The Fred Hutch Explorers program was an excellent opportunity for me to learn more about cancer research, lab work, and to meet many new people. This program provided me insight on what researchers do in labs and what tools they use in their work. I was able to speak with many doctors, researchers, and college/grad students who were also interested in STEM. I enjoyed speaking with these individuals about their passions and their stories about what brought them to where they are now. This experience provided me with many new resources to better prepare me for my future and aided me in deciding what I may want to do past high school. While this program only lasted 2 weeks, my group was lucky enough to visit many different parts of Fred Hutch, participate in several labs, and listen to many presentations related to cancer.
Pictured above is my partner, Sophie, and I doing the Color Wheel Lab! While I loved every lab we did, the Color Wheel Lab was my favorite! The color wheel lab involved us using parafilm, a template circle, a micropipet, and red, yellow, and blue dyes. We began the lab by micropipetting 40 microliters of red, yellow, and blue dye onto separate spots on the template circle. Sophie and I then took turns micropipetting 10 microliters from each of the different dyes, and again placing them in different places around the circle. We then mixed the different colors by moving the droplets across the template circle with the tip of the micropipette. After combining the different colors, we ended up making 6 different colors. At the end, we placed the parafilm on top of the template circle, which soaked up the dyes. This lab was fun to do, as I enjoyed mixing the different colors. This lab was also good practice for using the micropipette, which I had trouble with at first but then grew more comfortable using it.
Above is a picture of my lab notebook and the notes that I took for the PCR lab and the Spot Test. PCR is a polymerase chain reaction and is used to make lots of copies of a specific gene. Learning about this was extremely intriguing to me, as I had never heard about this process before or about how gene copying works. The ingredients in PCR are: primers, Taq DNA polymerase, nucleotides, and the template DNA. In the PCR lab, we added 18 microliters of PCR grade water, 6 microliters of PCR master mix, and DNA into a PCR tube. We then placed this tube into the PCR machine. To check if the PCR was successful, we conducted a spot test, which involved our group using a blue light box and dilute sybr safe DNA. At the end of this test, our PCR tube was fluorescent, indicating that our PCR was successful! This experience was exciting to complete and was interesting to see what goes into DNA samples being copied.
This is a NovaSeq 6000 which is a powerful sequencing device. This instrument is used to sequence thousands of samples of RNA. This tool is a part of the very fast evolving technology to help research. I was able to see this device during a tour of one of the labs in Fred Hutch and I was simply in awe of the incredible technology being used there and was extremely impressed by the scientists that are able to use it!
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