Internship

Did you know? In the United States about 1 in every 8 women is diagnosed with breast cancer according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Why is this important? This is important because breast cancer is scary, especially if you are diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer the most lethal and aggressive subtype of breast cancer. The focus of my internship this fall is triple-negative breast cancer in women.  Triple-negative breast cancer is the most lethal form of breast cancer as it lacks the overexpression of key hormone receptors/ protein targets for chemotherapy treatment. Due to this lack, it is very hard to treat triple-negative breast cancer leading to increased rates of mortality. There are many ways in which to approach studying triple-negative breast cancer as it is associated with many factors.  In my internship, we will be focusing on incorporating the role that type 2 diabetes plays in women with triple-negative breast cancer in addition to studying different pathways for aggressiveness and metastasis. This is important as based on trends observed, women with type two diabetes have an increased risk of getting triple-negative breast cancer and in more advanced stages. The big picture of the work my team is doing is to find a way to understand the cellularity of triple-negative breast cancer and the different pathways and risk factors involved with it. This is vital as there are so many women diagnosed with this form of cancer and the chances of survival are very slim. My project specifically focuses on studying the lipid phases present in the specific lipids to understand the role that they play in triple-negative breast cancer aggressiveness. The work being done in our lab if successful will be able to identify new biomarkers for use as targets for treatment, which will save many lives.

As a part of my professional growth, I have identified the individual strengths that I may offer to my team in my workplace. These strengths include:

• Enthusiasm

• Flexibility

• Problem-solving

• Reliability

• Accountability

• Dedication

Each strength that I have identified in myself I believe will play a vital role in my internship experience and how well I adjust to my new team.

 At the beginning stages of my internship, I set out to be a truly valuable member of the team who with all the strengths listed above will make this experience awesome for everyone. I was indeed very enthusiastic and idealistic. Eventually, I started finding the work being done in my internship very hard but I am still very dedicated to pursuing my goals. I did joint projects with my team and I helped to do a lot of experiments that were vital to the projects of my other team members which made me happy as I loved doing them. then my project became more software-based, and this took up all my time so I was no longer available to assist my team members in their tasks I tried to help but I completed tasks at a much slower pace than would be expected, and as such this wasn't very helpful. I didn't have enough free time to be flexible, so towards the end of my internship, I was focused solely on getting my project done, not knowing much about other members' tasks. It also did not help that during the spring semester our schedules changed and everyone else had their different days where they came in no one able to be in at the same time.

 While I felt like I wasn't able to contribute as much as I did originally I'd like to acknowledge that by helping to complete the laboratory work such as the DNA transformation and purification we were able to extract many DNA samples which helped with a team members project as they were looking at proteins and needed the samples to create constructs for their project which helped them greatly in their project and this helped our lab overall as now a paper will be published on the work they achieved. My team has also helped me by giving advice and helping work through frustrations I get with my research and so they have been invaluable to me. Everyone was different but we never had disagreements instead listening to the opinions and answered the questions that each person had. I learn a lot from listening to each person's experiences and views on certain matters and it has helped me to build my understanding and even pass this knowledge on to others for example we had a discussion on why black women get diagnosed with more lethal forms of cancers and my team member expressed their view that it was not due to biological differences or genetic differences but because of social factors such as poverty, place of living lifestyle, etc.. It was a valid argument that broadened my perspective and it makes me now think about all the factors that could be affecting an issue.

Just as I was able to acknowledge my strengths, I can recognize that there are areas where I fall short and areas in which I need to gain more knowledge.

 These areas include:

•  Asking for help.

• time management

• Being more open 

• Communicate with others not just my mentor

Along with those weaknesses, I also acknowledge that I wish to learn more laboratory skills, and how to perform experiments, as well as learn to proficiently write my own research paper.

 I have grown so much professionally, and I have further developed my goals; my future goals and personal growth are necessary to achieve those goals. I acknowledge that I still need to work on my time management skills I have completed too many things beyond their deadlines, and I need to be more flexible in getting things done and finding a balance in all aspects of my life. I want to develop my laboratory skills by being able to design and implement experiments independently as well as learn more useful skills for my career. I have learnt that with the right guidance and the right questions there is so much left for me to unlock within myself and a lot more room to grow.

Video above credits to Moffitt cancer center. Video on what is Triple negative breast cancer and treatments for triple negative breast cancer.