Steven Sutton - Science Home

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On the science font. Okay, here we go.

I am a student at Cañada College in Redwood City, California, where I am studying towards an Associate of Science for Transfer in General Biology. This degree will allow me to transfer to a University of California campus in the Fall of 2025, where I will continue my study of Microbiology and Medical Biology. As of this time, I have been admitted to the University of California - Davis for the Molecular and Medical Microbiology program. Applications to other schools are in, so we shall see if Davis holds it's position at the top of the list.
I also spent a year studying Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in the expansive tradition of the liberal arts.

My long experience as a student in various environments. has provided me with a unique background and a unique perspective on various forms of scientific problem solving. I have studied in labs in small community colleges and rich liberal arts institutions, and I have studied with the people associated with both of those forms.

I am also a product of a San Francisco area public charter high school that used design thinking as its foundational idea. I completed four years of design education on a wide scale, not just the physical design of an item but the process of creating a solution that meets the needs of a user. This creative problem solving background has given me a strong knowledge foundation and has oriented me directly towards solutions.

From September to December 2024, I participated in the Stanford Small Science Groups research program for SF Bay Area community college students. Working under mentor Ivy Evergreen of the Kundaje Lab at Stanford, I conducted a literature review regarding the current state of research into the use of exogenous androgens (masculinizing hormones like testosterone) for clitorophallus growth (aka "bottom growth") in transgender men.

Those that seek to transition from female to male (FTM) or towards a masculine identity often take testosterone (via an injection or cream) as a part of their medical transition. This exogenous testosterone causes the clitoris to grow outward from the vagina. Both the penis and the clitoris originate from the same structure in utero (referred to as the clitorophallus), hence the application of masculinizing hormones to a developed clitoris causes the slight development of a phallus. This "bottom growth" rarely exceeds ~2 inches in length, and is a prerequisite for phalloplasty surgeries (which use skin grafts, urethral relocation, and other techneques to build a pseudo-phallus in place of the vagina). Phalloplasty is a difficult process that requires multiple surgeries over the course of multiple years, and often yields unsatisfying results for patients. Extending the "bottom growth" in advance of surgery could help reduce surgical complexity and improve results for patients. The use of targetted testosterone for this purpose has not been studied.

In February 2022, I participated in a research effort for the Pets in Need animal shelter in Redwood City, CA, to assess the feasibility of a trap-neuter-release program for stray cats.

I led a group of 4 that tracked the movement of cats around the local area for two weeks, providing the shelter veterinarians with the information they would need to efficiently trap the stray cats. As the first people to carry out such a project for the shelter, we developed our own methodology and mapping techniques which remained in use after our job was finished and another group came in to repeat the effort after kitten season. With the help of Jyothi Robertson, former chair of the Animal Welfare Committee at the American Veterinary Medical Association, we presented our methodology to DC Cat Count, an organization that runs similar projects on the scale of the Washington DC metro area.

Click below for my full resume. I am currently seeking internship positions in the public or private sector in biochemistry or any related disciplines.

Resume

Below is a list of the scientific coursework I have taken, organized by academic institution, as of January 2025.
PL means planned and IP means in progress.

Cañada College (and sister schools):
Organic Chemistry II - IP
Organic Chemistry I - A
Cell and Molecular Biology - IP
Biology of Organisms - A
General Physics II with Calculus - IP
General Physics I with Calculus - A
Analytical Geometry and Calculus II - A-
Analytical Geometry and Calculus I - A
Elementary Statistics and Probability - A-
Principles of Biology - A
Plants, People, and the Environment - A
Animals, People, and the Environment - A
Intro to Marine Biology - A

Reed College:
Intro to Computational Biology - A
Topics in Biology - Vascular Plant Diversity and Microbiology - B+
Molecular Structure and Properties - A
Chemical Reactivity - A

Design Tech High School:
Advanced Physics Honors - A
Advanced Environmental Science Honors - A
Chemistry Honors - A
Physics - A

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