My Internship

Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering

Focusing on research for Diabetic foot consortium and Nano transfection technology

Click here to view the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering website

Dr. Chandan K. Sen is the Director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering (ICRME) through Indiana University School of Medicine and is shown in the video discussing what his reserach team do and the significance of it. The site he directs focuses on research in Nano transfection technology and Diabetic foot consortium. He is seen with the first patient of his study, Donnell Hayes, treated for diabetic foot ulcers.

My Internship Site

My internship site is part of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering. This site focuses on wound healing and uses various methods to do so by determining how to create a system that works to heal or regenerate tissues and cells, what factors play into the regeneration of cells in a fast and efficient manner, and what methods can be done to better understand how diabetes causes harm to the body. The research done in this lab can impact people globally because it is the core research to create and provide people with healing solutions to their diabetic side effects. Some of these healing solutions can include ointments, gel, and wound dressings to aid in regeneration and healing. These dressings can be used in any healing application but is primarily focused on diabetic wounds such foot ulcers, open sores or wounds, and limb ischemia. The work done in this lab aids the medical development of diabetes and moves toward solutions for those who suffer from diabetic wounds. There are about an estimated 537 million people that suffer with diabetes worldwide and 15% of all diabetic patients suffer from these physical wounds who can benefit from this medicine.

Project Summary

Epigenetic Basis of Perfusion Deficit in Diabetic Ischemic Tissue

The research focus of Dr. Singh’s laboratory is to understand mechanisms underlying secondary complications of diabetes. The vascular system provides organs and tissues the necessary nutrients to relay their functions. The skewed gene-environment interactions (aka epigenetics), predominant in diabetics, lead to deficiency in such vascular functions known as diabetic vasculopathy. My focus of research for this internship was how to detect such abrupt epigenetic changes particularly promoter DNA methylation in diabetic ischemic tissue. I studied how to detect if a methyl group is added to the cytosine residue in the promoter of vascular gene, thereby suppressing its expression. My responsibilities included learning and conducting laboratory techniques such as mammalian cell culture, collagen hydrogel preparation, immunohistochemistry, PCR, gel electrophoresis, western blotting, and bisulfite conversion for gene promoter methylation studies. In this presentation, I will be explaining how diabetes induced pathological DNA hypermethylation can silence vascular genes and can contribute to diabetic vasculopathy. Such information can be translated clinically by targeted demethylation of such epigenetically silenced genes to bring back ischemic tissue perfusion.

Acknowledgement: The laboratory of Dr, Kanhaiya Singh is supported by U.S. Department of Defense grant W81XWH-22-1-0146. We express deep appreciation of Dr. Chandan K Sen, Director, ICRME for this opportunity and his support during this internship duration.

Final Showcase Presentation:

LHSI Showcase Presentation

Why the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering?

Diabetes is a common disease that affects the lives of many ranging from all kinds of people. I chose the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering as my site for many reasons. One of these reasons was that I personally know a lot of people including both elders and friends my age that suffer from diabetes. Diabetes can cause wounds such as foot ulcers on those with diabetes. With this being said, I wanted to use my biomedical and engineering background to research on how we can combat these wounds and propose better methods in healing wounds. I also wanted to join this lab to better expand my lab skills, along with work professionally alongside doctors and scientists. Lastly, the people in this lab are very kind and make it easy and comfortable for me to learn. They are very open to taking the time out and teaching me all of the different techniques done in a lab setting.

Learning and Skills

This internship site will help me build off of my skills of time management, teamwork, presentation, communication, and responsibility by allowing me to work with others while also going at my own pace. My time management skills will be greatly improved because I will be working in this site while also being a full time student and managing my social life. This internship will help me create a balance of all of my priorities. Working with a team of doctors, graduate students, undergraduate students and more will expand my teamwork skills because it will require so much communication and ability to work with others to reach a deadline. My presentation and public speaking skills will be put to test when the research I did in this site is presented at the LHSI showcase. Lastly, having my own personal tasks to complete within our team will prepare me to carry great responsibility and will help me complete my part.

In this internship I want to learn how to properly conduct research and how to present my findings of this research. I also want to learn the proper methods of basic lab skills. Lastly, I want to be able to find meaning in my research and really learn more about diabetic wound healing and how it will be used to help others and better the world of medicine. I am excited to gain all of these skills that will help me in my professional career. More specifically, I am excited to see what I will learn in this internship. I am looking forward to working with other interns and doctors and learning things based off of each others knowledge. I have never done research or never have worked in this type of work environment before so I am looking forward to it!

Self Evaluation

I am currently using teamwork skills, independent work, and applying previous knowledge to my internship already. I would like to work on more independent skills and reviewing my goals so that I can stay focused on what I need to learn. To improve these skills, I will revisit my goals list weekly to ensure that I am learning something so that I can contribute it to my goals. I will try to learn more lab skills so that I can work more independently rather than always relying on a supervisor.

After completing the self evaluation survey, I feel like I have grown in many aspects including adapting to my lab, figuring my way around things in the lab by using previous knowledge and problem solving, team work and working with other interns to prepare for our internship showcase, and taking constructive criticism well. As I move forward with my professional career and work with new people, I will expand on these skills because I would have to adapt to a new environment with new tasks and new people. I would like to improve my skills of doing more independent work because when I work on my own, I can take the time to figure things out and really think through it. In my lab, I often times find myself asking a lot of questions to ensure that I do every step right and do not mess up an experiment. Although it is good to always be safe, I wish I would give myself more time to think things through or research more rather than relying on a mentor to help me right when I run into a problem. I hope to get better at trusting myself and feeling more confident in my work as I continue my journey.

Site connections and growth

This site has connected with what I am currently doing in my Biomaterials class in which the wound healing aspect and cell culture knowledge from this site helped me in class and vice versa. First, I started working with creating collagen hydrogels and examining how they can heal wounds faster. Not much later, in my materials class, we learned about polymers and hydrogels fell under that. Using the knowledge form my lab, it connected that polymers can be used in many forms such as hydrogels and can have many applications such as wound healing. I also learned about the different drug delivery systems and the degradation rates in my site, which I then was required to apply for my materials class once again. I was able to bounce this knowledge back and forth which was able to help me in both my materials class and my site. Moreover, in my materials lab, we started an experiment involving cell culture and learn the procedure to do it. This month long experiment of cell culture greatly helped me learn how to properly do the steps and I was also able to memorize the process without looking at a procedure. Through this, I was able to easily do cell culture in my lab and also learned about every component used and what its purpose is in the process. The site helped me not only learn the techniques, but also helped me understand every key detail about them and why we do them. This understanding has helped me learn so much and has also helped me apply this knowledge to my classes.

As an intern I have greatly grown in the 3 months of working here by learning many techniques, learning how to work in a proper lab and work setting, and efficiently communicate to my supervisors and co-workers. The lab techniques that I have learned include cell culture, PLA, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry. I have also learned how to properly make collagen hydrogels that can be altered to speed of slow down healing. I have learned how to properly communicate with my supervisors and let them know when I am coming in each week and if I am running late. I have also worked with many different post docs and have learned little information here and there. Before working, I had no knowledge of how to do any of these lab techniques and how to apply the knowledge learned from them. Today, I can definitely say that I have seen the growth in myself after working here. Some of my favorite experiences in this site include getting closer to my post docs and other interns that I work with, learning the technique of PLA and immunohistochemistry, and making collagen hydrogels.

The Big Picture

Although my contributions to the lab are not as significant as those of the post docs, my work still impacted to the lab because I was able to help the post docs with their projects while also being able to learn many lab techniques and methods. By doing so, I was able to learn both the methods and importance of the results and what they are used for in the bigger picture. Additionally, I am contributing to a new project led by my supervisor in creating collagen hydrogels for wound healing. By being part of this project, I definitely feel like I have already mad contributions to my labs goals. Although the project has not gone far, I was promised a publication when the study is complete. It makes me so happy that I was the first undergrad intern to start a project that is so significant to our lab and possibly diabetic patients globally.

The Workplace

The workplace at my internship site has shown me what it is to be professional and how to work as a team to get tasks done. I have seen people in my lab help each other find materials, I have seen them openly ask questions without hesitation, I have seen them discuss projects and collaborate on them, and I have seen the people in my lab create a safe, friendly, and open work environment for each other. As a professional, I want to acquire all of these professional aspects in my work place. I enjoy my lab because of the friendly and homely environment that the members in the lab make. I have learned that it is okay to ask questions even if it is just basic knowledge because I know that no one will judge me and that they want me to grow and learn. I hope to one day be able to help those who are learning like me in the future and create a friendly workplace for them.

So far, I have learned so many different lab techniques from all members of the lab including post docs, other interns, and my supervisor. Although my lab has an engineering section, my site is more biology related. As a biomedical engineer, I was not required to take the biology labs that went with my classes so I was not able to learn many lab techniques. Thankfully, the other interns that I work with both have taken biology labs and were kind enough to help me and explain the basic biological techniques that I did not learn. Moreover, the post docs that I work have been very kind and patient with me and have taught me a great deal. Their methods of teaching has greatly benefitted me and has taught me so much. Unlike me, almost everyone in my lab came from a biology background, but because of this, they were able to easily teach me and pass on their knowledge to me.

Coming into this site, I was nervous about not knowing much about lab techniques or even how to properly address problems in the labs. I thought that my supervisor would expect a lot from me coming in, but this was not the case at all. Everyone in the lab was a lot more kind, understating, patient, and willing to teach me. This really made me feel welcomed and made me more eager to learn. The people in this lab made working fun and motivated me to learn more about lab techniques everyday.

Being surrounded by people with different backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives has helped me learn a great deal about all of the different lab techniques and how I can apply my previous knowledge to the lab. As I have stated earlier, all of my co-workers are highly educated post docs who have had a lot of lab related experience and the other undergrad interns are all pre-med in which their fields are all medical related. I am biomedical engineering major and have had really minimal exposure to biological lab techniques which makes me very different from them. With this being said, I always felt like I did not know as much and I felt like I was looked down upon for not knowing much. I came into the lab not knowing how to properly pipette. What caught me by surprise was how nice and willing people were to help me learn all of the biology techniques. I started to work with people from all sorts of backgrounds which helped me understand and learn the basics of the lab techniques. I was reminded that all of us start off not knowing something and that we eventually learn. The kindness of all of the post docs and other interns helped me learn everything that I know today. I have grown throughout and I hope to continue to grow and also teach others about my different background knowledge in biomedical engineering.

My internship team heavily values hard work, consistency, and patience. Everyone in my internship site has worked hard to be where they are now and they continue to help me and the other interns learn the day-to-day tasks in our lab. My team works towards bringing change in medicine for diabetic patients and are very goal orientated when it comes to researching ways to help others. Mastering these research techniques means that it is needed to constantly attend and practice all of the lab techniques multiple times. I have seen that my lab team continues to go into lab and work even on the weekends because they need to check on their cells and also make sure that they can get their desired results. It is needed for them to come because some techniques can be very time consuming and can take up to a few days. It is needed to be consistent when doing research. Going along this, a lot of patience is needed for research because there can easily be errors and it is difficult to work towards a goal from scratch and no references. Research is a field that is focused on pioneering something new that has not been done or discovered. All of these factors relate to my ideal workplace because in any field, hard work is required and people are needed to consistently do their job so they can practice and perfect their skill so that they can move up in their company and lead a branch. Although some jobs such as research require a lot of patience, working as a manufacturing engineering in the industry is very fast paced and things are not entirely done in a slow manner, meaning that much patience is not required. My ideal job would require skills and values such as teamwork and fast pace work.

My internship site taught me that work does not always have to be a hostile environment were I am told to work non-stop. In a professional workplace, co-workers are like family and are there for you and help you with your problems. The Post docs and my supervisors were very supportive of me and always understood when there was a school conflict with the site. This experience was so great because I had kind supervisors who were invested not only in my gorwth but me as a person. They proved to me that they highly valued my presence in the lab and never made me feel like I don't belong. They were always there to help me and answer my questions even if it was out of their way. This helped me expand my teamwork skills because we all had a mutual understanding of one another that made working together much easier and more fun. I really appreciate the staff of ICRME and they will always hold a place in my heart.

Successes and Challenges

I have felt some successes whether they were little or big. Some of the smaller successes were any time I worked with a post doc to learn a new lab technique or even apply knowledge that I learned correctly. Working with someone and watching them do lab techniques and writing down what they did helped me better understand how to do them. This made me feel happy because I really like learning new things and doing this was very helpful to me. I would then look up things about the lab technique and learn why they were used and take notes on this as well. I would then apply this knowledge and in doing so, I would feel good because once again, it proved I was actually learning. As for the bigger successes, I was very proud of myself for entirely learning the lab techniques of cell culture, PLA, and immunohistochemistry and being able to conduct them on my own without help. Knowing that I have these techniques memorized makes me happy because I can teach others them too and apply my knowledge in other areas. I was also very proud of myself for applying my site knowledge to my courses and vice versa. I did this through cell culture and making hydrogels because I did this both in my site and my biomaterials class. I was able to apply my knowledge and use it to help me in both settings. Being able to make this connection showed me that I was prepared and that I actually did learn.

The spring semester has been going well so far and I can proudly say that I have learned even more lab techniques! So far, I have learned a different forms of IHC such as those used for cryopreservation and staining. I have also learned how to properly conduct gel electrophoresis and briefly touched on PCR. Along with learning these techniques, I have also become more familiar with the important concepts of them as well and what their purpose is. Learning gel electrophoresis and PCR in this lab helped me better understand them and help my lab partners for my cell and tissue mechanics lab course. I applied the knowledge and skills form this lab to my course work in school which both helped me get a head start and also understand/ learn the technique better by doing it more times.

As I wrap up, I can proudly say that I have mastered all of the lab techniques I was taught, reacheda ll of my goals that i set for myself, and learned the proper methods in which research is done. Overall, I learned a lot in this lab and even made some real connections with the other interns in our lab. I really enjoyed my experience and if I could do it again I would!

The most challenging part of this lab was near the beginning when I simply read lab reports and articles and was then told to apply the knowledge of it to wound healing. Although I did learn a lot form these articles, it was something that I did not want to do and was not as hands on. I was also put to do more engineering stuff rather than biology stuff. To overcome this, I asked my supervisor if I could learn and do stuff on the biology side like the other interns. My supervisor was happy to help and put me with more post docs that all taught me different lab techniques. Through this, I was able to figure what I liked and did not really like and was also able to learn that everyone here wants me to learn and if happy to help me reach my needs and wants. Moving forward, if I run into this problem again, I can simply just ask my supervisor specific things that I want to learn and it will be granted! Moving forward for spring semester, I have not really had any major challenges. The most I will say is that my post-doc that I normally work with had to leave and go over seas so I was under supervision of another post doc. I was not used to the work load that I was given and I was presented with new lab techniques to learn, but I was working with another intern which made learning things much easier.

The last challenge left for me was to gt my final presentation figured out and I have done that! I am exciting to be presenting for this showcase and showing what we do at our lab to others! I have leanred that I am adaptable and a quick learner. I have also learned that I am really good at asking questions because being over confident in yourself can sometimes cause more harm than good and in a lab it is always better to be safe. Most importantly, I have learned that I will be able to keep the skills I have learned in this lab because I was already able to do so by applying them to my classes.

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