Brandon K. K. Fields was named the spring 2014 Outstanding Graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences
By Clint Talbott
When Brandon K.K. Fields was 16, people sometimes asked what he wanted to be in adulthood. If his mom were in the room, he’d say “doctor”; otherwise, he’d say “heavy metal rock star.”
“In reality, I was always fairly conflicted. I loved science, and I loved to play music,” Fields told CU-Boulder honors graduates this month. “All throughout high school, I was told that one day, I would have to make a choice, for pursuing both was simply unfeasible.”
In the end, he proved that counsel wrong.
This year, Fields earned bachelor’s degrees in integrative physiology and classical guitar performance. He graduated summa cum laude in integrative physiology and was named the spring 2014 Outstanding Graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as graduating with highest honors from the College of Music.
Fields was 17 when he began studying at the University of Colorado Boulder. He majored in integrative physiology but held off on studying music. “At the time, I wasn’t really prepared for a music-school audition.”
Later, he did enroll in the music college.
From middle school to high school to college, hard work is the secret. … There’s no magic.”Because classical guitar and integrative physiology are such disparate disciplines, some ask if he sees synergy between them, or if, in his career life, he hopes to combine them somehow. The answer is no.
He does plan to pursue both, separately. In the near term, he plans to work in a research lab while joining classical-guitar competitions.
And while physiology and classical guitar are clearly different disciplines, the underlying work is not so different. “The way I approach a performance is the same way I approach an exam, the same way I approach studying, the same way I approach practicing. The principles are very much the same,” Fields said.
This spring, Fields took an introductory sociology course in addition to an advanced endocrinology course. His father said Fields must spend a fraction of the time studying sociology that he spends studying endocrinology.
“I told him, ‘Actually, no.’ I do exactly the same thing for every class. Whether it’s memorizing a list of molecules and chemical reactions or whether it’s memorizing a bunch of sociological theories, information is information and learning is learning at the end of the day.”
The secret, Fields intoned, is that there is no secret. “From middle school to high school to college, hard work is the secret. … There’s no magic.”
Fields studied microRNA as part of a collaborative project between the laboratory of Christopher Lowry, CU-Boulder associate professor of integrative physiology, and Professor Alon Chen’s laboratory at the Weizman Institute of Science in Israel.
Fields and his graduate-student mentor analyzed the brains of laboratory mice using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), a complex machine used to separate and analyze the chemical components in a mixture.
In Lowry’s lab, Fields and his mentor were the most adept with the HPLC, so the analysis “ended up being my project.”
As Fields explains, the Lowry lab is interested not only in the neural circuitry that mediates anxiety and other affective disorders but also in the neural circuitry that translates to coping with anxiety and other affective disorders.
In this study, Fields used microRNA to alter signaling in the brain’s limbic circuitry, which is involved in emotional behaviors. “And we were looking to see the behavioral outputs and the neurochemical outputs of these modulations.”
Fields’ thesis focused on the neurochemical outputs.
As Fields noted, neural circuitry can be altered pharmacologically in a “less-targeted way, to activate or de-activate a pathway.” Fields was studying the norepinephrine pathway, which is activated in response to stressful stimuli.
The pharmacological approach targets the messenger, “so that the neurons then get the message; we were targeting the receiver with microRNA.” Fields’ project examined a different aspect of the pathway than is typically studied by the traditional pharmacological approaches.
With microRNA, the researchers could either up-regulate or down-regulate the receptors, changing the volume of norepinephrine that could navigate the pathway.
During his time at CU, Fields also discovered the joy of teaching, as a lecturer, volunteer tutor, and developing course materials, and of service. He taught classical guitar and developed course material for an upper-level course in endrocrinology.
“Teaching especially is something that has always been very important to me, and something that I hope I will be able to incorporate in my work for the rest of my life.”
After graduating, Fields hopes to do clinical research for a while. Simultaneously, he hopes to travel to classical-guitar competitions, something difficult to do while enrolled in college.
Fields does not plan to sacrifice his musical pursuits while pursuing science. “My goal from day one was always to do the two things I love to do to the best of my ability, and I think my goal moving forward will still be to pursue the two things that I’m very interested in.”
Becoming known in the classical-guitar community means going to competitions, “maybe even one or two of them stick and you get a win or two, and then people start to know your name.”
As Fields told fellow honors students this month, choosing music without science or science without music “were, for me, simply impossible. And so I chose neither of those outcomes.”
Clint Talbott is publications and external relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the College of Arts and Sciences Magazine.
June 1, 2014