My Fred Hutch experience as an Explorer was an amazing experience. It was full of amazing speakers who left their words of wisdom from these brilliant individuals in profession pushing young people to continue in school and create the new advances in cures towards cancer, medicine, and research. At first, the program was very intimidating, you have the feeling that everyone knows what’s going on and you do not. Tips I have for the future Explorers is to ask questions when you get confused and get to know the other Explorers and make friends.
My memorable highlight was the ELISA; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay lab. It was interesting that we got to advance our basic micropipette skills to use antibodies so that we can detect the presence of ER, PR, and HER2 (proteins/ hormones). The presence of these proteins/hormones allowed us to see the wells change colors to detect if the antibodies were positive or negative in ER, PR, and HER2. Lori (our patient sample ) was positive in ER and PR, but negative in HER2.
My favorite speaker throughout my experience at Fred Hutch was Dr. Raabya Rossenkhan who talked about HIV Vaccines. This scientist was the most inspiring because she was the most relatable, even when she was lecturing us about her life and her research. She is a more down to earth person who did not simply speak about her research, but also spoke about her upbringing. In addition, having her sit down with us during lunch and ask about our background is not what many speakers make time to do. Dr. Raabya seemed interested in our lives, our travels, and our school interest which made her presence here more memorable because of her willingness to be engaging.
