My  name is Zamira Nasonkin. I am an intern at Andino’s Lab at UCSF. My mentor’s name is Dr. Patrick Dolan. I am from Kazakhstan. I obtained an Associate degree in International   Relations from Abay Myrzakhmetov University in Kazakhstan. When I was 20 years old, I relocated to the United States. I was a teacher’s assistant at Sewickley Valley YMCA for four years. Then I moved to California, where I decided to change my career to Biotechnology. I started the Biotechnology program in Fall 2017 at City College  of  SF.  This  Fall  of  2021,  I  will  obtain  my  Associate  Degree  in Biotechnology.  I  am  planning  to  continue  my  education  and  apply  to University.  I am very grateful for this opportunity of interning in one of the  most  outstanding  universities in the country.  I  gained  many technical  skills,  such  as  designing  a  library  of  sequences  using  Gibson Assembly, then cloning these sequences into a vector system which included a EV71 infectious  clone plasmid  with  a T7  promoter,  and  design  a  series  of  mutations  in mutagenized capsids.