Biophysical Society Bulletin | July-August 2024

Biophysicist in Profile

Logan Kaler Area of Research Migration of cells in response to their environment

Institution US Naval Research Laboratory

At-a-Glance

Logan Kaler is a postdoctoral fellow through the American Society for Engineering Education, working at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. The child of two artists, she has funneled her creativity into the scientific endeavor, and hopes to contribute to biophysics through projects that advance scientific knowledge and have practical applications.

Logan Kaler

Logan Kaler , a postdoctoral fellow working at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory through the American Society for Engi neering Education, grew up in Owings Mills, Maryland, with a sister and two artist parents. “Both of my parents are artists. My mother is an art teacher in Baltimore City and my father is a director of visual design at a marketing firm in Annapolis,” she shares. “Interestingly enough, my younger sister also went into science and has her degree in physics.” Kaler became interested in science in elementary school. “Science was always my favorite subject, and the science fairs were always a highlight because I was able to explore a new question,” she recalls. During her undergraduate studies at Bay Path University, an all-women liberal arts university in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, she had the opportunity to ex plore a variety of scientific fields. “As a part of the Women in STEM Honors Program at Bay Path University, I was exposed to multiple fields in the sciences, ranging from paleontology to DNA technology, to the history of science. As I advanced in my studies, I gravitated towards biology and eventually land ed on biophysics, as it had the biology aspect that I always found interesting but also had the tools for quantification. The ability to understand biological events and processes is important, but being able to quantitatively analyze them gives more support to findings,” she explains. “I remember learning different concepts in biology and when I started combining those concepts in my research, biophysics was the way to answer the ‘How?’ question.” “My undergraduate mentor, Dr. Yadilette Rivera Colón , played an integral part in my career as a biophysicist—as I didn’t know what a biophysicist was until she introduced me to the field as a whole. As an undergraduate, I studied the structural and biochemical features of post-translational modifications, specifically acetylation via acetyltransferases. The structural and biochemical features of acetyltransferases were explored using computational analysis, and the resulting observations were used to hypothesize mutations regarding which changes

in specific structural features might contribute to substrate specificity,” Kaler says. Following the completion of her bachelor’s degree, she en rolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, to earn her PhD in biophysics. “In graduate school, I pivoted to studying host-pathogen interactions via microscopy and multiple particle tracking. The goal of my research was to understand how viral particles diffuse through the mucus in the airway to reach underlying cells, thus leading to infection.” Of her current position in Washington, DC, Kaler says, “I am currently studying migration of cells in response to their environment.” When asked about the biggest challenge so far in her career, she shared a valuable perspective. “At the time, each hurdle can feel like it is the biggest challenge—you try to find a way around it, but you end up having to go over it. And each time, when you look back, sometimes years down the road, you realize that what seemed insurmountable was more than doable,” she remarks. “In grad school, I struggled with some of the more rigorous math and physics courses, which were guaranteed to be a part of my qualifier, and I had to study with my classmates who were physicists and mathematicians while attending all of the professor’s office hours to make it through the classes and pass my qualifier. There were more hurdles that I had to overcome, but I faced them the same way: by leaning on my community for support. My communi ty is more than my classmates and professors, they are my mentors and my lab-mates, my friends and my family. When the hurdles seemed too tall to get over, they were the ones cheering from the sidelines with support as I struggled my way over them.” Kaler hopes to stay at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory working on projects that both advance scientific knowledge and have practical applications. “I think a lot of research is

July/August 2024

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