When your research donor is 6

In a classroom in the Sherman Fairchild Laboratory Building, 6-year-old Marianne Cullen was starting to get the jitters. She was about to meet her favorite scientist, regenerative biologist and axolotl researcher Jessica Whited.

“You might have to hold me up, in case I faint,” the Springfield first-grader told her parents, Kat Demetrion and Robert Cullen, as she clutched her pink axolotl stuffie tightly in her lap.

Marianne had only seen Whited, associate professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, in videos online, speaking about her lab’s research on axolotl limb regeneration. But last Monday she got the chance to actually meet her, observe some of the axolotls she studies, and even peek inside her lab.

For Whited, the high regard was mutual.

Marianne, who loves the aquatic creatures, donated $1,000 this summer to Whited’s Lab, after raising $1,408 for axolotl conservation and research. (The remaining money went to a conservation group in Mexico and the World Wildlife Fund.)

She raised the money by hosting a fundraising party for family and friends, where she presented a PowerPoint with information about the endangered animals and surpassed her original $500 goal.

“I couldn’t even believe it,” said Whited, who said Marianne was the first person to come forward with a donation to her lab since the Trump administration’s termination of her lab’s research grants. “It means that some of the work that I’ve been doing has had an impact outside of the University. I’ve always felt that [outreach] is so important, and to see that there’s a little girl that I never met that it impacted — it reminds me of the wonder that got me into science in the first place.”

Marianne’s love for axolotls goes beyond their feathery gills and smiling faces.

She is interested in the salamanders’ remarkable ability to regenerate limbs, and their high levels of resistance to cancers and other diseases. So is Whited, whose lab investigates limb regeneration in axolotls with the hope that understanding how it occurs will lead to the ability to stimulate similar regeneration in humans.

Axolotls are also a symbol of hope for Marianne, whose 1-year-old sister, Emmaline, has been battling undiagnosed health issues. Over the past eight months, the family has consulted with dozens of specialists at several Boston hospitals. It’s an experience that, her parents say, has heightened their elder daughter’s interest in medicine — and axolotls.

“I saw a man at Shriners, and he didn’t have his leg,” Marianne explained. “It made me feel like I should raise money, because maybe one day a person can grow back a leg, arm, anything, really.”

Demetrion believes raising money for axolotl conservation has helped Marianne process “scared and anxious feelings about her sister’s health.” She plans to continue her fundraising efforts.

“I think she’s actually coping better, some days, than I am with what’s going on,” Demetrion said. “I just love how she took something extremely hard to comprehend, even as an adult, and turned it into something really positive and something that could really help people in the future. I’m just really proud of her.”

During their visit, Whited showed Marianne and her parents and sister axolotls at various stages of development, including adults, juveniles, young larvae, and embryos. They also met some undergraduate and Ph.D. students who work in the Whited Lab, and Whited showed Marianne how to use a pipette.

In addition, Marianne was introduced to Amy Wagers, department chair and Forst Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and evolutionary geneticist Hopi Hoekstra.

Hoekstra, the Edgerley Family Dean of the FAS, thanked her for her donation and presented her with her own small lab coat and protective eyewear.

“The best part about being a scientist is that your job is to learn new things and discover new things,” Hoekstra told Marianne. “What Professor Whited is discovering in her lab, nobody in the entire world knew before. She is finding new knowledge.”

Marianne, who wants to be a NICU doctor when she grows up but also wants to study axolotls, was elated when Whited told her about physician scientists, doctors who divide their time between clinical practice and scientific research.

“I figured out that I wanted to be both, and I just thought that I couldn’t be,” Marianne told Hoekstra. “But now that I know that I can, I think I want to do that.”

“I think this seems like a perfect match,” Hoekstra told her. “I can tell you’re very curious and that you like to learn new things. That’s what makes a really great scientist: somebody who asks a lot of questions and wants to know the answers.”