My experience during my internship at Fred Hutch has opened my eyes to different fields in health science research and what I want to do with my future career. I learned a lot about various types of labs at Fred Hutch, from Flow Cytometry to Zebra Fish. My favorite part of labs was doing gel electrophoresis, and using micropipetes. We used gel electrophoresis to see how gene editing affects cell size, and used gel electrophoresis to measure molecule size, as well as determini

Hi! My name is David, I’m a rising junior, and I was an intern in session one of the Fred Hutch Pathways Explorers program! In the short two weeks that I spent at the Hutch, I got to explore and discover so many different areas of research, labs, and cores that go on here. All of these have incredible things going on that are each worth their own dedicated articles about them, but here I will be focusing on one of my favorite things that I saw during my tine here: the Stoddar

Welcome! I’m so excited to share my experience with you! Before joining the Fred Hutch Explorers Program, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what working in science looked like. I imagined scientists spending all day in a lab doing experiments (and there is some truth to that!), but I quickly realized that there is so much more to research than I expected. Of course, I learned to pipette, use real lab equipment, and see what an actual research lab looks like. To my surpris

The Fred Hutch Pathways Explorers program was such a memorable and pivotal experience for me. These past two weeks, we’ve been taught fundamental lab techniques and been introduced to so many amazing people and opportunities. My group on our last day in the lab A highlight for me was hearing from Dr. Stoddard about his work solving protein structures using X-ray crystallography. To solve these structures basically means to develop a 3D model of how the different amino acids

Hi! My name is Nidhi, and I’m a rising junior at Tesla STEM High School. One of the main highlights of the Explorers program was the Spot On CML Lab. In this lab, we were given four different DNA samples of different patients and tested for chronic myelogenous leukemia. We first added loading dye to each sample as well as the three control samples we received (two positive controls, one negative control). We then set up a gel and loaded all the samples, along with the DNA lad

Hello, my name is Ganeshal and I am a rising Junior at Shorewood High School. Being part of Explorer’s session one was truly an amazing and fascinating experience. Everyone had the opportunity to really explore the different concepts and pathways researchers have taken to understand both cancer and basic human living. Before joining the program, I had learned about biology mostly at school, but being able to be part of a program at a world renowned cancer research center, I h

This lab was the dye lab, it represented the separation of molecules based on their charge, shape, and size using the tool of agarose gel electrophoresis. Usually used with DNA and RNA. This image was not from the same lab but still represents the same concept First, we make a gel that has pits in it so the tested molecules can sink down at the gel level so it can travel in a controlled yet free & accurate manner. The gel is made with agarose powder boiled with a buff

The Fred Hutch Explorers Research Program was one of the most precious opportunities I have got to experience in my rising to sophomore year summer. My time at Fred Hutch helped me answer big questions I carried when I first stepped into the program, such as how a cancer cell spreads throughout our body from its original location, whether something in our genetic structure helps cancer cells continuously divide, why our immune system is not enough to fight off cancer cells, a

My name is Amira. I am a rising junior at Mountlake Terrace High School, and I was a part of session 1 in the Fred Hutch Explorers pathway program. Throughout my time at Fred Hutch, I had the opportunity to listen to a variety of guest speakers in the scientific field. The lectures varied from laboratory technology that helps identify cancer cells to everyday psychological patterns like imposter syndrome. Each more interesting than the next. However, one of the lectures that

The Fred Hutch program was an amazing experience! Everyday was better than the last. I thoroughly enjoyed the lectures on the current research at Fred Hutch. Touring labs explained the institution’s inner workings and showed real examples of science in action. In the educational lab, I learned how to use various lab equipment, all of which I found to be interesting and fun. The hands-on opportunities, often coinciding with a recent lecture, allowed us to see scientific theor

Hi I am Ziyad and I attended session 1 of the 2026 Fred Hutch Explorers Program. In the two weeks that I have been at Fred Hutch, I’ve had many highlights that made me interested in this field and career path. There were many great experiences that helped me learn a lot about different fields in biology. But overall, my favorite lab had to be the C. elegans lab. My favorite part was how they used engineering and computational biology in their experiments. I found it especiall

Going into Fred Hutch, I didn’t know what to expect. I know you’ve probably heard that line about a million times, but it’s true. Julu 27th felt a little like the first day of school. I remember stressing over what to wear. A T-shirt seemed too casual, a button up seemed too formal, and a sweater would’ve been perfect for Bellevue’s unusually gloomy summer weather, except I didn’t own one. I eventually settled on a crewneck with my high school’s name proudly displayed across