During my time at Fred hutch, I learned many valuable skills and information one of the very first and very much needed skills to be a researcher is being able to use a micro pipet we used it all throughout the experiments we did in the lab and easily became one of my favorite things to do. One of my favorite experiments we did was the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) which was our last lab during the program. One of the reasons I enjoyed this lab was because we worked with gel electrophoresis and the micro-pipet a lot, I was able to witness the making of the gel and see exactly what the process was to make it. We were able to micro pipet our liquids into the gel wells and look at the distinct stages of the product moving which was incredibly fun to see if we did the experiment correctly and how you would identify if a patient has CML and needs to be treated. Not only were we in the lab doing experiments on things like CRISPER and starting to work with the gel electrophoresis we were also able to tour labs/office spaces in different buildings like the Arnold building and Allen institute, the steam plant which had amazing views of the Seattle area. We were given the opportunity to meet people who worked in many varies careers have a deeper understanding of what they do and what their main focus is in the science community one of the many great people we got to meet was Dr. Stoddard we were able to learn about structural biology then vs. now and what he does at Fred hutch and hear one of his stories of when he was in college working on forming of proteins and how things changed. The advancement of technology, how scientists like himself can look at more complex proteins by using newer technology like transmission electron microscope compared to older less used technology now called x-ray crystallography. He talked about the different steps to achieve the protein structure and what his lab worked on like blood clotting and gene editing, energy production. He also mentioned how finding the protein’s structure could be used in making drugs that could cure various diseases or illnesses one example of this is the Gleevec drug that is used to target CML by finding the structures of the proteins of the cancer scientists are able to determine what could stop the over production of the cancerous cells.
These are pictures of our results from the CML experiment we were able to do. We learned about what the results were from the experiment and what we needed to get and if we did the experiment correctly.
My time here was amazing to say the least I was able to make many memories and have great experiences in and out of the lab. I made friends during my time here and have the opportunity to network with many people at Fred Hutch and schools from all over Seattle area. We had amazing mentors Elana and Arjun and an alumni mentor Miah who help us immensely throughout the whole program and be able to talk to them and connect with one another. I enjoyed talking to them and getting to know them individually. We were able to hear about what they do at Fred hutch or what they are currently working on we were able to visit Elana’s workspace and in more detail learn about what she does at Fred Hutch. We were able to explore the campus during lunch and go to different places see various views of Seattle and talk with my friends about what we enjoy doing and what we’re excited to do in the program. I enjoyed working with my lab partner Danh we failed and succeeded in many of the experiments but it was fun to learn and evaluate what went wrong and how we could prevent from it happening again. Overall had a wonderful experience with everyone at Fred Hutch and meeting new people.
A picture of my friends Haarika, Layan, and me in the lab after our last experiment on CML.
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