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I’m typing this having just recently submitted my final poster draft for the research symposium, but I feel like I only just submitted my first blog post a few days ago. Reflecting on the past 8 weeks, I feel comfortable saying that my expectation for the summer as outlined by that first blog, “to grow a lot,” was achieved. My first full time “adult” job- that is, working approximately 9-5 without an onslaught of assignments, extracurriculars, and exams to keep track of- was quite the novel experience and I loved it. I could devote my full energy to a single project for two months and still have free time to visit the Farmer’s Market, hold snakes and canoe at the Eno River, and explore Durham more than I’ve ever been able to during the school year. Those experiences were all part of my growth as a person- becoming more independent and involved with my surroundings -but most of the growing I did was as a scientist. I was quite honestly pretty scared to begin research this summer. I’d had very little lab experience and a brooding fear of failure. This wasn’t immediately lost during my first few despite the welcoming and helpful mentors I found. I remember being handed a DNA extraction protocol and trying not to ask 16 thousand questions about each step. However, with each faculty talk, workshop, and new day in the lab, these nerves began to shake off. All of the faculty speakers and my lab mates recounted reassuring stories of their time as undergraduates and I got to see what their path and current “day in the life” in science was. And, as with most new things, after some practice I felt a whole lot more confident (only having to ask maybe 5 thousand questions).

The influence of this program was much less linear than I expected. I thought I’d take part and know that either “wow, I love research this is what I’m going to do forever” or “nope, definitely not for me” and go directly from there. Instead, I realized how binary that view was. Each faculty talk showed me a new area of intrigue. We were exposed to molecular genetics, ecology, microbiology, clinical research, computational biology, and more. We met people who worked in the woods, on a computer, in the hospital, and on the lab bench. In that way, B-SURF’s influence on me was more wide-sweeping, exposing me to a whole area of potential opportunities rather than a yes/no consensus. It’s honestly a little daunting to see all that’s out there but I’m excited to continue exploring with a more confident and experienced outlook. Thanks to Dr. G, Dr. Harrell, Austin, and my lab mentors for a great summer!

From unsuccessful electroporation experiments to learning about the linear relationship between chocolate and Nobel prizes, this summer has been filled with meaningful experiences that I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to enjoy.

Working in the Gerecht Lab under my mentor YingYu Lin has opened future possibilities for me. Not only have I learned more about graduate school by conversing with my coworkers but also, I’ve developed the skills to work in a BME lab. Before working, I had no prior experience in cell culture or confocal microscopy. I had never performed staining and did not even know that flow cytometry existed. The types of technologies that I have been exposed to have caused new questions to emerge and this curiosity in me to find the answers.

One of the most important aspects of laboratory research that I learned has been that of troubleshooting. My project this summer was not a long one, yet I was unable to reach my desired results. YingYu and I would succeed in some aspects but once we took the next step it felt like we were going three steps back. Multiple times the phrases “I am so confused right now” and “this makes no sense” would spill out of our mouths bringing forth the sound that represented our state of confusion. And so, we would undergo another round of troubleshooting our failed point. Turns out that the reason our research was unable to be completed was due to contamination of our ETV2 mRNA. Unfortunately, we won’t have more time to complete the study, but I plan to continue working in the Fall. Regardless, I found beauty in the troubleshooting process; it is like a game where one keeps failing at a level but trying repeatedly using different strategies to beat the level. The art of troubleshooting, as unfortunate as it sounds, is a lesson that I learned every single week this past summer at least once; but it kept my curiosity going and my desire to learn “why” certain situations were occurring.

I think about my future after undergraduate school and the idea of working in a lab does not frighten me; the environment I have been surrounded by this summer besides my mentor and all the other graduate students has been very pleasant and I look forward to finding a lab in the future that not only revolves around my interests but also holds a family like behavior within the lab members.

Furthermore, my time outside of the lab has also been full of joyful moments. From canoeing on the Eno to exploring Falls Lake, I have been able to explore more of the Durham area with new friends (shoutout to Amelia and Emma). And I cannot forget to also thank Dr. Grunwald, without your interesting stories, very very funny jokes, and of course your snakes, this summer would have not been the same.

All of the faculty seminars have been super insightful and Dr. Emily Bernhardt’s talk particularly stood out to me. She is an ecologist at Duke who studies how energy and elements move, specifically focusing on environmental issues that people care about. Ever since she was a kid, she loved being outside, and she pursued a career doing just that.

Initially, I was a bit surprised that her talk was one of my favorites because her work as an ecologist is pretty different from the computational work I’ve been doing in lab. Maybe it’s the shared love for National Parks that drew me in, maybe it’s the amazing outlook she has for life and your career. 

Here are 5 pieces of advice from Dr. Bernhardt that I’d like to share. She had many more than 5 pieces of advice, but these really resonated with me.

1. If you enjoy STEM in any capacity, go for it! No one should be afraid to pursue STEM because of its reputation of being all about quantitative skills. Scientists and other STEM careers involve many other soft skills. For example, being a good communicator is a key skill scientists need.
2. Surround yourself with good people. Having good mentors that can challenge and support you is super important for your current and future jobs/experiences. Being with brilliant and kind people improves your work and how much you enjoy your work.
3. Deciding to not pursue a specific STEM career is not a failure! Sometimes it takes some trial and error to discover what you really enjoy. A background in science is always helpful.
4. Always keep your options open and have a backup plan. Being open to change in your life and your career makes you more resilient to challenges and can make you happier in your career.
5. Last but not least, Dr. Bernhardt believes you should be having fun at least 50% of the year. One bad day or one bad week is not going to tank everything. Nevertheless, you need to make sure that your job, whatever it ends up being, is still fun and something you enjoy!

When Dr. Grunwald warned us the day before Dean Noor’s faculty talk that he was one of the most frequent Yelp reviewers of taquerias in Durham, I had absolutely no idea what he was going to be like the next day. However, I was pleased to find out what a charismatic and passionate guy he was. Despite my moderate lack of interest in evolutionary biology, he exemplified a characteristic that I find is challenging to find in many people: contagious passion. He was so incredibly passionate about not only his field, but his job and the future of the Trinity School, I couldn’t help but find myself interested in his work. He described to us the various facets that influence genetic evolution as well as the curious connections that make up humanity’s ancestry. But more interesting is his job and the hierarchy that makes up the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences. As the newly declared interim Dean of Trinity, he will now be managing the entire school, including his previous department of the Natural Sciences. Despite him being put in a position of much greater power, he recognizes one simple thing that would remedy the challenges faced by previous Deans – maintaining Trinity’s status quo. Rather than making radical changes during his very brief time as the Dean, creating difficulties and issues that the succeeding Dean would have to handle, by maintaining the status quo and simply cleaning up any burrs in the current school and system, Dean Noor is presenting a clean and well-oiled system to the next Dean who can make progress efficiently and effectively. I’m excited to know someone like him will be heading the Trinity school and I am glad I got to hear him speak. Also, I frankly couldn’t help but feel a little distracted for the entire talk due to his voice’s striking resemblance to Sal Khan from Khan Academy.

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 the first time. The two-year training program was eventually successful, but he struggled in the process. Biomedical research proved to be more difficult than anything he had done before. During residency, Dr. Lefkowitz discovered that he actually missed the challenges of research, and he decided to dedicate a large part of his career to basic science research.

This faculty seminar from Tuesday given by Professor Lefkowitz made me think a lot about what I want to do with my life. His speech made me excited about doing research, and more importantly, his advice was valuable. Here are some of the talkaways I got from his talk. Building a career around scientific problems is better than building one with lab techniques. Learning new lab techniques takes a lot of time and effort, and it can be particularly difficult when one is already very comfortable with a set of techniques. However, as scientists, it’s more important to learn whatever that’s necessary for answering the scientific questions. Viewing work as play makes doing research fun. I resonate with Dr. Lefkowitz’s point of how intellectually stimulating the process of asking questions, forming hypotheses, and designing experiments is. Don’t talk oneself out of an experiment. Sometimes taking risks can provide surprising results, and a lot of scientific discoveries were made this way.

Having so many brilliant people come and talk to us about their current research, career paths, and anything in between has been an amazing part of the BSURF program. Although they were all very interesting and valuable in many ways, the talk that I have chosen to reflect upon because of its level of interest to me is Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz’s talk. His presentation titled “A Tale of Two Callings: Physician vs Scientist,” encompassed how he went from solely being interested in being a physician after having graduated from Columbia University to how he got involved in research and went on to win a Nobel Prize. The event that made him get involved in research was actually the Vietnam War, which he did not want to be a part of and instead became a part a large group of physicians that received training in research from the NIH. He said that although he did not like the feeling of failing so frequently in the lab with projects and experiments, it kept him interested and enthusiastic especially since he said he excelled at most other things in his life that he set his mind on. Even though I know this is one of the most frustrating parts of research, I must agree with Dr. Lefkowitz that it’s exciting because it keeps you on your toes and makes you be more creative to figure out how to address the problem you are working on.

Right now, I am at a crossroads in terms of whether I want to pursue al MD or an MD, PhD because I aspire to one day be a physician, but I have started culminating this love of research as well. With its endless possibilities in terms of what there is to explore, discover, and improve in the world, it makes the perfect environment for someone who always craves to learn more as I know that I do. In any case, the biggest piece of advice that I am left with after Dr. Lefkowitz’s talk is to eat 70% or greater dark chocolate of any brand—he currently buys the brand Chocolove—just in case I decide I want to earn a Nobel Prize in the future just as he did.

Dr. Charmaine Royal started off the BSURF program with our first faculty talk, and she really set the bar for the rest of the program. I have gained increasing interest in the intersection of biology and systemic racism since learning about disproportionate lead poisoning effects on historically redlined and poor neighborhoods, as well as taking a critical race theory in education course first semester.

Her work with the intersection of healthcare and racism is incredibly inspiring, not only in its impact, but in her ability to combine her two passions into her career and research. As someone who is currently struggling to streamline my interests into a career path, it is truly uplifting to see a woman of color studying all that she loves and succeeding all the while.

I am honored to have listened to her speak, even if it was only for one hour – I hope to speak to her more in the future. Her work gives me hope for the future of genetics, medicine, and spreading awareness about and working towards deconstructing systemic racism.

I enjoyed all of our faculty talks over the past few weeks, but Dr. Mohamed Noor’s presentation in particular stood out to me. Two of my friends had actually worked in Dr. Noor’s fly lab last semester. I also knew his name from a collection of emails from the biology department and my Bio 203 lab worksheets, where he was listed as one of the fly collectors for our semester lab project. The mysterious Dr. Noor was finally revealed to me in person just a few weeks ago during his talk. For some reason, I was surprised by who came in. Part of me imagined a serious, impersonal guy in a lab coat (presumptuous, I know, but something about the well known lab, books, and position as Dean seemed intimidating). I was wrong. The scientist who spoke to us was anything but impersonal and serious. He was enthusiastic, friendly, and humble. I think his enthusiasm was what stood out to me most and inspired me to write about his talk in this blog post. I can’t remember exactly the phrase he used, but his presentation was filled with him repeating “isn’t that just fascinating!” or “I just find it so cool that…” I became just as enamored with color changing caterpillars, lethal genes, and phylogenetic trees as he seemed when he explained his work. He was unapologetically excited about his work, a sentiment I want to hold with me as I navigate my time and courses at Duke and make decisions about my career path afterwards.

Having initially been unsure about his path as a student (a common theme among the faculty speakers) and even being thrust into positions like Dean of Trinity College without preemptively planning to do so perpetuated that to be successful, you don’t have to know exactly where you are going. Instead, he reminded us to just enjoy the ride and work hard because science at its core is about loving discovery- not solemn, aloof people in lab coats.

I truly enjoyed all the different faculty that came to speak this summer, and I am grateful that they took the time to speak to us about their science and journey. All the different stories were fascinating and opened my eyes to how science and research are not a “one journey, one story” type of field. The faculty talk that stood out the most to me was the first one of the summer by Dr. Charmaine Royal. 

It is funny because I had a friend who took her class and would talk very highly of it after every session. Now, I know exactly why she loved that class. In the hour and a half that she spoke, she opened my eyes to a lot of different topics in regard to race and genetics. She opened up her presentation by asking us about our definition of race. While I had an immediate answer to her question, I knew how complex “race” is when trying to define it in our day-to-day life. If you asked 5 different people about what race was, you are very likely to receive 5 different answers. Before reflecting on what she talked about, I think a lot of these differences in our ideas of race stem from early educational knowledge. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that there are very few genetic variations between different races and you can find more genetic variations within the same race. The lab I am currently working in does work on Neurogenetics, but I never about how to think of race within this field of genetics and genomics. 

In high school, I did research on how to change the medical school curriculum to target implicit bias. In short, the conclusion was that the topic was multifaceted and required schools to work within the context of their student body and curriculum. Dr. Royal is doing many different forms of research in trying to help the public to understand race/ racism. I think there are a lot of different “buzz words” that circulate around, but most people do not understand the science and facts behind different concepts. She ended by giving us advice and stated “be conscious of my science and my impact on society.” This is something that stood out to me and something I hope to carry as I continue to research and enter the scientific field. 

Although I enjoyed all of the faculty talks, Dr. West’s in particular resonated with me. Before arriving at Duke, I didn’t know what an MD-Phd dual degree was. Even after learning a bit about it last semester, I was still unsure about whether it is something I could see myself doing, especially when going into medicine has been my plan for some time. As such, Dr. West’s insight has answered some of the questions I had about this path and whether it’s suited for me. I appreciated that she delineated the intricacies of medical, graduate, and MSTP applications, as well as some of the characteristics that might make someone a good fit for each type of program. Her comments about the Duke MSTP and what it entails are what emphasized for me that this pursuit, while very admirable, is not what I envision for myself at the moment. I would like to learn and contribute to the research advancing scientific and medical knowledge, but my primary desire is to be able to serve and care for patients. After Dr. West’s talk, I feel more reassured about my next steps and the research I will participate in throughout the rest of my education. Going along with this idea of uncertainty, I also appreciated Dr. West’s explanation of her own introduction to research and determining what she wanted to specialize in during her undergrad and graduate career. Her research about neuronal regulation of synaptic maturation during development and its implications sounded fascinating to me, and overall her talk gave me a lot to think about.