The Fred Hutch High School Explorers Program was one of the best experiences of my life. I learned so much from so many incredibly experienced researchers, and I met some amazing fellow students who helped me become better as a scientist! The Explorers program gave me and 15 other sophomores and juniors the opportunity to learn more about biology research and gave us the chance to be researchers ourselves for two weeks. While there were many many highlights throughout the program, the one that stood out to me the most was using CRISPR.
The result of our CRISPR experiment
While it wasn’t the flashiest thing we saw during these past two weeks, seeing this almost mythical process come out of my textbook and into my hands was amazing. CRISPR is used by biologists to cut and edit DNA. It uses CAS9 (an enzyme that can unravel and cut DNA) and Guide RNA (RNA that detects certain stretches of DNA called PAMs to tell CAS9 where to cut) to incredibly precisely edit DNA to turn on/off/edit the functions of specific genes in strands of DNA. This helps scientists in many ways. In one case, they have used it to gene-edit mosquitoes so that they would no longer be able to spread malaria. While this technology is incredibly new (it was discovered in 2012), it has already been used for many amazing things! Being able to use it opened my eyes to the possibilities it opens, and I am very excited to see what comes next.
Dr. Stoddard explaining Xray protein crystallography
Another highlight of the program was the Dr. Barry Stoddard's lecture and the subsequent visit to his lab. His work with protein crystallography is fascinating and he has had such a storied career, which I was lucky enough to listen to him speak about. Protein crystallography is the process of crystalizing a protein and shining x rays or electrons through it to view its 3D structure. In one example, he talked about how his lab used it to (). Hearing about the whole process of crystallography and the evolution of electron microscopy as a field was enlightening. Being able to see the $2,000,000+ electron microscope was very cool. The combination of Biology, Chemistry, and a little bit of Physics made the entire process fascinating and stayed in my brain for days afterwards.
Overall, I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the High School Explorers program. I got the chance to hear so many incredibly knowledgeable professionals and learn so much more than I ever would have thought possible. This program opened my eyes to many different paths in research and that information is invaluable. It will guide me in choosing my future path as a student and even further into my professional career. Thank you to Dr. Goode (our program director), our wonderful TAs (Emily, Heather, and Jobelle), Chaitanya (my awesome lab partner), and the other 14 explorers who made my time at the Hutch absolutely amazing!
P.S. Thank you to the staff at the Thomas building Coffee shop, from which I got my morning Hot Cocoa nearly every day.
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