Dartmouth’s budding scientist aids new malaria discovery

When Dartmouth’s Audrey Kertscher was just 10 years old, she attended a TED Talk at New Bedford’s Zeiterion Theatre that changed the course of her life. 

On that fateful day, Jonathan Kurtis, professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and director of the labs at the Lifespan Center for International Health Research at Brown University, gave a presentation on a new malaria vaccine candidate, which fascinated the young Kertscher. 

During his talk, Curtis highlighted the GARP protein, which was discovered on the surface of a malaria red blood cell.

“I just really found it so interesting that they had found something that no one had ever known existed before that,” Kertscher said, adding it inspired her to want to understand and learn new things. 

So when Kertscher turned 15, she and her dad reached out to Curtis and she managed to get an unpaid internship working at the Brown University lab. 

She said her work initially consisted of doing malaria cultures, where she would grow infected malaria parasites in a flask with red blood cells and the necessary nutrients for the disease to survive. Then, others in the lab would use the cultures for their projects. 

This was until she began getting projects of her own. Kertscher noted the thrill of doing a project from start to finish: creating the culture, setting up the experiment, testing the new drug candidate and analyzing the results.

Just recently, Kertscher was able to join a group at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene annual meeting held in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she helped give a presentation on a poster she co-authored on the lab’s research.

“There were many people who put a lot of work into that project, and I was lucky enough that the work I did had a pretty big impact,” she said.

She noted how great it was to hear from other researchers, especially those who are also studying malaria. 

“I think it’s really great to see how other people are working toward making the same difference that we’re working toward,” she said.

That difference, Kertscher said, is what she calls the most rewarding part of the whole experience. When she first began working at the lab, she said she did her own research into malaria and read that approximately 500,000 children die from it every year, with even more existing cases.

Kertscher said, “Just the idea that the work I was doing was actually a stop in the direction of saving some, if not all, those lives.”

Now a senior at Dartmouth High School, Kertscher will be heading to Johns Hopkins University in the fall, having recently heard of her early decision acceptance. 

She said her plans are to major in public health on a pre-med track, with a minor in Spanish, before heading off to medical school. Her dream is to work in surgery and continue the research she loves, hoping to especially look at the gender gap in healthcare to ensure everyone has equal and equitable access. 

To some, this may sound like a lot, but for everyone who knows Kertscher, this is exactly what they’ve come to expect.

In addition to her work at the lab, Kertscher serves as president of the high school’s theater company, the show choir group, Dynamix, and Student Council; a member of the Medical Careers Club and National Honor Society; as well as a varsity track athlete.

Kertscher was also recently selected as a Massachusetts 2024 Playbook Initiative Student Trainer, which is a partnership between the Boston Celtics, New Balance, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and Project 351. 

Project 351 focuses on youth-led community service and selects one eighth-grade student ambassador every year from each of the state’s 351 municipalities — Kertscher being Dartmouth’s 2021 ambassador. 

Through the Playbook Initiative, Kertscher is being trained, along with one classmate and students chosen from 27 other communities across Massachusetts, to lead anti-discrimination and bias-prevention programs in the community.

She said she loves to stay involved in activities where she can be with friends and explore her passions, which include the arts, medicine and leadership.

“I am happier when I’m really busy. I’m a very social person,” she added. “Sometimes I have trouble finding time for homework, but there’s always time in there somewhere.”

She noted her parents and teachers are some of her biggest supporters and always remind her when it's time to take a break.

At the end of the day, Kertscher says she has Kurtis to thank for all she’s been able to accomplish.

“Without him, I would not be where I am today,” she said. “I’m just so grateful for that.