My name is Angel, a participant in the Fred Hutch Explorers Program. I joined the program to increase my understanding of cancer and its mechanism. During the course of the program, we engaged in a variety of activities. On the first day we did a DNA extraction where we had to isolate genetic material from a strawberry. The extraction process was a particularly captivating task. My partner and I successfully got DNA from the strawberry. We also learned about CRISPR which was my favorite topic. CRISPR is a gene-editing tool that employs guide RNA to pinpoint specific DNA sequences for cutting and replacement. I am glad we learned about gene editing because, I had never been introduced to anything like it before. We had a few guest speakers and Alicia Morales immunology lesson was interesting to me. The program was not just work, we had breaks were we made puzzles, paint-by-numbers and other fun stuff. We were able to complete a puzzle but only got about halfway with the other one that was challenging. My time at the Fred Hutch was both enlightening. I recommend this program to anyone with an interest in cancer research.
This is the hardest puzzle. All the pieces were purple, it was so hard to construct even when three of us worked on it.
One of the lab tours we went on. This was my favorite one because the labs weren’t closed off and it was an open space.
Strawberry DNA extraction lab. My partner and I tweaked the procedure a little bit but we’re still able to get DNA.