My past two weeks at Fred Hutch have been a whirlwind of fun, new friends, interesting lectures, and exciting lectures. I’m so glad that I was able to be a part of this program and learn about what a future in research could look like. I’ve seen that Fred Hutch is not just a cancer research center but a center for learning, growth, and where ideas can shine.
Our two weeks together started off with lots of quiet and then slowly some fun getting to know you games, before we made our identity artifacts. While this part of the experience was not really related to science was integral so that our group could find comfort with each other. We have learned a lot during our time at Fred Hutch. Personally, I knew some things but there were also a lot of things I didn’t know. But, getting to know our cohort beforehand made me feel comfortable asking questions and being brave. I wouldn’t have learned as much if I didn’t have trust in the people that I was working with.
Three days in we had the opportunity to listen and talk with speaker, Brian Minalga. I found his presentation really interesting and engaging. He spoke to us about his journey having studied social work being an HIV researcher at Fred Hutch. Something that really stood out to me was the Social Ecological Model of Health. Many people and researchers only see the individual level. But it is so important that we look through all lenses; starting with individual and interpersonal but then working our way up to policies and broad culture. He then continued his presentation to speak about the stigmas/assumptions in and around clinical trials. I learned and understood more how many old research trials were biased and unjust. They did not do their duty as scientists and researchers to find solutions for everyone that they could.
Lastly, my favorite lab was the CRISPR lab. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. CRISPR is a precise gene editing tool that allows scientists to quickly create cell models that can be used for further research for diseases like cancer. The main idea we learned was that CRISPR is easy and precise, which for a scientist is wonderful! There are three parts to know: Cas9, gRNA, and the DNA. Cas9 is an enzyme that acts like scissors to cut the DNA at the specified location. How does it know the specific location? It knows thanks to the gRNA aka the guide RNA. The gRNA is a specific RNA sequence that recognizes the region of interest ali bc the DNA. Lastly is DNA, a molecule that carries each of our individual genetic information. Following three steps we can get a perfect replication of a segment of DNA to use for research. Not only was CRISPR interesting to learn about, it was also fun to work on in the lab. Apart of our experience was learning to make the gel for gel electrophoresis. It might sound a little goofy but in that moment I felt like a true stereotypical chemist mixing things together, microwaving them, and eventually getting a fun textured gel.
Thank you to Fred Hutch for an amazing experience. I learned so much about science and research and I will always be thankful. Thank you to all our amazing speakers, guests, and TAs for helping run us around, teach us, and answer all of our nagging questions.
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