Being accepted as a member of the Fred Hutchinson community was a great opportunity for me. Given the rate of acceptace of this program it was a pleasure to be one of the few students who have got the opportunity to participate in this summer program. When i applied tot his program I thought they just focused on cancer and related issues. Even though this was the subject covered most during this session, 1) I learned to be a team member while working with colleagues in the research lab 2) I learned that cancer can occur and grow in the body and the immune system's ability to defend and fight to defeat cancerous cells. Sometimes in order to escape the immune system's defense, the cancer cells can trick it by pretending to be healthy cells and send the wrong signal to the immune system.
I also learned that cancer is a mutation that happens within the cells. What I also learned is how to use a microscope which I didn't know before. The first time we went to the lab we used microscopes to look at HeLa cells and this was very interesting for me because it was the first time I saw an actual cell by looking into a microscope. I will be walking away from this program with high interest in the field of medicine and might one day become a cancer researcher myself.
Thank you.
