I created a YouTube channel to showcase some of the new techniques I have learned in the lab. Here are two of those techniques: sonication, and cell washing (96 well plates)!

ASBMB

I am proud to announce that I have recently become a member of ASBMB and have been accepted to present at the upcoming DiscoverBMB conference in San Antonio TX! The conference will take place in March 2024 and I will update throughout the process.

I recently began learning about Cick-iT chemistry! By staining the cells in 5EU we can image them with lazer microscopy.

Discover BMB Update

I had the privilege of attending DiscoverBMB hosted by ASBMB in San Antonio, TX. I presented my poster in the undergraduate category. I attended many award winning lectures and several talks on biochemistry/molecular biology topics. I was able to network with a lot of amazing scientists and even present my poster to the president of ASBMB! I was also able to speak with many representatives of graduate programs and medical school programs which advanced my knowledge of the variety of programs available to me. One of the opportunities I loved was a speed networking event for undergraduate students. The program representatives came to our tables and talked with us for four minutes each, giving us a wide variety of options and answering all of our questions. Learning these options and meeting all of these new connections was very beneficial to getting myself out there and breaking out of my comfort zone speaking to professionals. If I could do it all over again the only thing I would add to the experience is maybe purchasing tickets to the women's networking dinner that they hosted, I think that would have been a good night to be surrounded by other women in STEM careers. I also would love to attend this conference again in the future and compete in the poster competition or give a short talk to level up my game. Now that I am home, I plan to keep up with the people I met. LinkedIn was a great resource to keep in touch with everyone. I also plan on email and IUSM faculty member that I met there who I would never have met in my day to day life here on campus! I also plan on reaching out to the director of one of the programs that I met in the speed networking event, hopefully that will help me to get a good summer internship next year!

Goal Updates

A summary of the progress I have made on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the internship.

To become more confident in the lab:

I have learned lots of new techniques this year such as; western blots, sonication, protein assays, cell culture, multi-channel pipetting, as well as many new forms of imaging and photography skills. It took a while to feel comfortable doing these new tasks without my supervisor in the room but once I was able to complete the job without asking questions my confidence skyrocketed. This aspect helped me to be able to ask more questions and invite myself to learn even more. It helped me break into the new style of lab skills and work on things I hadn't even heard of before.

To develop scientific reading and writing skills:

I was sent lots of papers at the beginning of the internship year. Being able to discuss those manuscripts with the PhD students in the lab made it easier for me to ask the "stupid questions" and learn the terminology and style of language used in scientific papers. I found it super useful for my classes to know more about this style. For example, when I had to write a mock journal of chemistry report for organic lab, I was able to already have a layout in my mind of how journals look thanks to development of those skills. I was also able to work a lot on creating visuals for papers which allowed me to get in touch with the writing process.

To be on a publication:

This one was very much made possible by my mentors. As an undergrad student there isn't much opportunity to publish on your own. Since my mentor made it a goal for me we were able to work to gather enough data that I got from my experiments to be able to put my graphics and westerns in the new paper! This was a super cool reward to the work and feels very fulfilling.

Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Research Day 2024

To round out this year I was accepted to present my poster at the Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Research Day 2024. This opportunity was amazing as I was able to compete and won first place in the undergraduate science category!! I loved getting to discuss other people's projects with them and hear what everyone was adding into the beautiful science world. I am so grateful to have been able to present in so many ways this semester as it greatly added to my ability to represent myself well and become less anxious talking to lots of people.

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