Getting selected to be a part of the Pathway Research Explores Program at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center has been one of the best experiences I have had. This internship was the first internship I have been a part of and it has taught me new information that I didn't know before. Coming to Fred Hutch has allowed me to learn many new interesting facts about cancer and has allowed me to meet many new amazing people that have similar interests. At the beginning of this program I was really nervous to meet all these new people and I had no clue what I was going into. This program has allowed me to meet many new people that I clicked with instantly and was able to talk about all my interests with. I was able to make new friends and talk to people I would have never met without this program. In this program we were lucky enough to meet Dr. Anthony Fauchi who came here to talk to the Pathway Research Explores Program as well as the Summer High School Internship Program. The students from these internships were allowed to talk to Dr. Fauchi and ask him questions about all his work and how it feels to be in the place that he is. Being a part of this internship has given me many opportunities that I wouldn't have without it. I feel so appreciated that I was given the opportunity to join this internship and do all of the great things we have done.
(Here is a picture of The Pathways Research Explorers meeting Dr. Fauci)
Some of my highlights at this internship was learning how to work with micropipettes and how they actually work and what they are used for. In this internship we used micropipettes for many of the labs we did. At the beginning of the internship we did a small lab which was separating DNA from strawberries and then we started to do more labs which consisted of dye labs, Cas9/gRNA reactions, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), and many more labs. Working in the labs was a really exciting experience and was a really good learning experience because I was able to feel what it felt like working with scientific equipment and how it felt to be around in a lab. Working in this environment made me feel so welcomed and the people around me made me feel so welcomed by the way they would help me out when I wouldnt understand how to do a lab. Another highlight of this internship was having all of the guest speakers coming out of their way to come speak to us about their work and what they have researched and what projects they are currently working on. One speaker that stood out to me was Raabya Rossenkhan because she was presenting many quotes that stuck with me and some were “It’s okay to not know exactly where you are going at times”, “Believe you can do anything you dream” these quotes have showed me that other people also don't know where they are going in their life at points but you can do anything you dream of if you believe in yourself. This internship made an impression on me because it has shown me that I'm not alone and there's people out there that also think the same way that I think and there's people out there that have the same interests that I have. This program has taught me many things from cancer, cells, DNA, CML, CRISPR, clinical trials, PCR, immune system and many other things. This internship has taught me many things and I'm so grateful that I was able to be a part of this experience. This internship was a really wonderful experience and I am thankful for being able to be a part of this program.
(This gel sample is a sample of CRISPR that has a DNA ladder as well as a PCR-product and 2 different gRNa samples. This gel is showing the fragments that were cut from the different types of samples and how many bands they were cut into.)
(The image to the right was a design I created using dye and micropipettes while I was waiting for one of my gels to migrate.)
(This is a picture of me making a picture using the micropipettes and dye.)