Sharleen Rapp, lead for the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, loves teaching and lab work. She grew up in North Platte, Nebraska, where her father and mother were high school teachers in science and English. While working on her BS in biology/biological sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she spent a lot of time working in the lab but enjoyed her time as a teaching assistant so much that she spent her first year out of college teaching, at King Science Middle School.
“It was kind of a lot, and junior high is always a challenge,” she said. “It was fun—it was an experience,” but it confirmed for her that she wanted to get back to working in a lab. After a year and a half as a lab assistant at a private company in Omaha, she saw a job posting for a molecular lab tech at Nebraska Medicine in 2008 and has been here ever since.
“I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it.” She was elated when the lab moved into next-generation sequencing. “That’s always been one of my passions. I just love it—I think it’s so interesting. Jill (Branson) gave me a chance to be one of the first people to work on that,” she said.
“I worked on bringing up our very first next-generation sequencing assays, the 50-gene panel for solid tumors, and after that we really haven’t looked back. Now we’re on a different solid-tumor panel on a newer instrument, a myeloid mutation panel that we’ve gone through several iterations, and I think we have one that we really, really, really like now. And then most recently, our large, 500-gene panel. We look at 300 of the genes that are clinically relevant. I just think that it’s so interesting. One of the things that I love about this job is it never stays the same. It’s always changing—you always get to learn new things.”
A few years ago, an opportunity opened when Branson moved from manager to clinical lab director and Sophie Hauxwell was promoted to manager. “Now I’m the lead over molecular and somewhat of the HLA lab as well. I get to do still all my fun stuff with the validations for our next-generation sequencing assays, but I do a lot of the Q.A. stuff, Q.C., just double-checking things throughout the month and that sort of thing.
“The nice thing is I get to teach here. I get to bring up the assays, but then I get to train all the techs on how to do them. It’s fun trying to figure out how different people learn. The same kind of thing when the residents and the fellows come through, just being able to explain to them what is actually going on behind the test,” she said. “So I get to do all the teaching, as well as all the fun lab work. It’s the best of both worlds.”
The people make it even better, she said. “Everybody who works here is fantastic. Everybody wants what’s best for the patient, and so everybody works together to make that happen. They’re all so smart, and everybody here wants to learn more. So they’re just really interested in everything that we’re doing, and everybody likes change here as well. So they want to learn more and do better things and get the best results for our patients. It’s a great place; it’s a fantastic atmosphere. The morale of the lab is really high, and that what keeps everybody coming back in and being excited to work here.”
Rapp deserves much of the credit for that, according to Hauxwell, who said: “Sharleen’s leadership, innovation, and dedication have been foundational to the success and advancement of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. Her work has elevated the lab’s capabilities, strengthened its precision oncology offerings, and enhanced the quality of care provided to patients. The Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory current achievements reflect her expertise and unwavering commitment to excellence.”
Branson said: “Sharleen has been a valued contributor to the team from the very beginning. Not only has she played an instrumental role in launching the NGS testing program in the molecular lab, but she was a dedicated member of the Nebraska biocontainment unit lab for many years, and she helped lead molecular COVID-19 testing efforts in 2020. Her positive attitude and steady commitment have made a lasting impact on both her work and her colleagues.”
When she’s not at work, Rapp spends time with her husband and two children, and she enjoys reading and working out. “My son did cross country, and we liked to run together.” He graduated from Bennington High School this spring and plans to study mechanical engineering at UNL. Her daughter, who is in sixth grade, plays softball and volleyball, “so it’s busy, but I enjoy doing that.”