Kelly Farley, Morse College '22

Science: The Art of Storytelling

By Rachel Welch

Science is more than just pipetting at a lab bench or sitting in front of a computer analyzing data; science is finding the narrative behind the facts discovered at the bench or the computer. Before meeting Kelly, I never imagined just how interwoven science and storytelling could be, and how English courses could be one tool used to help make science more accessible. In spring 2020, Kelly took English 121 with Professor Kimberly Shirkani, a course Kelly referred to as “that class where you learn to write like The New Yorker.” Officially called “Styles of Academic and Professional Prose: Cultural Critique/Styles as Argument,” this class fueled Kelly’s passion for writing by providing her the space to investigate niche areas, such as Uber drivers and oat milk, to find the narrative underlying scientific advancements and create cohesive and surprising pieces. For example, Kelly came across recent research describing how the human body temperature is in fact lower than 98.6°F. She explained that the real question is not why our 98.6°F standard was wrong, but rather why we trusted it in the first place; given that all people are different, trying to fit all individuals into a rigid, single standard is unrealistic. Although at surface value this novel fact is virtually meaningless, Kelly’s essay shows that science is flexible and ever-changing—what we treat as the truth may not remain as such over time. 

Having been interested in immunology before starting Yale, Kelly joined the Medzhitov Lab in the summer of 2019 through the First-Year Summer Research Fellowship in the Sciences and Engineering. She chose to begin in the summer in order to fully immerse herself in the lab and dedicate as many hours as necessary for her experiments. Kelly is interested in the idea of balance as it relates to the immune system, explaining to me that a too weak immune response may lead to crippling infection but a too strong response may lead to autoimmune disease. Therefore, every time the body decides to defend itself, it must consider how severe its immune response should be; people might die not from the infection itself, but from the body’s reaction to it. Interestingly, Kelly explains that this balance is gradually beginning to be “tipped” by our environment. She suggests that in much of the US we live in W.E.I.R.D.—Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Developed—environments, and therefore our worlds are different from those we originally evolved to live in. She explains that clean habits such as washing hands, using hand sanitizer, washing fruit, and cooking food all contribute to us being exposed to lower levels of pathogens than our ancestors. The hypothesis that Kelly most strongly subscribes to is that our bodies may evolutionarily be used to being on the “defense,” but when there are no pathogens to be defended from, the immune system ends up attacking itself, and we begin to see devastating immune conditions become more prevalent in modern society.

When I asked Kelly why she picked the Medzhitov Lab, she described how Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov has shaped the field of immunobiology by discovering the link between innate and adaptive immunity during his postdoctoral research under Charles Janeway, a pioneering immunologist who helped found the Section of Immunobiology at Yale. But what made Dr. Medzhitov stand out the most for Kelly was the way he described immunology—it was accessible. By using metaphors and analogies in his interviews to paint visuals for the layman, Kelly was drawn to both his research and the way he talked about science. According to her, “He’s a scientist, but he’s also a storyteller at heart.” 

Despite having no lab experience before college, Kelly conveyed her interest in Dr. Medzhitov’s work in an email, and he was receptive to setting her up with a mentor that would help increase her technical skills and develop her interests in immunology. Having had a background in coding, she began her work in the Medzhitov Lab at the intersection of immunobiology and bioinformatics, identifying viable gene candidates for an in vitro study of a specific family of genes. This family of KRAB-ZFP genes is thought to be implicated in stem cell differentiation of immune cells, and Kelly’s goal was to observe how altering its expression may change the behavior of macrophages in the immune system.

The aspect of research that Kelly enjoyed the most was the collaboration of her lab community. She advises first-years not to be scared to ask anyone for help, even for small things such as what to do when the PCR machine isn’t turning on or you can’t find a chemical in the lab. She also emphasizes that regardless of your previous experience in research or lack thereof, professors are willing to talk to undergraduates if you put yourself out there, and there will be a community of researchers waiting to welcome you. Kelly told me anecdotes of how the other scientists in her lab gave her their old immunology textbooks, and how her mentor not only offered support but also gave her the freedom to come up with her own questions. Lastly, she explains that you’re not supposed to know everything about the field walking into the lab for the first time—the whole point is to use research as a way to learn more about the world. 

Beyond her work as a burgeoning researcher, Kelly has extended her love for science and empathy for others to various aspects of her life. In addition to spending her summer at Johnson & Johnson, Kelly divided her time between fact-checking a science novel and training for a half-marathon while at home with her two sisters in Chicago. On campus this semester, Kelly will continue to serve as Managing Editor of the Yale Scientific Magazine and as Vice President of Peristalsis, an on-campus organization that brings weekly dance classes to the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, where she encourages the patients to dance their hearts out to the “Cha Cha Slide” and express their feelings through dance.

Whether it’s discussing COVID-19 updates from the media or debating the impact of climate change in our world, facts are the basis of these discussions. Platforms like Symposia and the Yale Scientific Magazine are small ways in which we show that everyone can participate in and better understand the world through a scientific lens. Ultimately, science is storytelling about the way the world works. Behind jargon and fancy-sounding assays are stories of how our bodies fight diseases and how our minds grow and change. As Kelly so eloquently stated, “Science is ultimately human, even though it is based in fact.”