Undergraduate research inspires community, confidence and growth

Working in a research lab is helping UW-Madison student Lauren Jacobs get more than hands-on career experience.

You don't have to be a professor or a graduate student to be a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Undergraduate students across campus, and across disciplines, also play important roles in labs.

Lauren Jacobs is a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior from Oak Creek, Wisconsin with goals of becoming a small animal veterinarian. She wasn't sure research would be the right fit for her until she learned about Professor Lautaro Rostoll-Cangiano's lab in Animal and Dairy Sciences. Cangiano and his team, which now includes Jacobs, study on-farm management factors that influence the gut and immune health of calves. They're currently looking into potential benefits of adding a postbiotic to the diet of crossbreed calves.

We talked with Jacobs to learn more about the research she does and how the opportunity has shaped her UW experience and prepared her for the next steps in her career.

How did you start working in the lab?

In Spring 2025 I took Professor Cangiano's class on animal health and disease. I knew I liked biology, but I ended up loving immunology and how the cells work together. I found it super interesting to learn how your body fights off pathogens. I also just really love Professor Cangiano as a person, he's a super supportive guy.

I'm planning on being a small animal vet and I was interested in the idea of getting some research experience before vet school. At first, I was unsure if the research aspect was for me, but the hands-on animal work that the lab offers with the farm was really intriguing, so I decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did.

What made you nervous to go into research?

I thought research was very stereotypical: In the lab eight hours a day and writing a lot of essays. I think that made me nervous because I like the more hands on, clinical care aspect of things.

But in this lab, we are able to do both hands-on research and benchwork. It's even better than I expected. I can go to the farm, get a blood sample, then isolate immune cells from the sample in the lab. It joins these two aspects to get a whole picture of how animal care and research can work together.

What do you get to help work on?

Our lab is in the calf barn [at UW's Arlington Agricultural Research Center] every day to care for the animals and track different variables of their health. So, I get to check their temperature, their eyes and noses for any sign of illness, and we also look for signs of any respiratory disorder or digestive issues.

Then I do a lot of work with that data on spreadsheets to help Martina Mancheno, one of the lab's graduate students, track and analyze all the calves' health scores. I've also been learning to help conduct the colon biopsies where we take samples of immune cells from the calves. Back in the lab, I get to isolate immune cells called neutrophils that we're studying. I am able to both help Martina, making her job a little easier, and to learn more about immunology every day.

Professor Cangiano also helped me find and apply for a scholarship to conduct my own research project on weaning calves. I've been setting that up and am digging into that work even more this semester.

How has working in a research lab helped prepare you for the rest of your academic career and beyond?

I've learned things about myself, like how to be more confident and comfortable with my skills, and how to most effectively use my time. Working in a research lab helps you develop skills that you wouldn't necessarily get somewhere else, even in class. The hands-on experience on the farm, like learning to perform different assays and learning to isolate cells, solidified the information I was learning in class, which I think is super cool.

This lab is also a really supportive environment. Professor Cangiano and the other lab members help you build connections with so many people and open doors. It definitely builds lab skills, but you're also able to think analytically and in different ways than you have before. That environment and being taught those tools, it makes me more confident in a ton of different ways, whether that's in other classes or lab settings or otherwise.

What would you tell a fellow undergrad considering working in a lab?

Honestly, I would recommend it to anyone. Originally, I wasn't sure about research, but I think it's really important to try it and see if you like it-and I ended up loving this research lab.

I've also found such a great sense of community. Working with the grad students, you bounce ideas off of each other, help each other when someone's having a bad day… You're all hard-working people, all with your own goals, working together in the same environment, and it just helps you get that drive. It's just a great community and environment to grow in.