Student Spotlight: Sydney Womack
May 19, 2025
Sydney Womack is a doctoral candidate in biomedical and biological sciences and doctor of veterinary medicine student from Lexington, South Carolina. She earned her bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from the University of South Carolina honors college with a minor in mathematics and performance certificate in bassoon and now studies proteins involved in osteoarthritis development under the guidance of Heidi Reesink at Cornell.
What is your area of research and why is it important?
I study osteoarthritis (OA), a degenerative joint disease that is common in both people and animals. OA causes pain, stiffness, and loss of joint function, and in this way can affect health in the whole body. I am really interested in studying naturally-occurring disease in pets, like dogs, in combination with lab mice and rats to obtain a more holistic view of disease progression. My research is translational, a term used for work that converts benchtop research into findings that directly benefit human and animal health. I am investigating two proteins involved in OA development to see if they slow or accelerate the disease and symptoms, like pain.
What are the larger implications of this research?
My work is highly clinically relevant. For example, I have provided evidence that dogs and humans with the same joint injury have similar types of proteins in their joint fluid. This means that researchers could study dog OA to learn more about human disease, since it can be difficult to study OA in humans due to a lack of healthy controls. Additionally, my lab has developed a joint injection which I showed has efficacy in delaying the progression of OA in rats and may one day be approved to use in humans and animals. More recently, I am researching correlations between pain and degradation of joint structure in mice. This will be very valuable for studies evaluating the effects of new therapeutics.
You were named first place winner in the 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Can you describe the process of condensing your research into a three-minute presentation?
Attending the Finding Your Research Voice workshop hosted by the Graduate School last fall allowed me to try explaining my research to people who were way outside my field. Afterward, I thought, “After explaining what I do, what were people able to remember?” I realized that in many ways, my job was a lot easier than students doing other kinds of research – people were really able to relate to my work in dogs and humans. After discovering that hook, the hardest part for me was finding a common thread between my other projects and that first dog project. I wanted to challenge myself to figure out a way to tie all of these projects together into one story, and I think I was able to achieve that!
How will you take what you’ve learned from participating in the 3MT and use it in future academic and professional contexts?
Since starting to work on my 3MT a few months ago, I have caught myself replacing veterinary or scientific words with more relatable terms when talking to friends and family. For example, using “people” instead of “humans,” or “increased” instead of “upregulated.” Even “joint fluid” instead of “synovial fluid.” I feel like these alternative words have started to come to me a lot more easily than in the first couple years of my Ph.D. I also learned that it is sometimes easier to give a presentation with less words on the slide, and that good use of “white space” is actually more impressive than a slide filled with words and figures.
What are your hobbies or interests outside of your research or scholarship?
I love staying active and being a part of the Ithaca community. I am an active bassoonist in the Ithaca Community Orchestra and regularly rock climb, hike, and go on runs with friends. I have gone hiking in the Adirondacks many times and am hoping to finish climbing all 46 high peaks before I graduate – so far, I’ve done 15, a third of the way there! I also love trying new things. Some fun new things I’ve tried for the first time since moving to Ithaca are joining the Finger Lakes Curling Club for a season, running a half marathon, snowshoeing, backpacking, and tap dancing!
Why did you choose Cornell to pursue your degree?
Among the universities I interviewed at, Cornell stood out as an institution with a very collaborative environment. The veterinary school and engineering programs are top-ranked in the nation and world. The combined Ph.D./D.V.M. degree program directors, Renata Ivanek and Rory Todhunter, are incredibly supportive, and the students within the program were clearly part of a close-knit community. Since I completed my undergraduate studies at a college 30 minutes away from where I grew up, I was eager to explore somewhere new and expand my horizons. And, I can’t forget my Ph.D. mentor – I met Dr. Reesink during my third year in undergrad and was eager to join her lab after that. I couldn’t be more grateful to be here!