About Me
My Major
I am going to be a junior in the biomedical engineering program at IUPUI in fall 2021. My major also comes with a minor in mathematics already built into the program. Biomedical Engineers are at the forefront of developing new and better technology for the healthcare and medicine fields. Biomedical engineering ranges in many different areas such as biomaterials, biomechanics, pharmaceuticals, and much more.
I chose this major with a goal in mind to help others from behind the scenes. Using my strong problem-solving skills and mathematics skills I wanted to help develop better technology for everyday healthcare and research.
Teamwork
As a team member, I find that I am efficient in communication and planning. I believe that communication is the most important part of making a team successful. I also like to take initiative in getting projects started and planning for the future. I find that the earlier a team starts, the more room we have to deal with possible problems. I believe these skills were able to be used greatly in my lab as I had to become more independent in my experiments. This independence allowed me to grow professionally as I know when I go into the workforce there won't be people holding my hand along the way anymore. This type of skill also just comes with confidence as I was able to grow more comfortable and confident in my abilities I became more independent.
Within my lab, I was the only intern. I had my mentor, Joy Garret who was the lab manager, and my PI Dr. Joseph Dynlacht. Working in a small setting was nice because I was able to get more attention and more opportunities. Joy was my first line of contact if I had questions or wanted to discuss anything she was my go to person. She taught me most of the skills I gained in the lab and supported me throughout. I reported to Joe regularly either through email or we would have sit-down conversations about the background of an experiment I would report my findings to him. Over the course of the project, I was able to more independent and work more on my own and make my own decisions. This was due to gaining their trust that I could get the job done well.
My Experience and Skills
Fall 2019- Summer 2021
Before coming to Dr. Dynlachts lab I had worked in two other lab sites as well. I worked for Dr. Schlecht in the orthopedics department at the IU School of Medicine. I started working there as a freshman and I learned a lot about how a lab works and its inner workings. This lab was doing research in ACL injury and here I learned skills in histology, dissection, and handling mice. Here I was also able to develop skills in understanding the environment of a lab, writing an abstract, and communicating with my boss.
Summer 2021
I also worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center through the MURI program at IUPUI in a lab under Dr. Moldovan for a summer. Here they did research into modeling using 3D printing and bioprinting. I learned skills in plastic 3D printing, resin printing, and bioprinting. I worked on developing my skills in 3D printing PLA and resin printing. I was able to print a functional stethoscope and a nozzle to make hydrogel beads for cell culture.
Aug 2021- May 2022
Starting at LHSI, I have been able to develop many new skills. During the first couple of meetings in my lab, I was able to shadow my mentor in passing cells. Eventually, after a few attempts of my own, I learned many sterile techniques and how to grow and take care of cells. This skill also came with reading about the process and doing my own time researching the techniques.
I have been able to gain new strengths such as writing abilities, being able to present my data, and gaining that independence in the lab. I believe that all these skills can change and improve once I move into a more industrial setting.
Besides research:
Besides research, I was given many opportunities this past year. In the Fall of 2021, I was a first-time honors college mentor. I was also a lab TA for Bio K101 under Dr. Marrs. In the spring of 2022, I was a mentor for the Undergraduate Women in Science club as well as I was the volunteer Coordinator. I was also the secretary for the Women in Technology. All of these positions and roles were essential in my growth as a leader as well as being able to be more a part of the IUPUI community.
I am also grateful to my lab and this internship as I believe they helped me reach my goal of being an IUPUI Top 100 student of 2022. The experience I was given and the support I received were essential to my growth as a student at IUPUI.
Leadership Experience
After 2 semesters of WEN, I decided to try a new program. I was an Honors mentor for 2 honors college freshmen in the Fall of 2021. We would meet biweekly and attends school events together. I was their stepping stone to help them transition from online high school to in-person college. I enjoyed getting to know all my mentees and building trusting relationships with them. Finally within the spring 2022 semester, I will be a mentor for the Undergraduate Women in Science club where I am on the executive board as well. I will be paired with a woman with a similar major, and I hope to continue to help underclassmen the same way I have so far.
Besides from my work in the lab, I am also passionate about mentoring. Freshmen year I was a mentee within the Women Engineering Network (WEN) where I was paired with another woman in engineering and we would have biweekly meetings. I enjoyed being able to have someone to rant to and talk to about my problems my freshmen year and I wanted to offer the same experience. From here, my sophomore year I was a mentor for 2 biomedical engineering freshmen through the WEN program. We would meet biweekly to discuss their classes, personal life, and anything that I could help with.
U1 Melanoma Cells under a confocal microscope
Starting a New Experience
From here I was able to move on to a couple of starting experiments. I started a plating efficiency where I plated cells and then after about 10 days I stained and counted the colonies to know how well I was plating my cells. After this, I also worked on a growth curve experiment. I plated multiple flasks of cells and over a week period, I counted the cells of a couple of flasks. The goal of this experiment was to show the growth curve of the U1 melanoma cells I was passing. During this time I was also assigned with reading and making writeups for my experiments. As I have never written protocols in this manner before, I have been able to learn a lot from my mentor on the proper format and what to include.
A month into the research..
Ending my month of September I just started my own experiment where I am getting more into my own independent study. I am currently testing a compound on melanoma cells, at varying concentrations of the drug as well as varying temperatures. The goal is to see if there will be more killing of cancerous cells when a drug and heat are added into the equation. Since I'm interested in working in the pharmaceutical industry, this type of work is very interesting for me. I hope to continue to improve my independence in my research. I also feel like my writing skills could use more work as I hope to decrease the number of edits my mentor has to make to my papers.
New Skills and Strengths
Soft Skills
Through this internship, I believe I have matured more professionally. My mentors and PI are open to me about my flaws and criticism which has allowed me to work on my weaknesses but also work on being able to take criticism. For example, I turned in a writing assignment to my PI and he noticed a couple of spelling mistakes therefore he gave me a talk about how paying attention to details is something I could work on for many reasons. This idea has been implemented many times within this lab because there is no way to cut corners or do things sloppily or else results will not be in our favor.
I have also developed skills in being able to ask questions and being open to admitting to where I may be lost on what I am doing. My mentors are very open to helping me when I need it but they support me in trying to be more independent. Being very open about how I am doing within this lab has given me more chances to learn.
Hard skills
More hard skills I have learned within the spring semester have included learning new protocols. I have done many clonogenic assays at this point. I have now more experience with a DNA binding assay. I was able to learn how other experiments can be used to support the lab's goals. I have now worked with the mice and in vivo experiments where the drugs were tested on tumors that were grown on mice. I am now working on new skills in creating a thermotolerance experiment. Here I will have more independence on creating the experiment to test how cancer cells and drugs interact when a development of thermotolerance is met.