Luke Mead ’26’s fascination with science, and the many ways in which it can contribute to a better world, took root at a fire department down the street from his family’s home in seaside Charlestown, Rhode Island.
The town’s emergency medical services (EMS) and fire department — all of which are volunteer operated — ran a junior firefighter program and junior rescue program that taught youth basic responsibilities in each respective field. Mead signed on as a junior firefighter at age 14 and joined the EMS program a year later.
“Seeing the patient care and EMS personnel going through patient assessments and helping provide the best care in pre-hospital settings to people of different cultures and backgrounds throughout the town stood out to me,” Mead says.
Recruited to play lacrosse for Bryant, Mead came in as a Biology major and has furthered his science and
healthcare expertise in and out of the classroom. Working with Bryant Biological and Biomedical Sciences Professor Christopher Reid, Ph.D., during his sophomore year, Mead created a pooled library of streptococcus pneumoniae cells to test against Reid’s novel antibiotic, masarimycin. Using a CRISPR gene-editing program, he mutated bacteria and treated it with masarimycin to see if any of the samples were resistant to the antibiotic.
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Taking his education abroad, Mead hopped on a plane last summer to South Africa for Senior Lecturer of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Stephanie Mott’s “Global Health Challenges” course. During the 17-day trip, students toured hospitals, heard from healthcare professionals, and engaged with local history and cultural experiences. For Mead, shadowing Roland Kroukamp, M.D., at a 24-hour community health clinic in Cape Town was an eye-opening and memorable experience.
“Watching how upbeat he was while handling the level of tragedy that rolled in and out of the clinic was inspiring,” Mead says. “The medical personnel don't have the same level of technology that we have at our fingertips in every United States emergency room, so watching them home in with their physical assessment skills, think on their feet, and make decisions quickly was impressive.”
Following his return to the states, Mead began interning at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As an endocrinology intern, he worked on two projects: the first took him to the ocean where he helped researchers catch a 400-pound Atlantic bluefin tuna to examine how the heat generated in their cells could reveal information about humans’ thermogenesis process; the second project involved fetal blood vessel research.
“We looked at different metabolites and how they either promote or inhibit angiogenesis, which is blood vessel formation in the human umbilical vein,” Mead says.
These experiential opportunities, paired with his classroom education in anatomy and bodily function, have set him up for success, Mead says.
Taking an online EMT course on top of his academic and athletic schedules, Mead passed the national exam in March. He returned to his beach hometown this summer — but not, as many might do, to catch a break and a wave before the next academic year. Instead, he headed back to the rescue that inspired his mission to help others — this time, as a leader and a lifesaver in his own right.