How an Iowan crop genomicist helped lead the way

Gina Zastrow-Hayes is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact. The annual program is a continuation of Women of the Century, a 2020 project that commemorated the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Meet this year’s honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.

Gina Zastrow-Hayes didn’t have a script, exactly, but she’d tried to organize the ideas and questions colliding in her mind like spinning atoms when she approached her boss with an unusual request. A moonshot, really.

These were the waning days of February 2020, and she’d just returned from the country’s pre-eminent genomics conference. There, her industry colleagues – the world’s best minds on molecular genetics and biological machinery – discussed with alarm how quickly reports of an unknown respiratory disease had turned into headlines on China building field hospitals, then urgent alerts of testing shortages across Europe.

On the conference’s final day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned the nascent virus’ “disruption to everyday life may be severe.” About a week later, three Iowans were confirmed infected.

A crop genomicist at Corteva Agriscience – think 23AndMe, but for corn – Zastrow-Hayes couldn’t shake the feeling that her entire professional life had been a warmup for this exact moment. That staying home and watching the pandemic unfold from afar would be like starting for a whole season only to ride the bench at the Super Bowl.

An engineer’s kid, Zastrow-Hayes specializes in sequencing DNA and RNA, tools that would be key to fighting COVID-19. She frequently uses PCR technology to detect minute genetic material in crops, the same technology being deployed for coronavirus testing. And while the fundamentals of genomics are the same whether plant or animal, the scope of experimentation by her colleagues in agricultural science dwarfs most other disciplines, uniquely positioning them to address the onslaught of testing needed to bend the curve.

“The rest of the research world works on a scale of samples that are 5, 10, 100, 500 specimens at a time, even in diagnostics labs in hospitals,” she says. “We work on a scale of diagnostics in the 1,000s, 10,000s, 100,000s of specimens at a time.”

“That gives us a completely different perspective.”

She knew others in her lab would be willing to lend their skills and technical know-how to fight this shapeless killer. Sensed that hospitals and universities would be glad for the extra hands, too.

And she had an inkling, manifesting as a tingle up her spine, that if they opened a COVID testing lab and studied testing procedures, they could drastically improve the process.

Do you think Corteva would allow us to open a COVID testing facility? she asked her boss.

Two years later, her team not only opened a COVID testing lab, but they made the testing process cheaper, faster and more reliable – twice. First by creating one of the nation’s earliest saliva COVID tests.

Then by producing an innovative “dry swab” tube that facilitates the entire testing process, minimizing possible contaminations and maximizing the number of tests that can be run. That cutting-edge work piqued the interest, and opened the pocketbook, of philanthropist Bill Gates.

“Not only could this help identify people who need treatment earlier in the process, but it could also help prevent further disease spread and save lives,” says Karen Heichman, the Gates Foundation’s deputy director of diagnostics. 

For being at the heart of this innovative research and leading the physical testing lab seven days a week for 18 months, Zastrow-Hayes is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, from Iowa.

But all this success was far from promised when she approached her boss back in 2020.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Despite the fact that we work predominantly in agriculture here at Corteva, the nucleic acid, RNA and DNA is the same whether you are a human or a plant. Fundamentally, COVID is an RNA virus, so it is just like the work I do here in DNA sequencing and RNA sequencing.

Our lab was designed to help Iowa communities fill a testing gap that existed at the beginning and really through the first 18 months of the pandemic. We partnered with hospital systems, universities and sports teams that didn’t have high throughput testing platforms available and provided that COVID testing in rapid format while they planned how they were going to long-term support themselves.

The day that Corteva said “go” to the day we opened the lab was 15 days. For everything. We had no room, no space, no equipment, no reagents, no testing plan. We had just done some legwork to understand what was out there.

We worked incredibly long hours, 12, 16, 18-hour days. At one point, I didn’t see my kids for 11 days, and it wasn’t because they weren’t home. I left before they were awake and I came home after they were in bed.

This was completely volunteer. Staff were doing their regular jobs, and then spending three to five days a week in this lab. Many people were finishing up the day in the COVID lab, then going home and analyzing data for their crop research at night.

There are amazing female scientists who have been the only woman in the room. Rosalind Franklin, me being a genomic scientist, is a huge inspiration for me. JoAnn Morgan, who was the only woman in the control room for the Apollo 11 launch. I’m in a lot of situations in my field where I’m the only woman in the room, so those women paved the way and are incredibly inspirational for me.

Then there’s my parents. My dad, who was a self-trained engineer. His work ethic is beyond anyone else I know. When people say, “Oh, you’re working so hard on this project.” I always say, “This is nothing compared to how hard my dad worked or my grandpa worked.”

My proudest moment was when we got a message from the physicians who are working on the frontlines that said: “There is no doubt in our minds that you saved lives through this testing program.”

I’m from Wisconsin, and the motto of Wisconsin is “Forward.” I’ve always lived that motto. I think it’s why I love technology and technology advancement, the continuous improvement.

When fear is trying to get the best of you, continually ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?” If the worst isn’t you’re going to hurt someone or you’re going to hurt yourself, it’s probably worth taking that risk and taking the leap.

I think something everyone asks about themselves is: “What would I do in a stressful or emergency situation?” And unless you’re faced with it, you just wonder. I learned that in intense pressure, in that stressful situation, I can still trust my judgment and I can make solid decisions.

The moral of the story for me is put together a great team, have a common vision and passion, and you can accomplish anything.

Published
1:23 pm UTC Mar. 13, 2022
Updated
1:23 pm UTC Mar. 13, 2022