Internship

About the Internship

We study the bacteria in the human intestine. We do what we do to advance scientific understanding of the bacteria and how they affect us as humans and learn how they communicate not only to each other but to us.

In the Needham lab, the goal is to learn more about the gut microbiome and gut-brain axis, including how the bacteria communicate with each other, how they communicate with the brain, and their roles in human function. This research will help us understand the gut microbiome more, which can lead to new treatments for many things like bacterial infections. Did you know that animal studies have shown a link between a gut metabolite and anxiety behaviors in mice?

An overview of phages which is project specific to what I do in the lab, video from www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI3tsmFsrOg

Add a citation if you borrowed media when you add multidia to ein your work during LHSI, such as videos, articles, or infographics about your

Project: Bacteriophages Targeting Gut-Specific Bacteria

Summary:

Antibiotics are the only approved, effective treatment for bacterial infections. Some researchers have projected that by 2050, antimicrobial resistance could be responsible for 1.91 million deaths per year (Naghavi, 2024). In an effort to mitigate this crisis, phage therapy is being closely studied. Bacteriophages are viruses that target and kill specific bacteria. Each phage specifically targets one bacterial species, so leveraging the targeted attacks with phage therapy offers an effective and accurate treatment option for infection. Although phage therapy sounds like a good method, it is not FDA-approved for use in humans, and more research must be done to establish conditions in which it is effective and powerful, yet safe for clinical use. During this project, various common bacteria found in the gut-microbiome and their corresponding phages were studied to see if phage therapy can be applied to bacterial monocultures in vitro and mixed bacterial communities in vivo.

Resource: Naghavi, M. et al. Lancet https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01867-1 (2024).

LHSI Showcase Presentation done

Workplace

Before coming to the internship there were already many soft and hard skills that I had to offer to the internship site as a team member. Some of these soft skills include communication skills, being able to work on a team, creativity, and problem-solving. Some of the hard skills I came into the lab with are knowing how to pipet, knowledge of PCR, and knowing basic sterile techniques. Previously when I was a resident assistant on campus, I learned how to communicate and work on a team. I did this through weekly meetings with my fellow RAs in the building and communicating with my residents on events. My communication and teamwork skills will be very important since the lab is collaborative. It is important to communicate since I am learning new things and people are relying on me to do my part. Creativity and problem-solving can help me in the lab when things do not work quite right and things need to be adjusted. My hard skills like pipetting are crucial since it is a skill used every day. Knowing basic sterile techniques is also helpful to ensure our experiments do not get contaminated and ruin the experimental data. When doing experiments I am going to grow my communication skills by sharing results with my co-workers. In addition, I will continue to grow on my old skills, like pipetting, and learn new skills when learning how to perform new experiments.

Throughout my internship, I have worked as a team with the entire lab and also with a "mini" team of those working on the specific project. On this project, there are three people, including one of my supervisors, Dr. Anne Tanner, and another undergraduate researcher. Last semester me and the the other undergraduate researchers would work on the day, so we would work as a team to split tasks or do them together. This semester our schedules are opposite, we still work as a team just in a different way. Now we communicate with each other when needed and we help prepare things for the other person's experiments the next day. My contributions have helped reach the lab's goals by doing experiments that have led to a greater understanding of possible treatments used on the gut microbiome. Although sometimes my experiments do not work out or they repeat, these times still provide valuable information to the overall project. I am always excited to contribute even in small ways since they are insightful and great learning opportunities. Recently, I did a qPCR to check if primers were working on the targeted bacteria. This was a tiny, yet important step that is needed to ensure we can properly quantify bacteria in later experiments. I have been doing more independent work, where I am given a protocol and I follow it. In the future, I would like to continue this independent work that contributes to the team by becoming more confident in what I do and asking fewer questions about things I really do know.

Successes and Challenges

Fall 2024

While in the lab I believe I have had multiple successes, both big and small. One of my first successes was completing my second 96-well plate. The first one I did was my first plate ever, and I had a few mess-ups. It was so rewarding to do the second plate without any mistakes. To do it correctly the second time I paid more attention and used paper to block out wells and ensure I placed the correct liquids in the correct well. A second success was a little smaller of a success, but still big for me. When I was first learning how to make agar plates I struggled and was nervous when handling the bottle since you have to keep everything sterile. A few times I placed the bottle upright, which is not a habit you want to form. After making plates by myself a few times now I am way more comfortable making them. To achieve this success I was more mindful about my movements when making them, and I practiced which helped boost my confidence.

Spring 2025

In the new semester, I have had a few successes. One of the recent ones was performing my first qPCR. I was testing some primers that will be later used to quantify bacterial samples in a mouse. I successfully did the protocol for the first time, even though it is challenging since it is done on a 384-well plate and most of the samples placed in the wells are under 10 microliters. Although the data was not perfect I now know how to do the protocol and can do it again to troubleshoot any possible errors. Additionally, I learned how to use the software to design the setup of the qPCR experiment, and how to analyze the data. This is something that will be useful to know in future experiments and can be applied whenever it is used again.

From both of these successes, I can apply these techniques to a possible forensics job in the future. Since similar techniques are used in the field, having some technical knowledge of them can be useful. Additionally, I have learned to not be afraid to try new things, because although they might not be perfect the first time, just practicing them is helpful.

Fall 2024

There have been a few challenges while working in the lab thus far. One of the biggest challenges for me is altering my mind to think more about biology. As a chemistry major, I have not heard of some of the terms used in the lab since freshman year. It is challenging to understand some of the topics and I often have to think back. To remedy this challenge I often look things up on the internet or ask questions. The lab team is always willing to explain things and I never feel dumb for asking questions. As we go into the spring semester I will continue to read up and learn more about the topics in the lab so I have a better understanding of my research. A second challenge is troubleshooting experiments. A few of my experiments have not gone right and have had contamination of bacteria. In this experiment, we were making plates that had hot agar poured on top, which is done by keeping agar in a warm water bath and pipetting volumes of the agar on top of an agar plate that had bacteria on it and swirling it around. After they spent the night in the incubator, there was contamination since the control of agar only had bacteria growth on it. Troubleshooting something like this or other things is difficult since you do not know where it went wrong. One way I have learned to overcome this challenge is through discussion with my other lab members. Turning to them is helpful since they all have different experiences and knowledge of where I can be more careful to prevent contamination in the future. As we go into the spring semester I will continue to lean on and learn from my team while troubleshooting.

Spring 2025

In the new semester, I have a few challenges. Recently one of the challenges I had was preparing a sample for DNA extraction. I first messed up by not doing the sample prep correctly. Instead of spinning down the bacterial cultures, I added them directly to the lysing tubes. I had to restart all of the samples. Then while doing the protocol one of the samples spilt, so I had to restart that again. Although frustrating, I kept focused on getting the protocol done. Additionally, I had support from my coworkers and I was able to get this done right. From this, I learned that sometimes things go wrong, and that is ok. Both of these mistakes could have been prevented so I will pay more attention in the future. Additionally, if I go to do this again in the future I now know what to watch out for and I will be more confident since I have done it before.

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