For me, the best part of the Explorers program was getting to know so many interesting people in scientific careers. A talk that Brian Minalga, a social worker working in AIDS research, gave was especially fascinating to me. He talked about how important it is to include underrepresented groups in clinical trials and how it can be difficult to convince doctors to make accommodations. For example, many physicians are reluctant to conduct clinical trials with homeless populations because they consider them unreliable and aren’t familiar with ways to make their studies accessible to the populations they are trying to help. We talked about work that the Hutch is already doing to reach marginalized populations and discussed groups that aren’t currently being reached, and discussed possible ways to engage communities in more rural areas like where I live. Including many different groups in clinical trials is crucial to understanding the effects of different treatments and preventions for diseases like cancer and AIDS, and a larger pool of data can drastically improve the impact of an innovation.
While I was interested in biology going into this program, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue a career in it. Over these two weeks, I feel that I have gained a better understanding of the opportunities available in biological fields and I want to keep pursuing them. It doesn’t seem quite so difficult to get started in research now, and there are so many fascinating issues to learn more about. I’m going to research more of the internships and programs that we learned about here, and I hope I can keep finding new opportunities like this to be involved in. The combination of cutting edge research and a fun and supportive community has really encouraged me to find a career in cancer research.
My favorite part of the Explorers program was getting to meet other students interested in biology and research. The discussions that we had were always engaging and fun, and everyone was eager to learn during our talks. We took this photo on one of our tours of the campus where we got to learn about the different kinds of research going on at the Hutch.
On one of our tours, we got to look at living cancer cells that were being cultured for more research. We learned about the precautions that have to be taken to protect cultured cells from bacteria, viruses, and fungi while they grow outside of the protection of an organism.
Throughout the two weeks we spent at the Hutch, we talked with many working researchers about what their day-to-day responsibilities were. Here, a researcher examines cells that he was culturing and preparing to study.
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