited about how a chapter of my Ph.D. project is coming together. Some background information:
Many phenolic compounds from plants exhibit antidiabetic activity by interacting with and inhibiting carbohydrate-digesting enzymes (namely α-amylase and α-glucosidase), slowing the rate of glucose accretion into the bloodstream, which helps attenuate one’s insulin response. If your mouth has ever felt “dry” after consuming foods like green tea or red wine, that’s due to the interactions between phenolics and amylases in your saliva.
This inhibitory activity has been associated with the consumption of many plant foods, but direct comparisons between foods and compounds are difficult to make due to the highly variable experimental conditions across studies. Thus, pinpointing compounds with the greatest inhibitory activity is hindered by this lack of continuity. To overcome this limitation, I am currently engaged in a collaboration with two labs in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, & Food Science at Utah State University to create and publish a database of inhibitory activities of over 250 common plant-derived phenolic compounds. I spent 6 weeks at Utah State University this summer assaying the inhibitory activities of these phenolics against mammalian α-amylase and α-glucosidase under identical conditions. Now, after thousands of assays and a lot of data processing (with a lot more to go), this database is really starting to take shape. It will be the first of its size and kind, which is very exciting!
What is your teaching philosophy?
Oh, I could talk about this forever, but if I had to condense my teaching philosophy into two words, they would be: normalize failure.
The key to a student’s success is to enable and appreciate failure. Failure is so often perceived as a to-be-avoided-at-all-costs final destination, rather than a steppingstone in academic and personal growth. We are repeatedly taught that recovery after failure is grindingly challenging, particularly in a competitive academic environment wherein grades are considered the defining pillar of skill and intelligence. This mindset instills an inherent fear of failure, which translates into a fear of risk-taking and trying new things. Unfortunately, these principles directly contradict the discovery-based and curiosity-driven nature of science. It is at these moments that so much learning takes place. I strive to teach my students to anticipate failure from time to time without demoralizing them, so that when it does happen, they are mentally prepared and thus can more easily regain their footing.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love to forage! My main “crops” are berries and fruits, but I occasionally forage for herbs and greens as well. Obviously, summer is when I am at my happiest, so I try to gather as much material as possible to last me through the winter (I want blackberry smoothies in December!). My research has definitely enabled this passion of mine, as my plant species of interest are all edible wild berries from the area, so I actually had to forage for them as a part of my job. With this passion also comes the urge to share the knowledge, so I love to go on walks with friends with empty containers just to see what we can find and what I can show them. I also like to talk about responsible foraging, which involves collecting only on public land, limiting the amount of material that I take, aiding in native seed and spore dispersal, and favouring the collection of invasive species. I have recently started getting into mushrooms, but I am taking it very, very slowly, as mushrooms are a whole other beast. However, in October I picked my first bolete, cooked it, and ate it with identification help from Monika Fischer and Mary Berbee.
