As my fourth semester working in the Lewkowich lab is completed, I am reflecting back on my experiences from January 2016 until now. I have learned so much about research academia, the roles in a lab, PhD career paths, the work environment of labs in academic settings, how research is conducted, publication processes, graduate programs, lab techniques, data collection and analysis, conferences, and much more. Besides a place to work and learn, my lab has become my second home, and I have come to trust my fellow lab members, who are more like my friends. Although the other members of my lab have always tried to convince me to pursue a PhD instead of an MD, this experience has solidified my career aspirations. Through this experience, I have weighed the possibility of pursuing an PhD. Research is a positive environment that I think I would definitely enjoy, but I don't think I would enjoy it as much as doing clinical and community work as a physician. However, because of my experience in my lab, I am much more open to doing supplementary research as a physician to complement my service work, whether that be basic science, translational, or clinical research. I feel much more comfortable and open to the research world, which I will dabble in in medical school and definitely my fellowship if I choose to follow a career path that requires one. Overall, choosing not to do a PhD has not been a negative experience, but a wholly positive one.
This semester in particular has been a positive experience. I continued my project working with mouse tracheal epithelial cells, and I expanded my knowledge of experiments involved. This semester, I performed my first few time courses on the project with the help of Jackie, my mentor. Instead of treating the cells with concentration of cytokines as the variable, we chose a single, most effective concentration of cytokines and treated the cells for varying amounts of time, from two minutes to seventy two hours. The first time course we completed, I examined mRNA levels for several different genes that we had previously examined. These genes included ALOX15, Arg1, Tnfsf13, and CXCL1. For the second time course, I collected the protein from the cells to examine Total STAT6 versus phosphorylated STAT6 levels in the MTECs via Western Blot, which I had never done before. STAT6 is a protein that acts as a transcription factor to activate transcription of genes when interacting with cytokines, and we've identified STAT6 as a potential molecular mechanism for the interaction between IL-13 and IL-17A.
I began to attend lab meetings more frequently this semester, which allowed me to be more presently involved in the day-to-day events of the lab. My PI Ian, postdoctoral mentor Jackie, and other lab members are inclusive and supportive of me, yet also let me see how lab meetings are normally run. Seeing the daily happenings of a lab allows me to be immersed in the culture of research academia fully.
Through my human physiology course, I wrote a capstone paper on the research that I conduct in my lab. Through this paper, I learned so much more about the natural and disease states of the airways when asthma is involved. Immunology, I've learned, is an incredibly interesting topic that I hope to learn more about through classes and my own research and reading. Below is my paper, which is evidence of my scientific growth this semester.
Finally, I have started to become more involved in the PEES project, which is the human study project we are conducting. This project involves recruiting asthmatic children who have been hospitalized for their asthma recently and who are using a maintenance inhaler. I attend PEES meetings to plan the big picture parts of the project as well as to keep up to date with smaller details. Although I will not be helping with recruitment of patients, I will be helping to maintain nasal epithelial cells cultured from the patients, treat the cells, and process the RNA to perform RT-PCR on the samples. I am looking forward to helping more with this project, as it combines basic science as well as environmental and clinical aspects of asthma research.
As I start the SURF program this summer (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship), I look forward to working full time in my lab to devote more time to the multiple projects I am taking on. I hope to learn even more!
This semester in particular has been a positive experience. I continued my project working with mouse tracheal epithelial cells, and I expanded my knowledge of experiments involved. This semester, I performed my first few time courses on the project with the help of Jackie, my mentor. Instead of treating the cells with concentration of cytokines as the variable, we chose a single, most effective concentration of cytokines and treated the cells for varying amounts of time, from two minutes to seventy two hours. The first time course we completed, I examined mRNA levels for several different genes that we had previously examined. These genes included ALOX15, Arg1, Tnfsf13, and CXCL1. For the second time course, I collected the protein from the cells to examine Total STAT6 versus phosphorylated STAT6 levels in the MTECs via Western Blot, which I had never done before. STAT6 is a protein that acts as a transcription factor to activate transcription of genes when interacting with cytokines, and we've identified STAT6 as a potential molecular mechanism for the interaction between IL-13 and IL-17A.
I began to attend lab meetings more frequently this semester, which allowed me to be more presently involved in the day-to-day events of the lab. My PI Ian, postdoctoral mentor Jackie, and other lab members are inclusive and supportive of me, yet also let me see how lab meetings are normally run. Seeing the daily happenings of a lab allows me to be immersed in the culture of research academia fully.
Through my human physiology course, I wrote a capstone paper on the research that I conduct in my lab. Through this paper, I learned so much more about the natural and disease states of the airways when asthma is involved. Immunology, I've learned, is an incredibly interesting topic that I hope to learn more about through classes and my own research and reading. Below is my paper, which is evidence of my scientific growth this semester.
Finally, I have started to become more involved in the PEES project, which is the human study project we are conducting. This project involves recruiting asthmatic children who have been hospitalized for their asthma recently and who are using a maintenance inhaler. I attend PEES meetings to plan the big picture parts of the project as well as to keep up to date with smaller details. Although I will not be helping with recruitment of patients, I will be helping to maintain nasal epithelial cells cultured from the patients, treat the cells, and process the RNA to perform RT-PCR on the samples. I am looking forward to helping more with this project, as it combines basic science as well as environmental and clinical aspects of asthma research.
As I start the SURF program this summer (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship), I look forward to working full time in my lab to devote more time to the multiple projects I am taking on. I hope to learn even more!