INSTRUCTOR: So you have two minutes to--
[CHUCKLE]
--put those together.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: And go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CRUMPLING]
Yes, yes.
So we live in a world that is filled
with good and bad bacteria.
In the recent years, we've been hearing a lot
about antibiotic-resistant bugs, superbugs.
My work has focused around utilizing viruses
that kill antibiotic-resistant bugs naturally,
called bacteriophages.
SPEAKER 1: You have 30 seconds.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: OK.
OK.
I think I did a good job.
But there's a piece missing.
This is the bacterias, and to my left, that is the virus.
These are microorganisms.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My name is Danial Nasr Azadani.
I'm 26 years old.
So yeah, my initials are DNA.
When I tell that to people, everyone's like, oh,
you were meant for this.
I was born in Isfahan, Iran--
beautiful city in a beautiful country.
I have three older siblings.
I'm the youngest.
I was 13 or 14 when I moved to Canada.
I stayed with my sister Mina.
She supported me for four years.
And I think my parents realized that decision would provide
a lot better future for me.
So I finished high school and traveled to Ottawa
to obtain a bachelor's of science in biology.
It never was as exciting as I expected it to be.
You're sitting in a classroom with 300 other students.
You go to a professor's office hours,
and they barely even know who you are.
SIMA: Danial came here in United States in August 2015.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: So we decided
to come down to visit Sima, because she was
having a new baby, little baby.
While I was visiting, I decided to take
some college-level classes here, so I can transfer back home
and finish my degree.
And somebody suggested to me, check out Del Mar.
And I remember, one day I was dropped off at the campus here.
ROB: Danial came up to the second floor.
I said, well, come on.
Rather than talk, I could at least show you the lab.
And I saw his eyes get real big.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: And then, he
put me in a biotechnology class, that I
didn't think I want to stay in because didn't
sound like what I like to do.
But that class ended up being my favorite class I've ever taken.
SIMA: Danial was so excited about that course.
He tried to explain everything to me.
However, didn't understand any of those.
[LAUGHTER]
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: Every day, I thank God
that I met him that day.
He's been absolutely instrumental to all
my accomplishments and all the success
I've had throughout the years.
ROB: The National Science Foundation
wants to encourage students from two-year colleges
to get technical skills that they
can merge into the workforce.
And so, they started the Advanced Technological
Education, or ATE grants, which gave us
the seed money to start the biotech program, to begin with.
This is one of the largest in terms of biomass.
This is the largest--
My colleagues and I have applied for a number of the grants.
They have taken generations of students
and given them opportunities that they wouldn't get.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: It was all about conducting your research,
putting critical thinking towards what are you doing.
I guess that's what was missing in my education before it.
So I was able to grasp a new level of laboratory skills.
That set me off for an internship
at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi with Dr. Turner.
DR TURNER: His comfort in that research lab
is a testament to the preparation
that he received here at Del Mar.
DAISY: There's something about Danial.
He's super detail oriented.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: I call Daisy the "queen of biotech."
She is a Professor of Biotechnology.
And she always answers my questions
about every new idea in biotechnology
that I heard about.
So that's where I go to for guidance.
This is not even--
DAISY: His learning skill is just so outstanding.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: Potentially, we're
looking for antibacterial?
JOHN: Anywhere you make contact,
so common places that you can--
We went over every single protocol that we had.
Danial was like a sponge.
He just absorbed all of it that I could throw at him.
And then, I send him off.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: So my internship
was to develop a protocol to isolate
the little, tiny virus that kills and infects bacteria.
[KNOCKING]
DR TURNER: Hey, Danial.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: How are you doing, Dr. Turner?
DR TURNER: Come on in.
It was probably the second week into it
that the methods and protocols that Danial knew
weren't working.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: The latent period, I
think we're going to keep it.
DR TURNER: We're going to keep the latent period, OK.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: Yeah.
DR TURNER: But I saw that work ethic and that curiosity
for science.
He was like, no, I'm going to get this.
If it takes me all summer, I'm going to figure it out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: I think it was
the 32nd try for isolating the phage that I was able to get
that protocol working.
MAN: Those are great, these are pretty cool pictures.
DANIAL NASR AZADANI: I look at my place,
and I saw these little plaques.
And that tells you that you found a virus.
I was getting an enormous amount of support, mentorship,
and guidance from these three amazing professors.
I decided to completely shift the focus
of my post-secondary education and finish my education here,
in South Texas.
So the cool thing about this research
was that you get to name these viruses that you isolate.
So I decided to name it after myself.
It's phi-- stands for phage-- and NASRA1.
The skills that I had are skills that most students don't even
get exposed to until they're well
into their graduate studies.
Ooh, look at that.
These have been accomplished by the classes I've
been taking here at Del Mar.
So I graduated with a bachelor's in biomedical sciences
and an associate in biotechnology.
[CHEERING]
All my family members, my brother, my sisters,
and my parents--
we were all together for the first time after 18 years.
It is very, very emotional, but it's always about what's next.
[MUSIC PLAYING]