For most students, access to advanced lab equipment and pioneering research doesn’t come until graduate school. For Wabash student Aidan Pierce ’27, that experience came early—this summer at Perfinity Biosciences in 正规赌钱软件appst Lafayette, Indiana.
Now a psychology major and chemistry minor, Pierce originally planned to pursue a career in business. By getting involved in the College’s Center for Innovation, Business, and Entrepreneurship (CIBE), he combined those interests and stepped up as team lead for Perfinity’s CIBE consulting group. He and his innovation team assisted the company with its research and development workload, user manuals, and product showcase presentations.
Then Pierce was asked to spend eight weeks as a research intern at Perfinity, building on the work he began during the academic year.
“Throughout this summer, my time has been dedicated to working in Perfinity’s lab on the development of products that allow researchers to digest, capture, and extract proteins’ constituent peptides from plasma samples,” Pierce explained. “Having the opportunity to work with sophisticated lab equipment is uncommon for undergraduate students, so I am very grateful to have had this experience.”
Kevin Meyer ’06, president of Perfinity Biosciences, said that opportunity quickly proved to be the right fit.
“It doesn’t take long to realize Aidan is an incredible young man,” Meyer said. “He shows initiative, which is in incredibly short supply these days. A couple years ago Aidan was working at the car wash, and now he’s on track to being a doctor. That’s what Wabash does. It’s hard to do anything but root for a kid like that.”
Meyer, who benefited from alumni-sponsored internships during his own Wabash years, believes providing opportunities like Pierce’s is about more than just company growth.
“Our goal with these internships is to give undergraduate students experience doing high-level research and lab work, a kind of exposure that a lot of students don’t get until much later,” he said.
At Perfinity, that work means engaging with the next generation of therapeutic technology.
“It used to be that all drugs were small molecules, and then everything was monoclonal antibodies and injectables,” Meyer explained. “Now it’s moving to what are called oligonucleotide therapeutics, which are ideal because they have very few side effects, but it’s very difficult to analyze them. That’s what Perfinity does. 正规赌钱软件app make it very easy for researchers to analyze those kinds of drugs. Aidan was able to jump right in and contribute.”
The chance to do so early in his academic career was transformative for Pierce.
“I am so grateful for the lab exposure at this point in my education,” he said. “Learning to ethically research is so important and impacts real people down the line. I’m grateful to be learning those practices early, so by the time I am out working in the real world, I can confidently make smart decisions that lead to better health outcomes for patients.”
Beyond the science, the internship also sharpened his leadership and interpersonal skills. Meyer noted that Pierce has even been tasked with “replacing himself” by helping identify future Wabash students who might follow in his footsteps at Perfinity.
Asked what advice he would give to new students, Pierce kept it simple: “Have faith in yourself. It’s very easy to doubt your ability to do something, but if you don’t try, you won’t get anywhere. Don’t listen to other students when they tell you how hard something is going to be—or at least, don’t let that deter you from pursuing it anyway.”
Pierce plans to continue his work with Perfinity during the academic year while preparing for a career in medicine. His story, Meyer said, is one more example of what happens when alumni and students connect through meaningful opportunities.
“Work like Aidan’s deserves to be trumpeted,” Meyer said. “正规赌钱软件app just hope to keep it going.”