August 2, 2022
By: Sam Shi
Before the program started, I set the goals of “practicing how to think and tackle problems like a researcher and figuring out whether doing basic science research is what I want.” As the program comes to an end, I’m starting...
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July 25, 2022
By: Sam Shi
Through a series of unexpected events, a young doctor who had just graduated from med school found himself in a prestigious program designed to train physician scientists. Dr. Lefkowitz, who had never thought about doing research before, experienced failure for...
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July 18, 2022
By: Sam Shi
Mentor: Rachel Keener P.I.: Dennis Ko, M.D., Ph.D. Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of the plague, and many of its destructive effects on the human body are attributed to its ability to evade and target immune cells. Interestingly, despite...
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July 11, 2022
By: Sam Shi
The innate immune system is highly complex with its intricate maps of signaling pathways and hard-to-remember, long protein names. It’s quite remarkable that this large network can detect pathogens, initiate a number of intracellular processes, and signal for a coordinated...
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July 3, 2022
By: Sam Shi
A morning in the lab usually starts with me going over past protocols and adjusting amounts/volumes of reagent based on experimental conditions and optimization guidelines. Most of what I have done during the past weeks was subcloning plasmids that had...
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June 25, 2022
By: Sam Shi
My mentor is Rachel Keener. She is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Ko lab in the MGM department. She went to the University of Georgia and majored in genetics. Her first interest in biology, particularly genetics, stemmed from her...
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June 19, 2022
By: Sam Shi
The Ko lab studies how genotypic variations contribute to the severity of infectious diseases. By infecting almost a thousand different cell lines, the lab has identified a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated with variations in infection phenotypes by Yersinia pestis, the...
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June 12, 2022
By: Sam Shi
Ever since I started learning about molecular biology, I’ve found the approaches in this field interestingly creative. What always amazes me is how scientists were able to find elegant ways of quantifying and measuring big questions from different angles. In...
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