Bioscience Internship: Krummel Lab, UCSF
Internship Mentor: Dr. En Cai (UCSF-CCSF Inclusive Mentoring Fellow)
Poster: Tuning and Modifying T-Cell Activation through the Binding of Blocking Antibodies to Receptors and Ligands
I am a microbiology graduate from University of California, Santa Barbara who has experience in microbiology research, specifically bacteriology research and virology research. After I complete the Bioscience Internship, I plan on entering a graduate program, and I will continue to prepare to do so.
Before entering the CCSF Biotechnology program, I was an undergraduate researcher and a part-time general chemistry tutor at UCSB. I chose to enter the CCSF Biotechnology Program to get the opportunity to participate in an internship, which would give me additional research experience before I enter a graduate program, especially in a research field that I may participate in for my future career.
I plan on using my CCSF Biotechnology Work Experience certificate to highlight the additional research experience that I have gained during the CCSF Bioscience internship. Such research experience would be useful for me during my time in a graduate program, as I have learned about certain aspects of a research field that I previously had relatively little familiarity with. This would potentially help me, as I may be doing research that is somewhat related to what I was doing during my internship.
I completed my internship research in the Krummel lab working with Dr. En Cai, at the University of California, San Francisco. The Krummel lab studies the interactions and the molecular and cellular regulation of lymphocyte activation, through various imaging methods. My internship research involved investigating how to inhibit/amplify T-cell function utilizing certain blocking antibodies to inhibit the binding of specific receptors at the immunological synapse. These receptors affect T-cell activation, especially when it comes to T-cells forming immunological synapses with certain cancer cells that express "checkpoint inhibitory" ligands. My mentor and I used microscopy imaging methods to detect T-cell activation signaling in response to T-cells binding to lipid bilayer surfaces expressing different proteins, whether adhesive, activating, or inhibitory. The images were then analyzed via image analysis software. Together, these techniques will allow analysis of which group of blocking antibodies work best to allow for T-cells to generate activation signals in response to antigen detection.
My research experiences during this internship have diversified my technical lab skills and broadened my scientific knowledge, which should help me work on specific future research projects that draw ideas from multiple disciplines.
Jeffrey Rong- Tuning and Modifying T-Cell Activation through the Binding of Blocking Antibodies to Receptors and Ligands - Spring 2021 CCSF Bioscience Internship.pdf