My Internship

For my internship, I will be working with Dr. Padmanabhan Pattabiraman and IU School of Medicine students, researching glaucoma.

Elevated Intraocular pressure (IOP) is thought to be the leading cause of Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG), an eye disease that results in the loss of peripheral vision. The only way to treat or halt the POAG is by lowering the IOP level. Past studies have focused on trabecular meshwork cells, the cells responsible for regulating the IOP, and how specific proteins affect these cells. However, there is still much to discover, which has lead to the project primarily focusing on the protein clusterin, and it's affects on trabecular meshwork cells and IOP. Another focus of the project is the application of lipids and the regulation of IOP and trabecular meshwork cells.

Through the first two months at my internship site, I have been aiding in the studies of post-doc students by maintaining cell culture status, running gel electrophoresis for their samples as well as Western Blotting. I just recently have been applying these skills that they have taught me to my own work as I have been genotyping for certain mouse samples. After learning from the post-doc students, I now am beginning my own cell cultures that I will be treating. In the grand scheme of things, our lab is researching glaucoma. Glaucoma is caused by an increase in interocular pressure of the eye, so the research is around figuring out which proteins or lipids cause an increase or decrease in the pressure, so then eventually the findings can be used to develop a drug to help treat glaucoma, which is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 60.

Learning and Skills

This internship is going to help me with my future career goals by showing me what it is like to work with fellow colleagues on a certain research question. Through this internship I plan to learn how to become a better researcher, observer, and colleague. This internship will bring an extra level of professionalism to my academic career. Learning how to do lab techniques such as Gel Electrophoresis, Western Blotting, Cell Cultures, and Microscopy will enable me to be able to connect these skills with material I will learn as I study to become a PA.

• I am most excited to test myself on how efficient and precise my lab skills are and to see how they develop over time. Coming into this internship site, I had no prior experience in a lab and so far there has been a learning curve when trying to learn how experiments are done, why they are done, and what the results mean. I want to improve these lab skills because I feel like they will help me clinically as I pursue a career as a PA. I am looking forward to seeing where I am at by the end of the year to see how I have developed from day one.

• After completing the self-evaluation, I realized that I do need to become more independent. I feel like through most of the internship up to this point, the post-docs have been guiding me step by step staying by my side. Most recently, I have started to become more independent, but I routinely ask questions that I feel like I know the answers to, I just like to make sure because I have a fear of doing something wrong that could affect the work of the others in the lab. Given this, I feel as if my communication skills have blossomed as I no longer feel bad asking for help or asking for clarification if I am confused. I would like to continue to work on becoming independent and feeling as if I bring quality work to my lab. I want the others in my lab to be able to trust in my skills and to be able to hand me work, knowing that I will complete it correctly and in a timely manner.

• In class, I have been learning about the importance of Western Blotting to be able to recognize the presence of proteins in a specific sample of cells. My genetics and molecular biology professors, Dr. Watson, discusses some of the lab techniques that he uses and connects them to course content, which enables me to think about the work that I am doing, and allows me to expand my thinking by making connections between my work and the course content. Western Blotting is one example of this, as well as cell culture and genotyping. By being able to connect the techniques I am performing at my internship site to the classroom, it allows me to gain a deeper understanding of what is going on at a molecular level, and the process behind it. Getting hands on experience with the techniques and content I learn about in the classroom, only solidifies my thinking process more.

• So far as an intern, I have learned how to run gel electrophoresis, Western Blotting, as well as perfusion techniques, how to dissect an eye to remove the trabecular meshwork to be used in cell cultures, as well as simple cell culture techniques like trypsinization. So far, my favorite experiences involve times where all the members of my lab are together and we are able to talk and joke around, forming new friendships along the way. I have enjoyed learning about everyone's past experiences and education. One of my favorite days was when I successfully completed my own western blot after treating cells with a certain treatment, and removing the proteins so they could be analyzed using the western blot. My western blot showed some flaws, so I began troubleshooting and thinking of ways to create a better blot to be analyzed. Going through the process of hypothesizing possible errors and places to try again really brought my experiment all together and gave me a feeling of fulfillment since I had just finished my first experiment.

• A new skill I have developed and mastered through the internship is the PCR technique to identify the genetic makeup of mice specimens that we use. I have also developed a lot of perseverance and determination. I have learned that in science it is all about trying over and over again. I have not had much luck upon the first time trying a new technique, so it has been important for me to develop a mind that is relentless when trying to perform the task at hand.

• My work mattered to getting the bigger job done because culturing cells to be tested is essential. Without the cells, treatments and experiments cannot be performed. The genotyping work I did for the mice we worked with was crucial to being able to see which mice are mutants, and which ones are wild type. The mutants are the ones that we will be measuring the IOP of. The virus work I did would have been beneficial to see how HEK cells with HES1 and NCD1 respond to certain stressors.

• In the future, to continue on my goals, I need to focus on applying to PA school. I need to continue to do well through my undergrad classes and take the GRE, and begin to collect my letters of recommendation. I need to submit my application right when the cycle opens because the it is a rolling application and the earlier I apply the better chance I have of being accepted into my desired universities. My experience in the lab has helped me with my communication and professionalism. Working aside post docs and my PI has inspired me to continue on my path and to continue even when failure occurs. Throughout the whole year, I had to do most of my work twice due to errors, and my persistence ended up paying off because I have now mastered my skills.

Successes and Challenges

• One area that I feel I have had success in is the ability to not be afraid to ask questions or to not be afraid to fail. Coming into the internship, I was a perfectionist that was always trying to do everything correct on the first try. I quickly learned that in science, things may not always go the way you think they will. It is important to not get too low when things do not work out and to roll with the punches.

• Some challenges that I have came across are miscommunications regarding when a specific step to an experiment should be done, as well as not correctly doing an experiment. I also contaminated cells due to not looking to see that fungus was in the media. I now know to look very closely to see if there is fungus in the media we use to feed the cells. To help with the miscommunications I have started to ask more detailed questions about what is expected from me and it has helped a lot with my productivity in the lab.

• Looking back at the past year, I think that a lot of the challenges stemmed from miscommunications. To counteract these challenges, I made sure to ask questions, even though I was asking a lot of them, to make sure that I was doing the correct task and was not making any errors along the way. I learned that perseverance is critical in science. If you do not achieve something on the first try, try again and again. In science, you have to be relentless when working towards a discovery.

• My team was a great support system for me when I found myself struggling. I could always go to Avi, Ting, Chevy, or Dr. Padhu when I had questions. I truly cannot thank them enough for their contributions to my learning experience. Having someone present to simplify the science behind my tasks was extremely beneficial to my understanding of how my work contributed to the big picture of their research focus.