Eden S.

During our 2 weeks at Fred Hutch, we met incredibly smart and most inspiring people. a group of us also met a noble prize winner, by accidentally kicking her out of an elevator…. The point is we got to learn so much from the stories told, and conversations had with these scientists, medical personnel, and lab technicians. The best part about Fred Hutch explores program in my opinion is that we get to ask questions that can’t be answered by google. However, my favorite laboratory we visited was the zebra fish. However, I can’t say what they are doing there as I signed confidentiality for both me and my future children. So, join the explorers’ program and learn about Fred Hutch secrets 🫣! However, I can draw you a picture of the half-developed zebra fish eggs we got to see under a microscope!

Another lab we visited that left an impression on me was the ------ core lab. This lab works on solid tumors by removing all the water, replacing it with wax then slicing the tumor a single cell thick, staining the nucleus and specific proteins and looking at it under a microscope. Here is a photo of a mouse tumor under a microscope. Here is a photo!

Lastly, I had so much fun doing some labs myself! We first got to play around with micropipettes and dyes as practice before going on to the big girl stuff😎. We first worked with genes that are commonly responsible for breast cancer, and we used a technique called PCR (polymerase chain reaction) to duplicate the DNA thousands of times. After that we used an enzyme called CRISPR cast 9, an enzyme first found in bacteria as a means of protecting from invading viruses by cutting up their DNA. We used a modified version of CRISPR to cut up the cancer gene and placed it in in an electrophoresis machine that separates the strands of DNA by size allowing us to see what samples were positive for breast cancer. Here is the image of the results produced by the electrophoresis.

In conclusion this was a super fun program, and I believe that anyone who is even remotely interested in bio or cancer should at least apply. Every morning, I woke up excited for what I would learn and do that day and it’s something I have never experienced before. I’m so sad this only lasted 2 weeks I could have done this all summer, and I may do that next year in the ship program! So, I say thank you, to doctor G who taught us so much and did everything she could to support our ambitions, even if that was getting a bagel. Thank you to Layan who somehow tolerated us for this long, I will miss your smile. Thank you to the TAs who helped us through the lab and helped us fix our mistakes. Thank you to my friends who made me laugh at the worst moments. Thank you and hopefully see you next year!