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Brynleigh Payne
Brynleigh Payne (She/Her/Hers) has been a STEM Content Contributor at Research Girl, Inc. since November of 2024. Her current scholarly research, and content contributions to Research Girl, Inc., focus on genetics, biological sciences, and pre-PhD guidance for students.
About
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Languages: English
Biographical Sketch:
Upon learning in her high school biology class about telomeres, Brynleigh Payne remembers thinking to herself, "Telomere maintenance will allow us to live forever." Now on her journey to a PhD, she understands the complexities within molecular biology and why this is not necessarily true; however, this introduction to the topic of genetics sparked her interest in pursuing a career in scientific research.
Brynleigh began her undergraduate studies at Auburn University in the Fall of 2020 during the COVID–19 pandemic. Diving into research at the end of her second year, she assisted with multiple graduate student projects before beginning her own independent research project during her third year. Her research project, facilitated through an undergraduate research course offered by Auburn, focused on the subject matter of sexual dimorphisms.
By the end of her third year at Auburn, Brynleigh was awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF) and a grant in aid of research from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society for a new proposal, "Sequencing Sex Chromosome Telomeres to Quantify Sex-Specific Aging in the Wild." She presented preliminary data from this project at the Auburn Research Symposium in 2024 and published a student-reviewed article of this data in the Auburn University Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship (AUJUS). Also while at Auburn for her undergraduate studies, she founded The Genetics Club alongside the first cohort of officers, wherein she served as vice president for two years. In her role, she helped to inform her peers about career options in the field through hosting guest speaker seminars and fostering professional development through skill-building workshops.
During the Spring of 2024, Brynleigh graduated cum laude from Auburn with her Bachelor of Science (BS) in Genetics and a minor in Counseling. Later that month, she began her graduate studies as a PhD student in Biological Sciences with a focus in Computational Biology at Auburn in the Schwartz Lab.
Brynleigh is now continuing her research efforts into revealing the role of sex chromosomes in sex-biased aging through her Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA); in addition to aiding in the education of students in the Gene Expression and Recombinant DNA Laboratory through her role as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA).
Awards and Honors:
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Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award, Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, 2024
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Grant in Aid of Research (GIAR), Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, 2023
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Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Auburn University, 2023