It was an enormous privilege to experience the welcoming environment at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, along with meeting extraordinary people. Each day we learned so many things together and grew as a team, or as one of our great mentors said, a family. Through so many captivating discussions and talks reaching areas beyond science, fascinating lab work, unexpected bonds and amusing activities, this was truly a life-changing adventure.
Although I enjoyed everything about the past two weeks, the topic that stood out to me was the CRISPR Cas9 system. An acronym for Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, CRISPR is a revolutionary gene editing tool that has many capabilities. I find it very interesting that the idea arose from a natural setting, where it was used to protect bacteria from viral attacks. CRISPR consists of two key components, the Cas9 protein and a guide RNA. The guide RNA is made up of 20 base pairs which can be made complementary to a certain target sequence along the genome. This complex goes along the genome and the RNA tells the Cas9 protein where to make cuts and damage the DNA. This is a very efficient way to engineer the DNA genome by utilizing insertions or deletions.
The CRISPR lab we did focused on the BRCA1 gene and the mutation which can result in cancer. We did this by selecting our own guide RNAs that were specific to certain sequences along the BRCA1 gene, so the Cas9 enzyme could cut. When we ran our cut sequences through gel electrophoresis, we were able to see how the different sizes of DNA fragments had separated.
I chose to write about CRISPR as my highlight because of how important a tool it is and the idea of it. It is quite fascinating how scientists were able to find a way to create a revolutionary gene editing system that was occurring naturally in a living organism. I also admire how versatile it is and the variety of things it can be used for. One thing that caught my attention was a poster I saw at the SURP (Summer Undergraduate Research) program which was presented by an undergraduate student. It was about using CAR-T cells in the immune system to target HIV envelope proteins called gp120, in order to kill infected cells without harming healthy ones. When I asked how the CAR-T cells were made, the presenter explained that CRISPR was used to modify the cell to their desire.
In all, I learned so many things at Fred Hutch and I am so grateful for the exceptional and unforgettable experience I acquired here. The community at the Hutch is not one that could be found anywhere, and I will truly miss the whole team that made this program possible as well as the new friends I made. It opened a door of new opportunities, and I would encourage anyone to search for the pathway to these doors. I wish all future Explorers students luck, and as the inspiring speaker Raabya Rossenkhan says, keep a reason for being and always follow your passions.
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