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Thank you!

At the beginning of the summer, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had enjoyed lab work and studying genetics in class, but I had been clearly guided through all of my previous experiences. When beginning my project, I felt like I was jumping into an obscure and expansive ocean, with a single semester of molecular biology to cling to. The papers I was given were difficult to understand, and the sheer number of genes, with their 3-letter names and numbers, all blurred together. However, I wasn’t scared. I knew that the other BSURF fellows felt the same way, and I had lots of people to support me. 

I want to thank Dr. Grunwald, Dr. Harrell, Grace, and Kehali. Knowing that I could always go to them throughout the program was really helpful, and I appreciated the efforts made to teach us about various aspects of research beyond the science itself. I especially enjoyed our series of faculty seminars, which were incredibly interesting and showed me how many paths there are to take through science.     

I am especially grateful for my mentor, Ivan, and my PI, Dr. Baugh. I felt very supported and I always had someone to go to in case I was unsure of anything. I think that the confidence that they showed in me from the beginning was key to developing my faith in my own abilities. This summer has allowed me to grow so much as a scientist, in my skills as well as my ability to plan and carry out experiments on my own. While I struggled to get through papers and make sense of my project at the beginning of the summer, by the end I was excited to dive in and find clues for explanations and future directions. 

My goal for this summer was to find out what a career in research is like, and figure out if that is what I want. I think it’s safe to say that BSURF has only reinforced my love of biology and scientific research. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Final Reflection

Way back in seventh grade my science teacher told us that “for every question you answer, a hundred more questions should form,” a quote that has stuck with me ever since. My time in BSURF has given me the opportunity to live by this philosophy and dedicate myself to exploring my many curiosities! Research has been a growing passion of mine, and the experience of working a 9-5 in the lab has given me invaluable insights into what a career might look like. I’m proud of how I’ve grown in my technical lab skills and my confidence as a scientist. Not only was having a PI and mentor that believed in my capabilities critical to my growth this summer but so was being introduced to a wide variety of faculty here at Duke as well as graduate students who supported and advised us. Day to day in the lab, I went from shadowing new techniques to designing my own procedures for analyzing our work. The transition to a more self managed work style taught me much about multitasking and balancing out my work to achieve the goals of the lab. Outside the work day and scheduled BSURF events, this summer I found an incredibly supportive community amongst my cohort that brought me joy and entertainment every day! The ‘babe cave’, as it became known, was a home that welcomed anyone and everyone, it’s a space I will forever be grateful for. The memories and lessons of this summer will most definitely linger on my mind…

Those 8 Weeks Flew By!

I was attracted to BSURF as an entry-point into research. I felt a little overwhelmed in my first year trying to find and join a lab. BSURF made it really easy for me to be in a lab, and I’m really grateful for that! I’m considering research as a career: I want to have my own lab someday, I think! But before this program, I could only guess at this, as I hadn’t been in a lab yet. I was attracted to the idea of research, but I had no idea how researchers actually lived their lives from day to day. Research felt abstract, larger than life, intangible– now I can say I’ve gotten my hands dirty in the name of science! Between being immersed in the lab community full-time and all the faculty speakers who shared insights into their lives, I feel I have a way better understanding of what a researcher’s life is like. The diverse lifestyles and people I’ve been exposed to this summer have made me more certain that I want to have my own lab someday!

I’m so grateful for my match with the He Lab. I love my project and the people I work with, and I’m really excited to continue working with them. A long-term commitment to a lab is exactly what I was hoping to get out of BSURF! Over the summer, I’ve become a better scientist: I’ve learned new techniques, begun practicing science communication, developed my skills in asking questions– and even started to answer some questions!

I’ve also made friends with some amazing people in the BSURF program and made great memories outside the lab. To quote my dear friend and fellow BSURFer, Julian: “This summer will always linger in my heart.”

Thank you to Dr. Grunwald, Dr. Harrell, Grace, and Kehali for making BSURF so great! Thank you to everyone in the He Lab and especially Saunia and Dr. He for being so welcoming– I can’t wait to keep working with you! BSURF has given me a great community, both inside the lab and out– I have so many people to be grateful for. 🙂

Reflection on the summer

The past eight weeks have been filled with exciting challenges, discoveries, and unforgettable experiences. From the moment I stepped foot into the lab, I was welcomed by the group members who fostered an environment of growth. As I dived into the study of chloroplast division proteins, I quickly became immersed in a world of scientific inquiry and exploration.

Over the course of these eight weeks, I have been on a journey to understand the localization and function of chloroplast division proteins. As I dug deeper into the intricacies of chloroplast division, I observed a few novel insights; witnessing new dynamics of division unfold before my eyes was an amazing experience. As the weeks progressed, I gained more experience in planning and conducting experiments with growing confidence. Along this research path was the constant support and guidance from my mentor, PI, and fellow lab members. Their expertise and encouragement were invaluable as I carried out various experiments. Their knowledge, experiences, and time all helped shape my growth as a researcher and made this summer truly unforgettable. 

As I look back on this summer, I realize the profound value of research not just in scientific knowledge but also in shaping my personal and intellectual growth. The discovery, the support among researchers, and the sense of purpose in contributing to exploring questions have all left a lasting impact on my journey as a scientist. This journey has broadened my horizons, deepened my passion for research, and fostered meaningful connections with peers. I will carry the lessons learned and the memories made during this summer as I continue my pursuit of future scientific exploration.

Emily Bernhardt’s Ecology Work

I’ve valued each faculty talk we’ve had the opportunity to hear during these seven-almost-eight weeks, but Emily Bernhardt’s talk stood out to me because it hits so close to home– literally! As a local, it was really cool to hear her speak about New Hope Creek, for example. Hearing her ask if the New Hope Creek was a source of greenhouse gas was eye-opening to me. I went to the creek many times on field trips in elementary school, usually for the ostensible purpose of teaching science, but I had never heard anyone else ponder such a thing. I also spend time at the North Carolina beaches every summer, usually going for multiple trips, so I was very interested in the work her lab does on drought and saltwater intrusion on the NC coast. It’s laudable that her lab is working towards building better models and networks of data, putting together the work of many publications to condense and create a robust understanding, like with the saltwater intrusion and sea level rise research coordination network that she mentioned.

In my mind I can still clearly see the photos from the presentation of Dr. Bernhardt working out in the field with labmates. I love molecular biology and think I will always return to a wetlab environment, but I would love to get some experience with field ecology at some point in my career. I could practically feel the joy and hard work and collaboration through the pictures of her knee-deep in marsh or up to her elbows in forest. Of course, it isn’t all joy and collaboration; she also mentioned being blacklisted from an environmental council by a business interest. Pardon my French, but I think that’s exceptionally badass. New goal unlocked: garner the hatred of corrupt political agents.

I appreciated that Dr. Bernhardt kept it real with us about the pressures of teaching and research and everything else that comes with a faculty position. She also encouraged us to explore many areas of STEM–something I think I needed to hear, because I want to keep searching for more opportunities to learn, broaden my horizons, and do cool things even though I’m already situated in a lab, without endangering my current lab position. Dr. Bernhardt showed us that this is possible!

Thanks for the inspiring talk, Dr. Bernhardt!

Dr.Evans’ Chalk Talk

Amongst the amazing speakers that we heard, Dr.Evans stood out to me. Her talk hit all the important points: her origin story, how she became a scientist, and how she runs her lab today. Dr.Evans showed that she was an incredible woman who clearly inspires many, including me. Throughout her talk, one could tell that Dr.Evans was clearly passionate about her research, and about being a mentor. The biggest takeaway from Dr.Evans’ talk was that effort is clearly important in the creation of your future.

Diving into Dr. Anne West!

Seven weeks of BSURF have flown by, and during each of those weeks we were introduced to a wide variety of faculty. Their talks provided insight into cool branches of biology, ongoing projects at Duke, and what paths to careers in biology research can look like!

One of my favorite talks was by Dr. Anne West from the Neurobiology department of Duke’s School of Medicine. Not only is her lab the floor below mine but back in November when I first joined the McNamara lab I got to shadow a few of her PhD students as they did RNAscopes which is a procedure that’s been at the core of my summer work! It was great to get a better insight into the questions her lab is trying to answer. Many of her projects are related to the involvement of chromatin regulation in neuroplasticity with a focus on the genes and mechanisms regulating neuron development or the pathways underlying addictive behavior. Not only does Dr. West have her lab, but she is an MD/PhD and also leads Duke’s Medical Scientist Training Program that mentors the next generation of MD/PhDs! It was so cool to hear about her career journey as she balanced her interests in medicine, research, and neurobiology!

Investigating Tools to Study Calcium Dynamics in Arabidopsis CPK mutant Immune Response

Pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) is an ancient, conserved branch of the plant immune system activated by pathogen-associated molecular patterns. Calcium signaling is an important part of the immune pathway and plant responses to stress, yet the spatiotemporal dynamics of calcium during PTI are not well understood. Previous research has demonstrated the role of calcium-dependent protein kinases (CPKs) in downstream cytoskeletal regulation and actin reorganization, but the role of calcium in these pathways is unknown. Here, we validate tools to study calcium dynamics using the model plant system Arabidopsis thaliana, and mutations in CPK3-2 and CPK6, which have previously shown cytoskeletal phenotypes during PTI. T-DNA insertional knockout lines cpk3-2 and cpk6 were used to explore the connection between CPK pathways, calcium signaling, and the cytoskeletal PTI response induced by the bacterial flagellum-derived protein flg22. The knockouts were crossed with the genetically encoded calcium biosensor RGECO1/mTurquoise. Seed lines were bulked and genotyped to select homozygote lines for the TDNA insertional mutant, as well as screened via confocal microscopy to check the fluorescence and functionality of the RGECO1/mTurquoise cassette. Time-lapse images were taken of selected plants with the confocal microscope after inoculation with flg22, and their initial calcium responses were compared with the wildtype RGECO1 cross. The preliminary results presented here give further insight into the roles CPK and calcium play in the PTI response, and how best to continue studying calcium and cytoskeletal dynamics in plant cells.  

Abstract: Localization and function of ARC6 in cell division

Chloroplast division of photosynthetic eukaryotes is a highly regulated process with divisionary machinery involving a division ring and other essential components. To gain insights into this process, our lab uses the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which possesses a single chloroplast that coordinates with the rest of the cell during division. We investigate the role of the ARC6 protein, a potential linker between the inner chloroplast membrane and the FtsZ division ring. We aim to investigate the dynamics of ARC6 localization and its potential role in the context of various division components and the FtsZ ring. While previous studies have indicated that ARC6 localizes at the division site, the underlying mechanisms and its relationship with FtsZ and other divisionary machinery are not fully understood. In our study, by employing fluorescent microscopy, we characterized the localization patterns of ARC6 during cell division. Our findings reveal a dynamic assembly and disassembly behavior of ARC6 at the division site, enabling movement along the chloroplast membrane to subsequent division sites. Previous research has suggested that cytoskeletal actin may be important for the formation of the inner division ring. Surprisingly, we found an apparent loss of ARC6 at the division site in the absence of actin in our experiments. This result suggests that the cell uses the cytoplasmic F-actin to regulate the localization of ARC6 in the chloroplast inner envelope. Possible mechanisms for this regulation and the consequences of loss of ARC6 from the division site are being examined.

Lisa’s Chalk Talk

This week in BSURF, we were tasked to present our projects in the form of a chalk talk. We had 8 minutes and a whiteboard, and had to communicate the central ideas and questions underlying our projects. Each talk was engaging and informative, and I enjoyed this dedicated time to further my understanding of the other fellows’ projects. Now, when I ask my BSURF friends about their days in the lab, I’ll have some background on the techniques they use!

For this week’s blog, I’m asked to identify a fellow’s chalk talk to reflect on. Lisa’s talk was particularly intriguing to me. Her research focuses on CRISPR-Cas9—more specifically, the guide RNAs used to direct the Cas9 protein to a DNA sequence. 

Lisa first provided background on the broader implications of her project. She explained how currently, the most pressing risk associated with the use of CRISPR is off-target DNA cuts. I learned about how Lisa’s project uses dCas-9, a deactivated form of Cas9 that finds, but doesn’t cut, a specific sequence of DNA. From my understanding, the overarching goal of her project is to gain a better understanding of different variations of Cas9 proteins. This, she explained, could have implications for clinical CRISPR use, particularly for patients who are resistant to commonly used forms of the Cas-9 protein.

The down-to-earth tone of Lisa’s presentation was what made her talk stand out. I admired her presentation skills–she presents with a confident voice, and isn’t afraid to incorporate humor into her talk. She effectively reduced complex topics into easily digestible terms, which kept the audience engaged and intrigued.

I found her topic very compelling, and I hope to be able to learn more about the CRISPR-Cas9 system in the future.

Jarvis’s Chalk Talk: ELPs and Sensors

This week I got a chance to watch everyone’s chalk talks covering a wide range of research topics. One talk that stood out to me was Jarvis’s presentation on elastin like polypeptides (ELPs) and designing sensitive sensors. ELPs are intriguing proteins that involve synthesizing amino acid sequences to have specific folding properties. With the sensor design, I found it very interesting how changing just one component of the complex, an aromatic group, could bring about different effects in pH or temperature. I was also interested in the method of designing the certain amino acid sequences that had to be synthesized with plasmids and E. coli. Jarvis works closely on the sequence of amino acids Val-Pro-Gly-Xaa-Gly, where Xaa stands for a changeable amino acid. Surprisingly, manufacturers don’t like to make many of the amino acid sequences used in Jarvis’s lab because of their repetitiveness, so the lab has to use alternative methods.

Jarvis’s project reminded me of a Rubik’s cube: something that may appear simple from the outside with only a handful of key components, but in reality, having things in the right order or having or finding a specific piece in the correct spot is a challenging puzzle. 

I also found Jarvis’s talk to be fascinating because of the biomedical engineering aspect of his work. Not being an engineer, I thought it was cool how molecular biology concepts like plasmid cloning, which I also do in my lab, and amino acid chains could be used to create novel devices. I look forward to seeing Jarvis’s final poster and results!

 

C-ing Elegans: Thoughts on Julian’s Worm Microscopy

Even though I’ve heard Julian explain the eyelash touch assay dozens of times now, it never ceases to both amuse and intrigue me. I guess it speaks to the spirit of science on one hand– we make due with what we have!– but it also surprises me that we have yet to develop a synthetic material that can as aptly measure the response of C. elegans to soft touch. At any rate, I’m inspired by Julian’s dedication and his ability to replicate this method at the high magnitude required by his project.

Gap junctions are super interesting to me as a fellow molecular biologist interested in cellular chemical signaling. I didn’t know how many different types of gap junctions there were before listening to Julian’s talk, but now I wonder, as Julian does, how the localization of certain types of innexins and gap junctions affect the overall function of the pathways involved. I found connections to my project: we both use the confocal to analyze fluorescent images, although I’m looking at a broader response and he’s focusing in on the specific cellular locations of his target proteins. As well, plant cells don’t have gap junctions, but they do have plasmodesmata, which are little channels between cells. I wonder if there are genes and proteins conserved between these two mechanisms of cell signaling, and how Julian’s work could translate to a plant system. I also wonder about the calcium dynamics involved in the gap junctions Julian studies. Because he is studying a movement phenotype, I’m guessing that actin is involved which would suggest to me the involvement of calcium as well.

I’m interested in the other tools Julian uses besides his eyelashes, too. I’d love to know more about how TurboID biotinylates proteins and how you can analyze this to estimate an interactome. I’m also interested in the results from the mass spec about the composition of interactors with UNC-9 and if they are similar to interactors of UNC-7, as his lab suspects.

I’m excited to see Julian’s poster and continue hearing about his work!

Chalk Talk

This week we heard about a variety of different experiments that are occurring within different Duke labs . With this, we learned the reasoning, motivation, and methods behind each project.

Emma’s chalk talk garnered my attention because of the way that she was so calm, cool and collected. She was also able to answer the audience’s questions with detail.

This chalk talk focused on epilepsy, which is associated with seizures. Emma explained that there is a possibility that there exist pathways that could help inhibit seizures in epilepsy patients. As for right now, this testing is done on mice so nothing conclusive can be said about humans right now. The main question of Emma’s presentation was: what specific pathway can inhibit seizures and where is it found? Currently there is a hypothesis that the neuregulin 1 (NRG1) gene is involved in helping inhibit seizures. Additionally Emma stated that using this pathway was only effective on mice that had seizures previously.

Overall, Emma’s presentation was very professional and she helped me understand a complex topic in a digestible way.

A Glimpse into Erika Rispoli’s Neurodevelopmental Research!

Greetings everyone!

This week’s schedule was a bit different given July 4th was a holiday. In the lab I spent time preparing for some upcoming RNAscopes by inducing seizures in mice and cryosectioning their brains. The morning BSURF meetings this week were dedicated to ‘chalk talks’ which are 8 minute presentations each fellow gives on their summer project.

One talk that I found very interesting was Erika Rispoli’s presentation on the relationship between environmental toxins and neural developmental disorders (NDDs). In the past few decades there has been a rapid increase in diagnosed NDDs and many patients with NDDs also experience sleep disorders. Erika’s work in the Bilbo lab seeks to study these trends and learn more about how sleep disorders are correlated with NDDs. After exposing pregnant mice to diesel exhaust particles and maternal stress, Erika then measures the sleep patterns of the pups, their depressive-like behavior using the forced swim test, and the activity of their astrocyte cells. I’m personally most excited to learn more about Erika’s astrocyte experiments since changes in their pruning activity in the brain during development has significant implications for NDDs.

Kang’s Organ on a Chip!

Hello everyone + Happy end of week 5! This program has been flying by.

I am happy to share Kang’s research project, which focuses on microfluidic devices – the “organ-on-a-chip.” I will try my best to summarize what I learned from his chalk talk 🙂

In vivo and in vitro approaches for studying tissues/cells have unique pros and cons. One advantage to studying cells in vivo over in vitro is that the researcher can study them in their natural, complex environments. However, the drawback is that many variables are more challenging to control. In vitro offers this experimental control but lacks the complex environment that in vivo methods provide.

Microfluidic devices are small plastic chips with channels that provide a 3D terrain for cell culture! They allow researchers to study cells in an environment more akin to the human body but still relatively controllable (ex: nutrient and fluid levels). These devices could be an intermediate approach incorporating the advantages of the in vivo and in vitro approaches. Kang’s project focuses on microfluidic devices for studying blood vessels in the cardiovascular system, and he tests different designs to see which protocol/device works best!

 

Life in the McNamara Lab

As I’ve explained in my previous post, my main project this summer aims to quantify the changes in NRG1 mRNA expression in mice that have been infused with kainic acid to induce seizures compared to mice infused with a control PBS solution. While this topic is investigated using RNAscope technology, my days aren’t spent performing this one experiment for 8 hours non stop. In fact, I split my time amongst the multi day procedure RNAscope calls for as well as completing a number of different lab management tasks that support the work of a number of other ongoing projects.

The breeding core that maintains our mice lines provides us with tail clippings to confirm the genotypes of individual mice we work with. Once I pick up the tails, I check with my PI which of them are a priority to genotype, I digest the tails to extract the DNA which I then run PCRs for and finally image their gels. The tail digestion is about two hours of work total but split over two days and PCRs take half an hour to prepare, an hour and a half in the thermal cycler, and another half hour in the gel electrophoresis before imaging the final results. In the waiting times between all these steps, I bounce back to my main project of RNAscope and work on tasks like cryosectioning brains and mounting them on slides. Days that I run through RNAscopes go from 9am to 7pm since the procedure involves a lot of dying the brain slices with different amplification steps to make specific mRNAs fluoresce and baking the slides in between amplification steps. Finally imaging the now dyed slides occurs the following day and takes several hours since we are obtaining highly detailed pictures of the now fluorescing mRNA.

As I schedule out all these tasks day to day, there’s the occasional side project I get pulled into, time spent observing the mice work my coworkers do, and lots of analysis to do on my computer in my down time. I really enjoy bouncing around my different responsibilities as no two days are the same!

An interview with Dr. Vaidyanathan

It was during my first week in the Bilbo lab, eating lunch in the shared post-doc office, that I recognized Dr. Vaidyanathan’s unique passion for bringing her scientific expertise beyond the lab. She was attending a zoom meeting, strategizing about how to go about communicating the negative environmental impacts of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project with environmental lawyers. This, I would later learn by interviewing Dr. Vaidyanathan, is just one of many examples of her dedication to scientific communication and community engagement. Dr. Trisha Vaidyanathan is a post-doctoral fellow at Dr. Staci Bilbo’s lab, and my bench mentor for my summer BSURF project. I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Vaidyanathan for this blog, and was able to learn more about her motivations, philosophies, and path in science. 

Dr. Vaidyanathan grew up in California and started her journey into science at the University of California, Berkeley. She noted how she didn’t know much about research at the time, and was initially interested in environmental science or art history. As her undergraduate career progressed, she began to volunteer in labs, where she was initially introduced to research. She worked mainly in human labs, focusing on topics such as sleep. Her beginnings in neuroscience was a course in psychology. Because of this course, along with a mental health advocacy group she worked with, she found herself drawn towards the psychology path. 

By the end of her undergraduate years, she had decided on a major in cognitive science–a unique mix of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and computer science. Finding herself enduringly interested in the questions neuroscience sought to answer, and having been introduced to the idea of a PhD by a mentor from her senior year, she graduated from UC Berkeley on the path towards graduate school. 

Hoping to gain more lab experience beyond the behavioral and computational work of her undergraduate labs, Dr. Vaidyanathan applied for and accepted a position at the National Institutes of health for a post-baccalaureate program. After a year, having strengthened her in-lab experience, Dr. Vaidyanathan entered the graduate school application process and was accepted to the University of California, San Francisco, where she began her rotation. 

Knowing she could become passionate about many topics, and having cultivated an arsenal of well-rounded lab experiences, she approached her rotation with a focus on finding a supportive lab environment and a principal investigator who would serve as an inspiring mentor. 

She found this community in the then-new lab of Dr. Kira Poskanzer. As one of the first full-time members of the Poskanzer lab, she had the unique experience of establishing the lab alongside Dr. Poskanzer. She noted that this opportunity to work directly with her principal investigator allowed her to connect with Dr. Poskanzer, who became a significant and inspiring mentor to her. An expert in the new and exciting technique of in vivo 2-photon imaging of astrocyte Ca2+ activity, Dr. Poskanzer passed on her expertise to Dr. Vaidyanathan. Becoming fascinated with the role of astrocytes in synchronous neuronal activity, and quick to draw from her own background working in sleep labs, Dr. Vaidyanathan proposed and subsequently pursued a project focused on understanding how astrocytes are involved in modulating the sleep-wake cycle. 

Talking to Dr. Vaidyanathan during our interview, it was clear that this project was both challenging and rewarding, and played a large role in her approach to her science today. She recalled the novelty of both the Poskanzer lab itself as well as the field of astrocyte research. Staring completely from scratch, she found herself troubleshooting often as she built techniques and procedures from the ground up. She remembered the frustration of lack of data, and not feeling like a successful scientist as a result. She offered a piece of advice from this anecdote: it’s okay to not get data right away. 

When I asked her about what she would change about the world of research, she emphasized the need for increasing accessibility to research, especially for underrepresented communities. Particularly, she’s passionate about ways that scientists can contribute directly and tangibly to the broader community. 

Through volunteering to assist lesson planning at local schools to helping environmental lawyers fighting against the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Dr. Vaidyanathan’s motivated to contribute her empathy and expertise beyond the lab. She’s particularly interested in how scientists can help inform policy. She recalled witnessing the need for a scientifically-informed policy during her work with a group of scientists advocating for how the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity act can be better enforced. 

Learning about her path, it’s no wonder how Dr. Vaidyanathan developed her creative, innovative, and enduringly patient approach to science, both inside and outside the lab. After the interview, I decided to enroll in a public policy course for my sophomore year, and felt inspired to explore ways in which I can contribute to increased communication and accessibility in research. Her story has much to offer, and I’m excited to have had the opportunity to relay it. 

A Conversation with Dahlia

The first time I met Dahlia was in April, when she gave me a little tour of the Gersbach Lab. She had mentioned that she had studied biomedical engineering as an undergraduate and she explained that she had been working in the Gersbach lab for about 4 years. After that encounter, I didn’t see Dahlia until we began our BSURF summer. I can now say that after 3 weeks of working with Dahlia, I appreciate her as a mentor so so much. In fact, Dahlia told me that I was her first undergraduate mentee and she admitted that she was initially nervous. However, Dahlia has done an AMAZING job; she is super patient and is always happy to answer any questions I have no matter how foolish they are.

Dahlia’s first experience with research was in high school. Later on, she graduated from Johns Hopkins with an undergraduate biomedical engineering degree in 2018. She was also involved in research in college. She worked in a protein engineering lab that worked with Cas9 methyltransferase fusions. In this lab, she looked at the effects of making mutations in proteins. Seeing that Dahlia now works in a genetic engineering lab, we can see how her undergraduate research experience impacted her graduate research.

In the beginning of her career as a PhD student, Dahlia was set on becoming a professor and she wanted to run a research lab. However, she says she now has a more open view and doesn’t want to restrict herself to any other job opportunities that could come along the way.

Dahlia’s love for science comes from the curiosity of not knowing the answer to a question. She likes the logical progressions of the scientific process; that is, she likes how there is a hypothesis, data collection and a conclusion. Dahlia believes that science in the US specifically has a major flaw : the pressure and prestige of publishing in top journals. Dahlia believes that those scientists who publish papers on negative results, such as failed procedures, or on information that was known to be true don’t receive enough merit. I agree with Dahlia, it seems that everyone is trying to discover revolutionary technologies or mechanisms and no one appreciates the scientists that are working on “boring” topics.

As for embarrassing moments in the lab, Dahlia has blocked them out from her memory. However, she does remember one time she flung a cell plate across the room instead of placing it under the microscope and she had to clean up the media from behind the microscope.

According to her lab mates, Dahlia makes amazing puns. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to catch on to any of her puns yet, but when I do I’ll let you know.