Ja’Brina Hargrave-Perkins, a senior biology major from Dayton, splits her time analyzing samples in the lab and the ring, combining undergraduate research with competition through the University of Dayton boxing club.
In professor Mark Nielsen’s fruit fly lab, Hargrave-Perkins focuses on genetics work involving tubulin proteins tied to sperm production. Her research centers on a scientific question that has puzzled researchers.
“The B2 tubulin protein hasn’t been changed in 60 million years,” she said. “That’s a bit odd because in evolution, there's usually more than one way or variation that works. So we wanted to know whether there’s another way that just hasn’t happened in 60 million years, or if this is the only way the protein can function. That’s what we tested in the lab.”
Nielsen explained the broader context behind the work and emphasized the role undergraduate researchers like Hargrave-Perkins play in that process.
“Students do the work,” he said. “They sort through the flies, find the right genes for mating and dissect the testes out of male fruit flies.”
Through this work, Nielsen said students gain hands-on experiences and critical thinking skills, where they are tasked with how to think and how to put together an experiment.
Hargrave-Perkins has worked in Nielsen’s lab for two years and recently contributed to a new development: She discovered one of the tubulins from a tsetse fly is able to generate sperm when it works together with the fruit fly tubulin. She used the term “hairball sperm” to describe the kind of sperm that it makes, affirming that the work being done in the lab is successful.
Beyond the lab, Hargrave-Perkins spends her time training and competing with UD’s boxing club.
“I found them at ‘Up the Orgs’ and started my freshman year,” she said. “I really wanted to do something active, find a way to exercise and have some fun, but also in a group setting to keep myself accountable and bond with others.”
While she initially trained without competing, she shifted her focus during her senior year. She said she wanted to compete to see how far she could go.
Balancing academics, research and athletics proved challenging, but despite the pressure, she said the competition became a source of motivation.
“It was all about time management and really wanting to do it,” she said. “I had to communicate with my professor about class, and I work on the weekends, so I was stressed this whole year. Bad stress, but also good stress because I started winning.”
Her efforts led to participation in March at the National Collegiate Boxing Association Midwest Regional Championship, where she represented UD against varsity programs. For Hargrave-Perkins, that experience carried meaning beyond the competition itself.
“Before this year, we weren't really getting the recognition we wanted to get,” she said. “We don't have an official team, so when we go up against competitors, we're not going up against other club sports — we're going against their actual charter teams.”
Reflecting on her time at UD, she said the support system has been key. Hargrave-Perkins is a Flyer Promise Scholar, which makes a UD education attainable for students from partner high schools and regional programs through scholarships and financial aid.
“My experience at UD has given me the resources to follow up with things that intrigued me,” she said. “Any question that I've had, there's always somebody there that can answer that question or point me in the right direction.”
While she is still figuring out what comes next after graduation, Hargrave-Perkins said she hopes to keep boxing in her life in some way.
“I don't know what competing would actually look like for me now that I'm graduating,” she said. “That’s why I was adamant about doing it my senior year so I could see what my limits are and push myself as hard as I could. I really don't know what the future holds.”
After graduation, Hargrave-Perkins plans to begin her career to gain experience before eventually pursuing graduate school. She hopes to earn a master’s degree focused on microbiology and genetics in the future.