Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship For Medical Exploration

The SURF MedEx Program is a 10 week intensive research experience, specifically designed to encourage medical exploration. After a competitive  application process, I was chosen to participate in the program, therefore taking part in research with weekly lab meetings focused on skill-building/networking, attending specialized SURF sessions with guest speakers covering a wide range of fields in medicine, and presenting my work at the end-of-program Capstone Poster Presentation. 

Under the supervision of Principle Investigator, Dr. Roger Cornwall, and mentorship of Dr. Qingnian Goh, I took part in a project with the aim of establishing a skeletal muscle elongation transcriptome to identify primary genes involved in muscle elongation by focusing on the cellular level of changes in cell morphology, specificaly assessing cell length, width, and circularity. I gained an understanding of mammalian cell culture and staining/imaging analysis of myofiber morphology and experience with quantification and performing statistical data anlayses. I was also able to present my researchwork at the Capstone Symposium in the form of a poster presentation to my fellow professors and judges in which I was chosen as the Grand Prize winner. 

Throughout my experience in the lab, I learned valuable research skills and techniques including cell culture techniques, qPCR, cell imaging/staining, and statistical data analyses. I was also able to develop and strengthen my relationship with my mentor who guided me throughout my experiments and provided me support and encouraged me to ask questions. Additionally, I am very thankful to the coordinators of the program, including Dr. Danny Wu, Scott Vennemeyer, and Anu Nattam, for providing us with the opportunity to continue our research as well as providing us with the resources for our future career goals. Being able to take part in the SURF weekly sessions and listening to guest speakers from various fields of medicine allowed me to gain a greater understanding of different topics and explore various interests. I am hoping to continue with my research work throughout the semester and further strengthen my research and observational skills.