The Fred Hutchinson Explores program has definitely been one of the most exciting highlights of my summer. We’ve all heard about cancer and how it’s bad. But during my time at Fred Hutch I truly learned about how and why it’s bad. Any cell that divides in your body has the ability to become cancerous. Cancer describes a disease where cells gains the ability to perform uncontrolled growth and the potential to spread through the body. We mainly focused on breast cancer and BRCA 1 gene which is a gene that suppresses tumor growth in breast tissues and increases the risk of cancer when it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. I got to learn more about it during the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) lab. PCR basically makes many copies of a section of the BRCA 1 gene that contains a mutation known to increase a person’s risk of cancer. PCR gives us a better understanding of these mutations.
The stages of PCR are:
Denaturation: which separates strands of DNA
The second is Annealing which allows primers to attach to DNA
The third is Extension which allows DNA to be copied with Taq polymerase which creates a new strand of DNA.
Learning more about Cancer and participating in labs like PCR gave me a further understanding of what goes on at Fred Hutch and how they use methods like PCR to study cancer and find cures and treatments with it. Not only did I get the chance to participate in labs but I also got the privilege of listening to lectures from people who work at Fred Hutch about their work and experiences in science field. Fred Hutch has a very diverse field of employees so I could relate to all of them in various ways, which is something very rare to come across. In my short time at Fred Hutch I’ve learned a lot and it’s given me a better perspective on what I want to do as I continue to explore what I like about science. I now that I would like to explore political science and public health moving forward.
The Critical Race Theory was one of my favorite lectures. I about learned how misconceptions based on races in science still affect us today.