Fast forward 10 years and Raul began hearing more and more about the promise of “stem cells” through his work at the clinic. Stem cells are undeveloped cells in the body. With the right prodding, they can be coaxed to become new kinds of cells with specialized functions.

Starting from a pool of the right kinds of stem cells and the right kind of prodding, you can build parts of tissues or organs. Thus, through stem cell research, we have the potential to do two incredibly useful things:

1. Learn how the various parts of the body develop

2. Work toward making  replacement cells or organs, lost after injury or disease

Hearing about stem cells, Raul got the itch to go back to his biology roots. He wanted to be a part of ground-breaking stem cell research. One day, he hoped he could put his diverse skill-set to work to help find cures for disease.

With organizational skills honed through years in the office, Raul came up with a structured plan to get into stem cell research. He decided he would build up his biology knowledge, get practical lab experience, and find a way to specifically learn more about stem cells. Luckily, CCSF had three programs that were just right for him:

1. The Associate Degree in Biotechnology Program - Here Raul would get the basic biology research skills and knowledge he needed to excel in any research lab.

2. The Biosciences Internship program - Here Raul would get part-time practical lab experience.

3. The Stem Cell Internship Program - Here Raul would get the full-time, stem cell-focused research experience he would need to apply for a career in stem cell research

Further, following his clear-minded passion for stem cell research, Raul specifically sought out a biosciences internship in the Kriegstein Lab at UCSF. This lab works at the forefront of stem cell biology and neuroscience. The lab is specifically focused on the development of the human cerebral cortex, the bumpy exterior of the brain vital for human cognition. Many projects in the lab aim to work out how specific kinds of stem cells give rise to the various mature cell types that make connections in the brain and control brain function.

Raul heard about the Kriegstein Lab from, Jayden Ross, a CCSF alum who had previously completed a CCSF Biosciences Internship there. Raul’s desire to be in the lab solidified when he later met and interviewed with UCSF-CCSF Inclusive Mentoring Fellow and Kriegstein Lab postdoc, Dr. Madeline Andrews. Raul says that Madeline had a clear passion for her work that made him very excited to start the internship. Their matching passions lead to a successful internship both before and during the pandemic.

Working hard and caring for a successful mentor-mentee relationship

Dr. Madeline Andrews hopes to open her own academic research lab in the future. Knowing that mentoring and managing trainees will be critical to her future success, she’s taken on many opportunities to mentor interns from a variety of programs. She’s worked with high school students, undergrads, grads, and more. She notes, however, that she was particularly excited by the opportunity to work with an intern from CCSF; she’d interacted with Jayden Ross who had a very successful internship in the lab and jumped at the opportunity to take on her own CCSF intern.

Madeline particularly likes the Biosciences Internship program’s focus on non-traditional paths to research. She firmly believes that to be a good researcher, you need to work hard and care about what you do. With every intern Madeline interviewed, she could clearly see that CCSF students work hard and care. Afterall, many of them chose to join the program after experiencing work in many other fields. They know they have other options, but really want to be in the Biosciences Internship program! Madeline interviewed many promising candidates, but Raul’s excitement and passion shined through.

Working with stem cells and cerebral organoids

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Madeline trained Raul with a heavy focus on learning specific experimental techniques. In particular, Madeline taught Raul how to work with, grow, manipulate, and analyze the development of “cerebral organoids.” These sci-fi sounding research tools are complex clumps of cells grown from stem cells. Because they’re treated in very specific ways, they grow into structures that resemble many of the features and cellular populations found in the developing brain.

Raul’s research goal was to look at how changing organoid treatment with a compound called LIF altered cerebral organoid development. You can learn more about Raul’s work his virtual presentation from CCSF’s Spring 2020 Biosymposium. In just a couple of months, Raul learned many experimental techniques. These included cell culture, tissue staining, and confocal microscopy. Indeed, just before the pandemic hit, Madeline was planning to have Raul demonstrate all the techniques he’d learned. While these plans were put on hold, Madeline and Raul quickly adapted and switched focus for continued success.

Essential research training outside the lab - learning to read research papers

Being out of the lab, Madeline had some time to think about the various skills one needs to be a successful researcher. While she usually focuses her intern’s training on experimental techniques, she realized that the pandemic afforded her time to teach Raul an essential research skill - how to read a research paper.

Biology researchers disseminate their findings to one another by publishing manuscripts or “papers.” Papers describe experiments, their results, and what the authors think the results mean. Papers drive the field forward and help scientists build upon one another’s knowledge.

Unfortunately, papers can be incredibly difficult to read and comprehend. There are a number of reasons for this but two of the most important ones that Madeline hoped to address through the internship were:

1. The use of field-specific language (jargon) and techniques

2. The need to view all published results critically

To approach the first problem, new researchers must draw upon years of formal classes and look up large amounts of words. They must also go back through old papers to learn how specific techniques work. 

Madeline helped Raul get up-to-speed on this front by assigning him or asking him to find papers on topics particularly relevant to their lab work. She didn’t throw Raul into the vast sea of stem cell work, but helped him build understanding by starting with topics he’d be more familiar with. Raul would then spend hours reading the papers, looking up anything he didn’t know, and discussing these things with Madeline over weekly video check-ins.

The second issue - the need to view all published results critically - is a little more difficult to approach. Authors report what they think their results mean in their papers - their conclusions. Yet, it is important to remember that science is always a work in progress. While the author’s explanations for their results may be good, they can always be refined and should be probed with additional experiments by other researchers. Thus ideas supported by results in a paper should not instantly be accepted as irrefutable facts. They must be analyzed critically and skeptically.

To help Raul build his critical reading/thinking skills, Madeline used a very clever technique. Instead of having Raul read the authors’ interpretation of their results first, she instead told him to write what he thought the results meant. Madeline would later work with Raul to compare his conclusions to those in the paper. They would discuss why their conclusions might be similar or different. This was a fantastic way to get Raul thinking like a researcher even if he wasn’t in the lab.

Future research career success for Raul and Madeline

Both Raul and Madeline believe their pandemic mentoring experiences will help them succeed in their future research careers. Raul feels far more prepared to walk into an interview for a research position (like a stem cell internship). He’s confident that he can speak knowledgeably about research, experimental techniques, and how to be successful in the lab.

Although this is far from Madeline’s first mentoring experience, she believes that every mentoring experience makes her a better mentor. In particular, this experience helped her become more flexible and focused on understanding the needs of her mentees. While she’d normally be able to walk her mentees through specific activities in the lab, the pandemic enabled her to work with Raul from a distance. Together, they thought carefully about what would be most useful to his career development. She did this with the confidence that Raul would do the hard work necessary to get something out of the experience because she knew he actually cared. With guidance from the TRAIN-UP workshops, a series of mentorship training workshops from UCSF/CCSF, Madeline was confident that she’d chosen a fantastic intern.

Flexibility, communication, hard work, and caring - all are essential components to any mentor-mentee relationship. They’re particularly essential when mentoring during difficult times.

Learn more about the CCSF-UCSF Inclusive Mentoring Fellows 2020 Cohort here and how UCSF is working with the CCSF Biotechnology program to build training pathways for researchers to counter inequity in science here.