Playing Division I football and studying science are ambitious pursuits. Yet Michael Burton dared to try both during his first semester of college.

The young man from Chicago had a shot. He stands about 6-foot-2 and, as a freshman, walked onto the practice squad of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini.

Yet, like other freshmen science majors, he had a full plate. Introductory science classes in college are often several-classes-in-one, with lectures, mini-classes, labs, homework and exams in rooms full of 200 people or more. To that mix, add studying a playbook, working out and practicing several times a week.

Burton made it through his first semester. Then, an injury in practice altered his trajectory. He herniated the disc between his C5 and C6 vertebrae near the top of his spine. It ended his football career. But he earned his Ph.D. in 2012 and is now a professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“It was actually really disappointing,” he said. “I was able to swing some eyes (on the field), and folks started to notice me — but I ended up getting real hurt.”

There were moments when his pain medicine didn’t work. He developed migraines. At times, he couldn’t feel his fingertips. At one point, he had an allergic reaction to morphine, making him break out in hives.

Burton began to ask: What made some pains different from others? Why was he in so much pain? But he also said he became more irritable. Depressed. How was his injury leading to these other side effects?

And even as he focused on his research, he wondered: How could he bring more people like him, from diverse backgrounds, into STEM?

It was a turning point: While Burton was no longer beating the odds as an athlete, he decided to fight against long-standing trends in science.

Lack of representation

According to the National Science Foundation, Black scientists like Burton have the lowest representation of the nation’s science and technology workforce when it comes to race and ethnicity. Just under 7% of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Black students are earned by students in fields related to the biological and agricultural sciences.

As Burton began his road to recovery, he found community and career development opportunities in programs designed to help students of diverse backgrounds.

He became a McNair Scholar, part of a federal program that helps first-generation and historically underrepresented students pursue graduate degrees. The program is named after Ronald McNair, a scientist and astronaut who was among seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.

Burton grew up in a single-parent home, living with his mom and brother in Chicago. The McNair scholars program introduced him to the possibility of graduate school.

These experiences have led Burton to continuously focus on ensuring his students are given similar opportunities. He shares this passion with his colleague and wife, Erica Sanchez, a biology professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“Both of us being scientists of color has been something that has drawn us even closer in terms of our experiences as young scientists,” Sanchez said.

She grew up in a small rural town and didn’t see many biologists or professors. It was hard to figure out what those professions entailed.

But she was ambitious. And even if she didn’t know much about science, she wanted to cure cancer.

Sanchez earned her bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Davis.

She earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Washington. She now researches Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, which causes cancer and is associated with herpes.

Both Burton and Sanchez are involved with organizations designed to bring people from diverse backgrounds into the sciences.

Sanchez is involved with the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. Burton is involved with Black In Neuro, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating Black voices in neuroscience.

They also both regularly attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists hosted by the American Society of Microbiology.

Understanding and treating pain

Like Sanchez, Burton pursued his ambitions. For him, it was about understanding and treating pain. Those ambitions led him to Rodney Johnson, who isn’t a pain researcher.

Johnson studies the immune system. He is also the associate dean for research and director of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

There’s an overlap between immune system researchers and those who study pain, Johnson said. He explained that some molecules in the immune system produce sickness behaviors, like having a decreased appetite and feeling tired. These same molecules, called cytokines, can also increase the sensitivity of the body to things that cause pain. These were some of the molecules Burton studied as an undergraduate.

“Michael was very inquisitive and hard-working and showed all of the characteristics you would want to see in a potential graduate student,” Johnson said.

After recovering from his injury and completing his Ph.D., Burton took time for himself. He moved to Dallas for a postdoctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center and then another at UT Dallas.

Burton’s research now focuses on integrative biology, or understanding the relationships between organisms and their environment. Specifically, he focuses on how age, alcohol use and a high-fat diet affect the immune system and how this can affect the nervous system, pain, depression and other behaviors.

Nurturing young scientists

Thomas Szabo-Pardi is one of Burton’ first graduate students. He said the stars aligned for Burton to become one of his mentors. Szabo-Pardi was just about to graduate with his bachelor’s degree from UT Dallas when Burton arrived on campus. Szabo-Pardi wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next.

“I truly owe my success to him,” Szabo-Pardi said. “Whether you’re just an undergrad, a master student or a Ph.D. student, he really wants to make sure that you’re set up for success.”

Among Burton’s other students are Natalia Lucia dos Santos and Calvin Uong. While academic mentors often try to steer students into academia, they said Burton is supportive of the career paths his students want to pursue.

Lucia dos Santos now works in the biotechnology industry after realizing a career in academia wasn’t for her. Uong worked in Burton’s lab as an undergraduate student and graduated in 2022. He published a peer-reviewed paper with Burton and is applying to medical school.

Finding his footing

Burton and Sanchez met at a conference in North Carolina — a meeting for new researchers starting their labs.

“We go birdwatching, we like hiking, we travel a lot,” said Sanchez. “We’ve submitted a couple grants together. So it (work/life) does intertwine … but it’s a balance.”

Burton said now that he has found his footing as an associate professor he can focus on other aspects of being a scientist.

While he wanted to focus on pain research after his injury, Burton said working with Johnson helped him break away from his “mesearch” because their ideas overlapped, but not entirely.

It let him stop focusing on his own pain and work on helping others.