My Internship
About the Internship: Brain Cancer
The chance a person will develop brain cancer in their life is less than 1%. Oftentimes, when cancer is diagnosed, it is in later stages or grades where the cancer has spread throughout the brain or to other organs. Glioblastoma is a type of brain cancer that is often stage 4 and very aggressive. Once a patient is diagnosed with it, they usually have up to a year or a year and a half to survive.
I am working with Dr. Marc Mendonca and his team to investigate how different doses of radiation affect U87 Glioblastoma (GBM) cells with genetic alterations in Mdmx genes. We hope to eventually find a breakthrough in cancer research by targeting pathways regulated by these genes, which can be utilized to improve the response of GBM tumors to radiation.
Why I Choose This Internship Site
This internship checked off all the boxes in my interest in research, particularly in oncology. This internship site is within a lab setting, which is crucial since I want to gain first-hand lab experience. This site gives me an opportunity to learn more about a topic I am really passionate about and allows me to start my journey into the career field of research and development.
About my Internship Site
It was my first time working in a professional setting, and one of my goals is to get experience in such an environment. Dr. Mendonca's lab has a lab supervisor who handles the lab, three interns (including me), and two graduate students. We all have different backgrounds and interests, but a common interest, science, brings all of us together. My lab requires particular deadlines; if cells need to be irradiated or stocks need to be passed a few days earlier, we coordinate tasks so they are completed on time.
Workplace
My lab focuses on radiation oncology. In the past couple of weeks, I have been working with the U87 Glioblastoma cells and radiating them. The primary objective is to understand the effects of radiation when the cell is undergoing DNA denaturation. Every two weeks, I am excited to see the results while I radiate, stain, and count the cells. I am curious to find out how this entire experiment will turn out in the end.
Out of all the skills, independence in the lab setting is something I have experienced in the past weeks. I am grateful to my lab supervisor, Helen Sinex, for teaching me the skills necessary to work in the lab. Now, I am able to work independently. The most important task is keeping the cells and all the surroundings sterile. Learning how to work independently is an important workplace skill because the lab technician can assign different experiments to everyone on the team. I would like to continue working on this skill in the future.
Another important skill that I learned is how to work under a bio-safety hood, which keeps the conditions sterile when working with the cells. This is extremely crucial, as it could widely affect the health of the cells and how well they grow for the experiment.
Some of my strengths I have noticed is flexibility and fast-learning. When I started LHSI, as part of my responsibilities, I had to rearrange my usual daily routine and make more room on my schedule. This has forced me to keep open spots on my schedule while still keeping the important things within a reasonable time. I go to my site on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:45 - 12:45 or 1:30 and push taking notes for my classes when I come back from my site. Fast learning and adapting are other strengths I have been working on. I could grasp the lab procedures quickly and the techniques to complete the experiment properly.
Another strength I have is communication and coordination with my team members in the lab. My lab requires particular deadlines; if cells need to be irradiated or stocks need to be passed a few days earlier, we coordinate tasks so they are completed on time. We communicate to each other the results and if anything went wrong in the experiments or not.