Clarissa Durie did not grow up expecting to be a scientist. Even when she left Montgomery, Alabama to attend the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, it was not with a career in science in mind. A first-generation college graduate, she initially pursued business. “When I went to college, my main goal was financial independence and stability, so I pursued a degree in business, picturing a life of briefcases and business suits,” she shares. “It wasn’t until I graduated that I really appreciated what working in the corporate world felt like. I quickly learned that I didn’t find it fulfilling. Since I was going to work hard whether I felt connected to my work or not, I’d rather feel like my work was meaningful to me, so I started considering what else I might like to do.”
Around this time, Durie’s father was diagnosed with late-stage cancer of the liver bile duct and passed away just a few months later. She explains, “This chain of events brought two ideas into sharp focus for me. First, we don’t know how long we have, so it’s best to pursue our interests and desires now—stop waiting! Second, if I can do work that helps people live better, healthier lives, or suffer less, that’s how I’d like to spend my working hours. That’s when I decided to be a scientist and, more specifically, a professor. I think it was probably lucky for me that I didn’t fully appreciate the odds of someone with my background earning a PhD, let alone obtaining a faculty position.”
She returned to school to study science, earning both a Bachelor of Science and a PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. At the beginning of graduate school, Durie expected to become an organic chemist to design and synthesize pharmaceuticals. That plan changed after a rotation in an organic chemistry lab led her to reconsider what type of scientific work best matched her strengths and interests. A graduate student in Aaron Lucius’s lab, JiaBei Lin—who had previously been her teaching assistant and is now an assistant professor at Rowan University —encouraged her to rotate in the Lucius lab. She says, “I had never considered it but didn’t have another plan in mind and liked both JiaBei and Dr. Lucius from my experiences with them as instructors. I loved the immediacy of the fluorescence spectroscopy techniques, and the mentorship style of the lab was a great fit for me. In the Lucius lab, I started studying how ATPases translocate protein substrates and how that might be harnessed for breaking up protein aggregates like those in neurodegenerative disease.”
Pursuing a PhD in chemistry after years away from any scientific study brought with it some major challenges. Durie explains, “When I joined the Lucius lab and committed to graduate studies in biophysics, specifically enzyme kinetics, I hadn’t thought about calculus in 10 years. I had to completely relearn it. That felt intimidating at the time. If I can relearn differential equations after four years studying business and five years working in sales and human resources, so can anyone reading this! My advice is to trust yourself to learn new things.”
As Durie’s doctoral work progressed, the “resolution revolution” in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) was underway. She decided that for her postdoctoral research, she wanted to learn how to determine protein structures. “I saw this as being a great way to both capture an audience so they’d be interested in my functional work and to propose mechanistic hypotheses that could then be tested in solution,” she explains.
She took a postdoctoral position in Melanie Ohi’s lab at the University of Michigan, where she expanded her expertise in structural biology. There, Durie determined the structure of a portion of a secretion system from Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of the potentially fatal pneumonia Legionnaires’ disease. That work became the foundation for her independent research program.
Today, Durie is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Missouri. She details, “We are using cryo-EM and other biophysical techniques, including fluorescence spectroscopy–based approaches like those I used in grad school, to characterize how the secretion system engages and translocates an uncharacteristically large set of substrates or effector proteins. Along the way, we’ve also begun to learn about other protein machines important for the pathogen’s survival, biotin-dependent carboxylases. Through collaborations, we’re also branching out into the protein machines of other pathogens including viruses.”
One of the pleasures of running a lab, Durie suggests, is that the work continues to grow in unexpected directions. The central aim remains consistent, but the specific systems and applications continue to develop as new opportunities emerge. She notes, “I’m excited to see how my lab continues to grow, how our projects continue to expand. We are already working on things I wouldn’t have predicted a few years ago. I have recruited really smart, talented folks to my team, and I can’t wait to see what we do together in the future. It will surely continue to be studying the structure of protein complexes in pathogens, but which ones? And to what end?”
Like many early career faculty, Durie has faced a series of professional challenges. She interviewed for faculty positions in 2021, when much of the academic hiring process was taking place over Zoom, adding a layer of distance and uncertainty to an already difficult transition. She says, “The funding environment we are in now is quite challenging. It’s a stressful time to be pre-tenure, or really at any early career stage—possibly any career stage at all! What I have found most helpful is talking about the challenges and possible solutions with colleagues. Venting is also fine, and maybe even necessary! But also sharing what’s working and what’s not. To do this, you must cultivate a network of people who you share trust and respect with. They might be your mentors from previous parts of your training or from your current position, either official or unofficial. They might be peers or friends, in the same or adjacent fields. But having a trusted network to share challenges and solutions with from an abundance mindset (we can all make it through this, and we will help each other do just that) is invaluable.”
That commitment to people is also what Durie finds most rewarding about academic life. Although her work centers on complex molecular systems, she says the most meaningful part of her job is working with trainees. Watching students and early-career researchers experience moments of insight, submit their first papers, win awards, secure funding, or gain admission to professional programs gives her a lasting sense of satisfaction. She adds, “I also love the ability to dig into really fundamental questions, just nerd out and focus on sharply pointed questions, paired with the exquisite possibility of impacting human health, allowing for our fellow humans to live better, healthier, more comfortable lives. It is fun and interesting to be down in the nitty gritty of atoms and molecules and rewarding to be able to impact other people.”
Outside the lab, Durie places real importance on work-life balance, even if she does not define herself by a single hobby. She explains, “As the Little Mermaid said, ‘I want to be where the people are.’ I will try whatever the friend group is getting up to. Lately that has included learning to play mahjong in addition to evergreen favorites: group fitness classes, trivia, and karaoke. Since I have dear, long-time friends scattered far and wide, we will often make a trip out of getting together, sometimes matching that up with a tour schedule. That’s how I ended up seeing the [Taylor Swift] Eras Tour… four times!”
Durie has also found professional community through the Biophysical Society, particularly through her involvement with the Committee on Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW). She shares, “I have loved being a member of CPOW. This smaller group, with common goals, has been a wonderful opportunity to get to know individual members who I really admire.”
Society membership has also led to useful professional connections. After she gave a platform talk at the 2026 Annual Meeting on a newly submitted project, a journal editor in the audience introduced himself afterward. She adds, “He even suggested another scientist whose work I might look out for and who may be interested in writing a review together. It hasn’t happened yet, but it still could!” Durie sees those interactions as one of the tangible ways that scientific communities help careers move forward.
If she had not become a scientist, she says she might have chosen a trade—most likely plumbing or carpentry. She jokes, “In my graduate training, I got quite comfortable taking apart, troubleshooting, and reassembling instruments. The FPLC [fast protein liquid chromatograph], the stopped flow… it’s all plumbing!. It made me much more confident taking on DIY projects around the house! If I were to start over, I like the idea of making something tangible, along with the benefits of creating your own schedule and fee structure and pursuing a path that doesn’t come with a lot of student loan debt!”