From pipettes to podiums—and back again
When she’s not researching therapies for viral diseases, biomedical science graduate Sammie Maxwell is tearing up the dirt on the international mountain bike circuit.
2023 has been a year of milestones for Sammie, who graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science in February, and by August had been crowned the World Under-23 Cross Country Champion in Scotland.
Along with winning the UCI Cycling World Championships, she had podium finishes at the Mountain Bike World Cups in the U-23 Short Circuit and Olympic races in Canada, the US, France, and Andorra. She is now training towards the 2024 Olympic selections, and has multiple international competitions lined up for next season.
She plans to focus on cycling until 2028, while spending her summers back in New Zealand working as a research assistant in Dr Davide Comoletti’s laboratory. The lab investigates proteins on neuron cell surfaces and how this knowledge can help in the fight against some of our most prevalent viruses.
“It gives my brain something else to think about, and means I’m not consumed by the world of athletic performance. At the same time, it keeps me interested in the human body, the way it functions, and always reminds me of how incredibly powerful it is.
“Plus, my cells are almost like my children! I was very happy to finally get back to New Zealand and start looking after them again,” Sammie says.
Biomedical Science has always been Sammie’s academic calling, even before she realised how it applied to her sporting success. It was her first biology project about chickenpox in Year 9 that made her passion for the subject obvious.
“Instead of just reading a few lines off Wikipedia and calling it a day, when I got home from school after being given the project, I went straight to our bookshelf and got down five of the biggest medical textbooks my mum had used in her studies. I read everything I could about the virus, the immune system, the physiology of the disease, and treatments. I became obsessed with the amazing ability of the immune system and knew from that moment on I wanted to work with biomedical science.”
It was this passion that kept her motivated throughout her studies, and as with any student, a key challenge was figuring out how to balance her study with her other passions and commitments. In Sammie’s case this was lots of training and competing in races around Aotearoa.
“It involved many race days sitting in the car writing notes or doing assignments before and after races. I really enjoyed what I was studying and would naturally spend hours during my training rides telling my friends the latest and greatest things I had learnt—which was really great for revision too!”
Another thing that greatly helped during her studies was the sense of community she found at the University, both within her degree, at her hall of residence (Helen Lowry), and through the University’s Recreation Centre. Although she says all her lecturers and courses were amazing, she particularly notes Dr Diane Ormsby, Dr Davide Comoletti, Associate Professor Peter Pfeffer, and Dr Fabian Westermann as “amazing teachers who were so kind, funny, and supportive of what I did. It was a pleasure working with them.”
“The support from Vic Uni Rec was also great, the team has been amazing—offering educational and networking sessions, and strength and conditioning help. They have always been my support network at the University, which I have been able to fall back on if things ever got too overwhelming.”
When it comes to her future academic goals, Sammie has a plan for that too.
“I am still very much set on one day completing a PhD—it’s more just a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’. For now, I am just going to continue travelling to and from Europe and New Zealand throughout the year, and chasing my dreams of being an elite world champ.”