Kevin Bonham, PhD student in immunology, explores the beast(s) within  

Bacteria — and their relationship with the human body — fascinated Kevin Bonham from an early age. “I’ve been hooked on the immune system since I was a kid and my dad showed me electron micrographs of macrophages eating bacteria in Scientific American,” Bonham says. Now in the third year of his PhD in immunology, one of 12 Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) programs, Bonham examines the interaction between the mammalian immune system and the microbes that colonize our bodies.

“My research is focused on the early events that happen when a pathogen enters the body and has the potential to start diseases,” Bonham says. “When a bug breaches the outer barriers of the body – the skin or tissues that line the gut – the immune system gets a signal and has to respond. My research focuses specifically on the first moment when the receptor binds or locks onto that signal.”

While Bonham has a lifelong interest in science, he initially wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue immunology. “Harvard was the only immunology program I applied to,” he says. “When I came to the interview weekend, I was blown away by everyone’s collegiality and friendliness. The faculty were incredibly personable and seemed to really enjoy their interactions with students, even though some of them were the biggest names in the field. The resources at Harvard, the work that was happening here, the excitement everyone seemed to have — science can be a long, hard slog for many people, but here people had a great attitude about it.”

In addition to his studies and teaching, Bonham blogs about science, microbes, and news at We Beasties//link to: webeasties.wordpress.com//, along with fellow Harvard PhD students Heather Olins, Emily Gardel, and Dipti Nayak. The site’s name conjures a 1674 finding by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who examined pond water under a microscope and noted the presence of what he called “wee beasties” — a discovery that launched the field of microbiology. “I’m passionate about explaining why science is so important,” Bonham says. “I’ve been reading science blogs for many years now, and I liked the idea of having a one-to-one connection with readers. I joined up with a few other graduate students, and since we all have tangential connections to one another through bacteria, we decided to start the site together.”

Bonham’s passion for science communication also led him to assist Harvard’s Science in the News//link to sitn.hms.harvard.edu// lecture series. “SITN is a graduate student organization run entirely by graduate students, and it presents science to a more general audience,” Bonham says. “We see a lot of news articles written by reporters who don’t necessarily have a science background, and they report the more sensational news and angles. We try to explain the research that’s happening at Harvard and around the country from a scientist’s perspective.” Recent public response to the lecture series has been so strong that lectures are now filmed and posted online.

Bonham will soon be presenting at the series himself, discussing bacteria in the human gut and the communities of microbes that live in and around us. “When people think about bacteria, they think about the bacteria that cause disease,” he says. “In fact, at any given time, there are more bacteria cells in your body than human cells. They help us digest food and keep pathogenic viruses from getting a foothold. They’ve colonized us.”

Originally from Santa Cruz, California, Bonham grew up on the West coast and
completed his bachelor’s degree at UCSD in biochemistry and cell biology, working as a teaching assistant for Stephen Hedrick and a technician in the activation of T-cells in Kerri Mowen’s lab at the Scripps Research Institute. Moving to Boston has required one major adjustment. “I lived on the Pacific coast for my entire life, so I surfed almost every day that I was in high school,” Bonham says. “When I got to Boston, I realized the Atlantic wasn’t quite the same, so I picked up rock climbing.”

Story Credit: By Jennifer Doody