Category Archives: BSURF 2018

In my BSURF application, I wrote that I hoped to use this summer to explore a new field of biology and to connect with animals that I had not worked with before. Now at the end of the program, I feel so grateful looking back and seeing that those two things are exactly what the experience has enabled me to do. I found so much satisfaction learning neurobiology, linking animal behaviors to the underlying neural mechanisms. I found so much joy working with mice (except when SuperFiesty bit me, jumped away from my hand and almost gave me a heart attack). During the first week, I felt nervous, unsure, overwhelmed. I remember looking at the schedule for eight weeks and thinking to myself what a long journey it would be. Retrospectively, it was indeed quite a journey. But I can’t say enough how happy I felt with every little step I made along this way, whether that is a deeper understanding of the experiment, progress with the habituation, increasing familiarity with the techniques or simply nice conversations with the people in my lab and with the amazing friends I got to make. Thank you to Dr. Grunwald and Jason for giving me this chance. It has been a valuable learning experience. Like what Dr. David said, I just started to feel so comfortable operating on my BSURF schedule and here comes the graduation. But that’s okay, because every time I walk into the lab again, I’ll remember how all this began.

Yesterday, I told my mentor that when I first looked at the mouse brain on the confocal, it felt like I was looking into a galaxy. In a sense, that’s true for the summer, because I am starting to see a whole new world of ideas and possibilities.

It is with great excitement and gratefulness that we cheer to a future with more science, more friendships, and of course, more mice!

Well… Great is an understatement. My time this summer has been enlightening and better than I could have imagined.

At the start of the program, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue a career in research. I also didn’t know what type of research interested me, nor did I have any prior research experience. Throughout the last 8 weeks, I learned valuable skills that I can continue to use in the future. With my mentor’s guidance, I learned and improved the technical skills necessary to conduct the hormone research done in the lab. Some of these skills include drying, aspirating, and pipetting samples, all while handling radioactive and biological specimens. Aside from the technical skills needed at the bench, I improved my communication skills. Although I was aware of what constitutes an abstract, I learned how to effectively communicate through informal talks (like a chalk talk) and a poster thanks to my mentor, Dr. G, and Jason.

One of my favorite parts of BSURF was listening to the various experiences scientists had throughout their career. The faculty talks showed the diverse range of research being done at Duke in different fields. From extremophiles to neuroplasticity to the microbiome, hearing from all the PIs during the faculty talks showed the variety of topics an individual can focus their research on. The faculty talks also provided the opportunity to learn about the decisions the PIs made to reach the current phase in their career that they are in now. These experiences, along with the experiences of my mentor and PI, have increased my awareness of how I could proceed in scientific research following my undergrad.

I greatly enjoyed my research experience this summer, and I look forward to delving more into my scientific interests. Working in the Alberts Lab deepened my interest in evolutionary anthropology, and I plan on taking classes in the department to learn more about primate social behavior.

I am truly grateful for all the knowledge I gained from my mentor Dr. Laurence Gesquiere, my PI Dr. Alberts, Dr. G, and Jason, along with my fellow BSURFers. This has been a truly amazing opportunity and I’m so grateful to have had this experience.

I have had one of the most worthwhile experiences in a long time. I got to continue to work full time in a lab that I love, meet amazing faculty speakers with all different experiences, and really work on my skills as a communicator of science. These 8 weeks have gone by so fast and I can’t believe how much I have accomplished in such a short amount of time.

Even though I was not able to clone and successfully amplify all the genes I wanted, I was able to get promising data for not only my project but another project my lab is working on. I was able to deepen my understanding of developmental biology and have begun to truly love the topic. I am so thankful for having Dr. McClay and Ray be such amazing mentors and guide me throughout my 8 weeks and hopefully the rest of my undergraduate career. They have both given me the reigns on my own project and what I want to do from very early on and I am so grateful that I was able to get so much autonomy when doing my experiments because I grew so much from it.

The faculty speakers have also broadened my knowledge of the possibilities after college as well as the importance of things you usually won’t associate with science. Science communication and networking was brought up on many talks and I am so glad that I got to learn ways to communicate my science better and tips to network with other people in the sciences and form collaborations. In fact, I hope to continue to post on my science-specific Twitter account (follow me @Michael_Wen_) as well as participate in more science outreach like how I helped out at the Eno River Festival booth for the NC Herpetological Society. I actually applied to be a tour guide for the Lemur Center to take concrete steps to improving my network and science communication.

After hearing all the faculty speakers and realizing that I love being in the lab, this experience has affirmed that I want to continue doing research for the rest of the time I am at Duke and hopefully go into the route for academia once I graduate. I am so happy how I now have a better understanding of what I want to do in the future and what I don’t want to do.

Thank you so so much to Jason and Dr. Grunwald for being such great mentors and for planning such an amazing program for up and coming scientists. Thank you to all my fellow peers for making this summer such an enjoyable one.

Dr. McClay, my PI, during the BioCoRE Symposium Poster Session

Ray Allen, my graduate student mentor, at the BioCoRE Symposium Poster Session

Before my journey at Duke began, I never thought I would do research. I saw research as just working with mice 24/7 and doing menial tasks, not anything special at all that I would enjoy. And yet, something in my head told me to try it anyway. I thought, I go to Duke, a university with so many opportunities to cash in on. What kind of student would I be if I didn’t do exactly that, and see if research really was all that I expected it to be? And next thing you know, I became apart of BSURF for the summer.

For one, research was not what I expected. First, I worked with flies and not mice (which was great because I still have yet to get over my slight fear of mice). Secondly, the tasks I did were in fact meaningful and were always important to my overall project or someone else’s. Also, everyone in my lab was welcoming and easy to speak to, which created a fun environment for me to make myself at home in the lab.

I learned a lot about myself and what I like and dislike about science. For example, while I do think the research I’ve done is interesting and will make an impact on humans someday, I realized that I do still love neuroimmunology and I think I would enjoy research that was more medicine related. Additionally, I want the research I do to directly affect patient lives in relatively short time spans (not sure what that really entails yet).

But overall, what I will take away from BSURF is that it’s okay to not know. In the beginning of this program I hoped that by the end I would have an answer as to whether I want to pursue research as a career alongside becoming a doctor. And now that I am at the end, I still don’t have an answer. However, by hearing from various faculty speakers, especially doctors that have been in my position, I realized that I just have to roll with the punches of life and take everything one step at a time. I’ve accepted that I won’t figure everything out now, and maybe with more experience  with research, my path in life will become more clear.

All in all, I appreciate the summer I’ve had. Although I have  more questions that answers, I don’t regret my decision to participate in BSURF and I’m glad I got to be surrounded by great scientists all summer.

A big thank you to Dr. Grunwald, Jason, my lab (especially Dr. Volkan, Bryson, and Ambika), and my fellow BSURFers for making this summer a great one! Thank you to Trinity College for funding my research. And of course, thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read my blog posts. 🙂

At the beginning of the program, I made some goals, and fortunately, I reached those goals.  As a refresher, here were my goals I wanted to accomplish:

1.  I would like to learn to make mistakes.
2.  I would like to learn to be patient.
3.  I hope to be able to communicate and learn from the community around me.

The first and second goal go hand-in-hand.   I did make some mistakes during the program.  I did not use the correct amount of DNA, I made a mistake during a presentation (i.e. mixed up some background information), produced blots where the positive control failed ( I’m not sure what went wrong), and produced blots where the IPs did not show up, when the inputs did (again, I am not sure what went wrong).  However, I’ve learned to troubleshoot, and I am continuing to learn to troubleshoot and accept that things do not always work and you have to keep trying.  On the same note, cell cultures (especially when starting with single cells) grow very slowly, western blots with IPs takes approximately 4 days, so you need to be patient.  If the science does not work, you will have to start again taking even more time, thus, science takes patience and is all about delayed gratification.

The third goal was also achieved.  Through BSURF led by Dr. G and Jason, my peers and I were able to listen to amazing talks, give chalk talks, and will give a poster tomorrow. Through my lab, I was able to present what I have accomplished in the summer, and learn from others in my lab.  I feel very lucky to have been able to communicate about my science and learn from others as well.

I am really thankful for this experience, and I truly feel that this experience allowed me to see what it is like to do research full time. The BSURF program makes me feel excited about the possibilities of attending graduate school but continues to leave the next step beyond graduate school open.  What do I want to do?  Do I want to go into industry? Do I want to try to start a startup? Do I want to go into academia?  What are my options?

I am excited to continue my work in this lab, to build strong relationships, and to learn more about my next steps.

Thanks for experiencing this program with me!

”So long, farewell…goodbye“

This was the final blog post.

It’s almost hard to believe that 2 months can seem to go by so quickly and yet have been filled with such a variety of ideas, people, and experiences. It’s really helped to put into perspective where I want to go with my future career plans, though I still imagine that they’re liable to change.

Most importantly, I think, is that this summer has really solidified the idea that I want to continue doing research into the foreseeable future. One of my worries was what I’d do if it turned out that being in a lab was more a nightmare than a dream, even though I was pretty certain that a laboratory environment would be the one for me. Luckily, I was correct and I found it to be great, particularly that I’m only really working closely with a small group of people with an overall goal, but each part of the goal is handled fairly independently by each person with some overlapping reliance on others. The flexible schedule with some routine but enough variation to keep things from becoming stale is also an appealing aspect.

It’s also helped me really consider where I want to go with my education in biology. I thought that perhaps I would find my love for genetics once again by being in the lab I’m currently in, but I’ve found that maybe that won’t be the case. Actually, during the summer I’ve looked into other subjects thanks in part to the speakers we heard throughout the summer and I really think I might want to learn more about microbiology, behavior, and the application of biology in industry. While I know that’s bound to change again, this summer has really renewed and invigorated my love for science. I do plan to remain in the lab I’m in to see if maybe I need more time and exposure to the ideas central to the research since it is fairly interesting and two months doesn’t seem like enough time to really come to a sound conclusion (and also my somewhat distant feeling about the research might come from the lack of progress over the past two months. It can be a bit difficult to engage a subject when you’re main exposure to it has been its stubbornness to cooperate).

As far as my ideas about science, I can’t really say how they’ve changed in any particular way. There have been no real “ah-ha!” moments over this past summer, but it’s not as if those moments happen particularly often. Many of the ideas I’ve heard this past summer have been ones I’ve heard before said in a slightly different way or from a different perspective, but with the same central idea. However, that’s not to say that my ideas and perspectives haven’t changed. They have, but in a way that is more nebulous and hard to express concisely. It’s like when you look back over the past year or so of your life and you know you’ve changed and grew since then, but the growth is small across such a variety of aspects that each by itself seems like hardly anything and there are too many to really spend your time considering each one, but together they seem to produce some sense of change. But overall, I can say that I feel closer to what makes science, science, whether it be because of the people who have changed it, understanding its principles, respecting its power to bring forth knowledge about our world, just from being able to be a small, small part of it for a short time, or a number of other things.

Science is amazing, and even though sometimes I, like many of us, need a bit of a break from reading and thinking and talking about it, I hope I don’t ever lose sight of that.

When I first applied to BSURF, I had no idea what to expect. I had no experience working in a research lab, and the thought of dedicating my entire summer to it seemed daunting, to say the least. I felt thoroughly unprepared for what was to come (and that feeling probably carried on with me until Week 3). But as the program started and I began immersing myself more in it, my fears were replaced with enjoyment. I am confident to say that these past couple of weeks have been amazing, and I would not have wanted to do anything else with my time.

From technical laboratory skills to presentations of research, the program has allowed me to learn a lot on my path to becoming a scientist. Under the guidance of supportive mentors, I have gained skills like learning how to run an ITC or plating yeast colonies. Besides technical skills, working in a lab this summer has taught me several life skills as well. The most important one is patience. Sitting for hours on end, waiting for a centrifuge to spin a sample down to a desired volume is a boring task for anyone. Having to do that for every single protein purification made me realize the importance of being patient in science. Results or methods do not appear or finish immediately. Yes, I had to wait more than 6 hours for it to get to the desired volume, but hey, it ended up being worth it as my purifications were successful. Another valuable life skill that I learned was accepting failures. For the past 6 weeks, the data that I was getting from the ITC (calorimetry) instrument was not usable. Sharp changes in a baseline that should be flat, small differences in values between the blank and sample runs, and overnight equilibration that resulted in no run were some of the setbacks I experienced when using the instrument. While I was not able to get the data I needed to get this summer (I’ll try again during the year!), each setback allowed me to learn more about potential problems in our method and potential solutions. Under the guidance of one of my grad students, we were able to fix some problems and have been able to get it to somewhat work recently. Finally, I think this experience has given me direction. I was not 100% sure about wanting to work in a lab in the future, but after this experience, I have realized that research is for me. Whether in industry or academia, I want to continue on my path to become a scientist. This summer was a rigorous, but enjoyable experience that reinforced my goals of being a scientist.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of disappointments (but productive ones!), discoveries, and delights. I am sad that the experience is over, but I feel like I have a lot more direction on what I want to do in the future thanks to the program. So while this summer is ending, my time in research is only beginning.

Summer 2018 is one of the most memorable summers I’ve had in my whole life. I’ve gone to Disneyworld, travelled abroad for a couple of weeks but I can never say I recieved as much as I did from this Summer compared to the past. More imporantly, I feel that I have changed personally and that I have a better understanding of what I want for my future. As of today, I can’t imagine being fully satisfied with myself without investigating some sort of question. As much as I’d like to claim that I’m going to apply to medical school or graduate school I’m not sure where I’ll end up. I do know for sure that I will performing research whether that be in a wet lab or dry lab.

In consequence to this, I’ve agreed to continue to participate in the lab I’ve worked in for the summer. My mentor, Jenny, has been supportive and helped along my mistakes and taught me how to learn from them. Moreover, I was surprised at how willing other members of the lab were to help me when I needed it. In a way, I had something to learn from everyone in the lab-not just my mentor. I am very pleased that they asked me if I wanted to continue to work with them because there was a part of me that felt I was a nusiance for having no idea what I was doing. It was through this that I learned that part being a scientist means being willing to train others in your science or trade. Otherwise, the story that you’re attempting to construct cannot possibly be continued.

In terms of me changing personally, I will attribute this to Dr. Greenwald and the program itself. I feel that I’ve become more open-minded to things such as animals and public speaking. After volunteering at the Eno Festival, I have more empathy towards snakes and feel a need to defend them when someone speaks ill of them. I have also come to understand the relevance of presenting data verbally in the science community. To be honest, I’m naturally very shy and I’ve been waiting my whole life to understand why having public speaking skills was relevant to me. After doing my chalk talk earlier this month, I understand why being able to present effectively is useful and essential for my career.

In short, the BSURF program met my expectations and more. It has opened my mind up to the possibilities research provides and the many pathways I can take to getting there. I have an understanding of what research is and what it means to be involved in discoveries. I have learned biomolecular skills and background knowledge. Furthermore, I know what role I want to play a science. Thank you Dr. G, Jason, Jenny, Dr. Perfect and to my peers for making this a truly memorable Summer.

The past eight weeks in the BSURF program have truly been amazing. My time in the program and in the Brennan Lab has exceeded all my expectations coming into this summer. I remember that some of my most important goals coming into this summer was getting a better idea of what I wanted to study, do meaningful research, to build a bigger network, and lastly to bond with other students in the program. Although eight weeks is still a relatively short amount of time, I felt that I truly got to take great strides in these regards, if not successfully complete them.

Tackling the idea of figuring out what I wanted to study was something that was made more clear to me through my own research and also the guidance of my mentor and guest speakers. I’ve always felt that a lot of things in science were interesting and that if I set my mind on any one subject, I would eventually be passionate in it. During this summer, with the abundance of guest speakers, I sort of got to test that theory out. Listening to speakers investigating a wide range of sciences allowed me to get a better idea of what I wanted to study. I found that while certain topics of science were interesting, they didn’t quite align with the way my curiosity was urging me to investigate. Growing up, I had always been a visually learner. If I could see it happening and see the moving pieces of why it was happening, that helped me better understand a certain idea. This exact concept was practiced upon in the lab I worked on this summer. X-ray crystallography in the Brennan Lab was an interesting concept that while I had heard of, never had the chance to deeply explore until now. Working to build structures of protein and seeing how certain sites interacted with other molecules was really fascinating. And while my research this summer was attempting to progress towards possibly solving a structure, building from the very base of expression, this type of thinking gave me an idea of what I wanted to study in the near future: attempting to build structures and models of proteins and see how they interact with other molecules. This curiosity also steers my courses towards a more biochemistry focused schedule, somewhat clearing up my dilemma of what to study. I also still do believe that a scientist will go through many phases of wanting to learn about many different things, leaving the future with exciting possibilities.

I came into this summer unsure exactly what “meaningful research” meant. From an outside perspective, it seemed that all meaningful research had to be groundbreaking or on a “hot” topic. This summer has completely changed what I define as meaningful research. I’m sure this definition will change many times as my career evolves but currently meaningful research to me is simply research that allows me to deeply learn about a topic I find interesting. Hands-on work and visual work has always been a dimension of learning that I haven’t been able to experience outside the classroom, so through this summer my work has certainly been meaningful. Further, I will also add that working towards a larger goal, in this case solving a protein structure, certainly brings meaning in my own mind. Being able to possibly contribute knowledge to other and also learn to myself is definitely meaningful to me.

The variety of individuals in science I have met this summer has truly expanded my perspective and also my network. Even a simple conversation or listening to a new speaker allowed me to get an idea how different scientist think and approach their work. Throughout this program an emphasis has been put on communicating work and that ties directly into interacting with other scientists. The amount of researchers at Duke I have met this summer as definitely given me a better idea and perspective of the landscape of research as a whole here at Duke.

Finally, this summer has allowed me to build friendships with other students in the program. With everybody doing challenging research, getting lost in literature papers and being overwhelmed by lab protocols has definitely humorously brought us all closer together. This is possibly the most rewarding part of this summer as these friendships were certainly last as all of us continue our time at Duke.

I’d personally like to thank Dr. Brennan for allowing me to work in his lab this summer. It has been a wonderful experience and I am very much excited to continue working next semester. I’d also like to thank Grace for her mentorship and her patience to help me throughout my learning process. In addition, I’d like to thank all the members of the Brennan Lab for creating a friendly and learning environment and also for helping me whenever I asked a question. Dr. Grunwald and Jason were also crucial to my growth and experience this summer and I would like to thank them for their time and sacrifices.

And for the last time,

Thanks for reading!

Luke Sang

Of all the Nobel Laureates and Basically-Nobel-Laureates that came to talk to us this summer, none stood out to me as much as Dr. Anne West. The main reasons that I found Dr. West’s talk so valuable was because it provided me with clarity on where to go in the study of epigenetics. She outline how it was one thing to show that there is a correlation between environmental stimuli and epigenetic changes, but it is an entirely different thing to show a causative relationship between epigenetic changes and phenotypic changes. Her talk also helped me to think about the practicality of the way that we approach an ever changing field with technologies that are over 20 years old.  When Dr. West started talking about how d-cas9 could be used to provide specific modulations to various epigenetic changes, I was particularly interested because it provided isnight for me into how current technological advancements can provide new insights into what is actually happening epigenetically. For instance, if I noticed signifigant methylation changes at a CpG site in a gene, I could use d-cas9 DNA Methyl Transferase to replicate that change(and ONLY that change) in a controlled cohort of mice to see what the true effects of that change are on an organism. It could also be used to rescue epigenetic damage that could be caused by environmental stimuli, without causing the errant mutations that regular cas9 causes. In short, Dr. West showed me a practical next step that could be taken in order to expand on my lab’s epigenetic research while also pointing out the inherent flaws in our approach.

An honorable mention for favorite talk would of course be Dr. Noor’s, as she showed me how awesome biological research could be even if a lot of people do not feel that way because it does not have any “practical applications” (see: Nobel Prize).

Over the last two months, we’ve had many different speakers come to give us talks. It was surreal for me to be in the same room as many people who have conducted breakthrough research (even one Nobel Prize winner!) and accomplished so many things in their lives. It was exciting for me to learn about their work and how their projects and questions evolved. But so many of the pressing questions I had for our speakers regarded what paths they took to get to where they are now and how they found their way. It was really encouraging for me to hear about what their experiences were like at my age and allowed me to be less intimidated by them and relate to them more.

One of the talks that will stick with me is Dr. Lawrence David’s. Dr. David is a fairly new professor at Duke and was hired 5 years ago. His lab studies the microbiome in the human gut and how what you eat affects it. He was the only researcher whose work involved humans as tests subjects, which I thought was really cool. But his talk didn’t focus primarily on his research, rather it focused on how he got to where he is today. He talked about his time at Columbia as an engineering student, at MIT as a Ph.D. student, and at Harvard as a junior fellow. His discussion was peppered with funny anecdotes about things like the time he spent two months eating street food in Thailand as part of his Ph.D., seeing how it affected his gut’s microbiome. He also had a very earnest discussion with us about the frustrations of research, questioning the graduate school route you choose, trying to fit into the world of science, the times you feel like you don’t belong and don’t know what you’re doing.

Some of his lessons were:

1. Research is going to get weird – that means a breakthrough is coming
2. Not everyone in the room is smarter than you. A third are but aren’t interested in showing it off and want to be your friend. A third are about as smart as you and can be considered friends as well. Another third isn’t as smart as you but want you to think they’re so much smarter than you are.
3. The moment you think you know what you’re doing is the moment you’re given your next challenge (graduation).

I think self-doubt is something everyone struggles with when they’re trying to find their way and it was really nice to hear him address than and talk about how even now there are times when he wonders if he should have gone to medical school. I felt like I could relate to some of Dr. David’s experiences and that was really exciting to me. His story emphasized the importance of an open mind, trusting yourself, and welcoming change. His talk is definitely something that I won’t forget and his words of wisdom will continue to resonate with me as I continue on my journey into science. I feel so grateful to have had this experience and hear from so many brilliant, fascinating people. I’ve taken so much away from their talks and they’ve given me a lot of perspective.

Over the course of the summer we have had the opportunity to hear from a wide range of exciting and inspirational scientists at Duke, from up and coming faculty members such as Dr. Lawrence David and Dr. Amy Schmid to well-established ones like Dean Nowicki and Dr. Lefkowitz. Last week, Dean Mary Klotman of the Duke School of Medicine spoke to us about her career in clinical medicine and research.

One of Dean Klotman’s first pieces of advice was to ensure that you receive the very best training in each field you wish to pursue – something that she has certainly done throughout her career. She completed her undergraduate degree, medical degree, and her clinical residency at Duke, before moving to the NIH in order to be trained in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Gallo. She also spoke of the importance of using your connections to access new opportunities, which reminded me of Dr. Grunwald’s advice to build and maintain a strong network of scientists as you proceed through your career.

Dean Klotman has spent her research career studying HIV-associated nephropathy, the development of kidney disease in association with HIV infection. She demonstrated that the human immunodeficiency virus, although typically only associated with cells of the immune system, caused the disease by essentially ‘hiding’ inside kidney cells and thereby causing focal scarring of the kidney. Her work led to the successful use of antiretrovirals to treat this once-baffling disease.

Dean Klotman emphasized the advantages of being a physician-scientist, which I found particularly interesting seeing as I am considering pursuing an MD PhD. She argued that her medical training gave her an enhanced perspective on how scientific advances can be translated into improvements in the treatment of patients. Additionally, she explained how physician-scientists can use their patients to gather scientific evidence. For example, a significant breakthrough in demonstrating the link between HIV and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) came when she found a remarkable improvement in the kidney function of one of her FSGS patients upon treatment with antiretrovirals.

Due to her background in infectious disease, I asked Dean Klotman about the threat of antimicrobial resistance. She emphasized the gravity of the issue and laid out several clinical approaches being taken to tackle it. These include a campaign against the unnecessary use and overuse of antibiotics, the improvement of infection control mechanism, and cooperation between healthcare institutions like Duke Health and the pharmaceutical industry to enable the development of new, effective antibiotics. She suggested that bacteriology would be an interesting field to go into given the current threat posed by antimicrobial resistance, and the need for novel methods of treating bacterial infections. Perhaps this is something for me to consider!

Sometimes, as students, we forget to take advantage of all the resources provided by this phenomenal institution. One of these resources is the faculty. Twice a week, different faculty members speak to our program about their lives as a researcher. Some of the faculty were well established (including a Nobel Prize winner) and others were new to teaching. Though they were all researchers, their specialties ranged from evolution to HIV to bird song. Each speaker had taken a different path to get to where they are today but none of it could be considered easy. They each worked hard for what they accomplished, occasionally stumbling along the way. Overall, I was thankful that they would take time out of their busy schedules to come and speak to us.

One speaker that I thoroughly enjoyed was Dr. Lawrence David. His research involves looking at what humans eat and how it effects gut microbes. I thoroughly enjoy talking about food, so hearing about his studies were exciting. He also talked about how his research allowed him to travel. Traveling and research are rarely talked about, but it was cool to see how he was able to combine the two. What stood out to me about his talk was the fact that he spent half of the presentation talking about questions he frequently gets asked from students. This really stuck with me because some of the questions were the same ones I have. It was nice to hear his prospective and to hear some of the advice he has gained along the way.

Though each talk was unique in their own way, they all had some similar takeaways:

1. Nothing in life is going to be easy. Doing research can be hard and frustrating at times. You must work hard in order to accomplish the goals that you have for yourself.
2. Not everyone will end up where they expect. Just because you plan to do research in a certain topic, does not mean you will end up there. Be open to the changes that may come throughout your education and your career
3. Find what you love. If you enjoy the topic, it makes the work more interesting.

Again, I would like to thank all the faculty that spoke to us over the summer. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

One of the things I look forward to the most each week are the faculty talks. I always find it valuable to be able to look into the life of a researcher and hear about their journey through life, especially since I don’t really know if I should take a path similar to theirs. They have all been great, but I think the faculty talk that stood out to me the most was Dr. Robert Lefkowitz’s.

Dr. Lefkowitz, unlike other faculty speakers, right off the bat said he wouldn’t be talking much about his own research, but of his life. That immediately stood out to me. During all of BSURF I have been going back and forth over if I really want to pursue research as a career, and I’ve been looking all over for guidance and advice. Somehow, I knew at that moment that Dr. Lefkowitz would give some to me.

As Dr. Lefkowitz spoke to us, I found myself seeing parallels between him and I. At first, he didn’t even like research and was very sure that he would become a doctor. I can admit that that was my mindset all throughout my freshman year and before I applied to this program. He ended up doing research so he wouldn’t have to serve in the Vietnam War (which is probably something I would do in his shoes too, to be honest) and still wasn’t very fond of research. And yet, after he left he found himself missing research and being in a lab.

My summer doing research has been one I can’t forget. And I think that I will find myself like Dr. Lefkowitz — missing research and wanting to come back. His talk opened my eyes to the fact that it won’t all be great at first. The research you do won’t always be successful. You’re not always going to know what you want to do and sometimes you will think you have your life all figured out, and then it takes a different turn than you expected. Who knows, maybe I’ll only become a doctor, or maybe I’ll be a doctor and do research. The thought of not knowing which path will be mine scares me. But Dr. Lefkowitz’s talk helped me to learn and accept that fact, and it’ll be one of the major things I take out of being apart of BSURF.

Over the course of the program, my fellow BSURFers and I had the opportunity to listen to various scientists talk about their research and their journey.

All scientists had something amazing, thoughtful, and encouraging to say about their science, and to someone who may consider pursuing science.  One talk by Dr. Lawrence David really stood out to me.

First, he has interesting research by looking at the human microbiome, asking for, and handling human fecal samples.  He also shared ongoing work with prebiotics and the microbiome and even informed us that he is still taking participants.

What stood out was not only his research but how he explained his journey through a series of questions that he asked himself. I enjoyed the stories of not knowing what he wanted to do but he had an it wouldn’t hurt to try attitude. I liked his anecdote of saying graduate school was an amazing experience, and he was even able to get his PI to fund his trip to Asia to eat nothing but street food (and collect and look at his fecal samples) for two months.  Additionally, I found it interesting that he joined new labs (where the PI was within his first year) all throughout his career. I thought it was great how he says even as a professor he doesn’t know what he wants to do, mentioning start-ups, mentioning if it was right not to do med. school, but always follow up with how he enjoys and loves what he does.

Finally, the thing that I thought was interesting was how he became interested in science: Jurassic Park. He mentions how a great advocate for science could also be Hollywood, which I found interesting.

That’s it… on next weeks blog I will wrap up my BSURF experience.

One of the many things that I look forward to each week is to hear the faculty talks. While no one can predict what would happen in the future (to quote what Dr. Telen quoted from John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans”), I certainly learned a lot as the speakers shared about the journey they have traveled. Some stories such as that of Dr. Telen, Dr. Kontos and Dean Klotman led me to appreciate a field of biology and the people in that field. Some like that of Dr. Lefkowitz imbued me with so much joy and energy. I was grateful to hear Dr. West saying that never to worry where you will be too much. Nevertheless, through the faculty talk series this summer, I certainly found more strength and excitement as I look forward now.

One talk that particularly fascinated me was Dr. Nowicki’s. Dr. Nowicki’s lab studies categorical perception, using swamp sparrow as one of their models. Among the many interesting studies was the investigation on how female birds see colors. To see if there is a boundary to color perception in birds, the lab trained the female birds to learn that there were only seeds under bicolor pads. By adjusting how close the two colors are on the bicolor pads, the lab was able to find that birds see colors categorically rather than seeing them on a continuum. Nowicki lab cooperates with Mooney lab, which is the lab I’m currently in, to further figure out the neural circuitry underlying bird’s perceptions.

As someone who is very interested in animal behavior and has grown to love neurobiology (thanks to BSURF!!), Dr. Nowicki’s words really stuck with me: “every animal has a different reality”. What we perceive and project onto other animals isn’t necessarily the case for those animals. A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with my mentors on categorizing mice vocalizations. My mentor shared that many people analyzed the differences between mice vocalizations in different contexts. She said yes, they have found some differences carrying certain statistical significance, but how much do these differences weigh to mice? Do mice care about the subtle variations when they communicate to each other? Similarly, after observing a juvenile male vocalizing to an adult female but exhibiting no mounting behavior, I was confused if the vocalization should be counted as courtship-directed. Based on my human thinking, a baby boy speaking to a female adult is for sure not courtship. Yet, how accurate is that projection to mice? Something Dr. Nowicki said during his presentation that I will keep in mind forever studying animal behavior,

“we would be better at entangling the world if we jump out of our worldview”.

The faculty talk series with BSURF ended this past Thursday. But with this end, I’m more sure that it is only a start. Dr. Grunwald said that science is about communication. So is life. Thank you to BSURF and to all the faculty members who talked to us this summer for sharing their insights and for inspiring me to seek and appreciate more opportunities to learn from others.

Besides the immense amount of training I have recieved this summer, I have learned a lot about what I want for myself in the future. This is in part due to the seminars that I have witnessed in the last two months. I had expected to learn skills and techniques used in molecualr biology research but I didn’t expect to completely change my goals for the next couple of years. Hearing about the multiple paths that some Duke’s accomplished faculty took to get to their careers and the things they had to overcome in life really helped me in understanding the role I wanted to play in research and in the science community. I found all of the seminars intriuging but I believe my favortite was Dr. Bob Levkovitz’s.

Honestly, I was able to pull messages from each faculty member, but Dr. Levkovitz was the most personable in my opinion. What stood out the most to me about him was that he was honest about some of the career decisions he made. For example, he said that he joined the yellow berets solely because he didn’t want to be sent into the Vietnam War to most likely die. Whereas, the nice answer would have been: “I joined the yellow berets because I wanted to use clinical expertise for a greater purpose.” I learned that some of my decisions in life may not all be based in selflessness and I may have to take actions to for  myself one day. In addition, I appreciated that he had spoke with a concise attitude and didn’t “sugar coat” his advice. He talked about the changes in demographics at his school over time, how important the lab you work is and is minimal interest in research initially. It made me realize how vulnerable your goals are for the future. I may set a goal for myself today but as I’m progressing towards it or after I achieve, I may come to find I don’t actually want thing I was chasing. This scares me but at least I know this is a possibility and that I need to be prepared to be wrong.

This speaker was the last clue that I needed to truly figure out what I wanted to exactly. I am still a biology major so that hasn’t changed-if anything, I actually love Biology more because of this program. I realized that in terms of conducting research in the future, it doesn’t matter extensively if I pursue a MD or a PhD. Whether I pursue either one, my work life will be surround by people with varying degrees and level of expertise. These people will be there to bring new ideas and perspectives to the project. Most importantly, others will make up for the things you don’t know, so it isn’t imperative that you have a MD for clinical research or a PhD for general research. So in a way, you aren’t restricted no matter which path you choose. This was my main conscern in terms of figuring what I wanted to do with my life. In short, I am very greatful for these seminars.

After a troubling week in lab (5 inexplicably failed trials, time restraints, and deadlines deadlines deadlines!), it’s certainly nice to reflect on other research being done at Duke, especially when that research involves my favorite buggers: viruses! I introduce Dr. Mary Klotman, Dean and Professor of Duke’s School of Medicine, and HIV specialist who has fought at both the clinical frontlines and the bench operations. For years, I have assumed my interest in STEM and medicine to blossom directly as a physician of some manner, not really considering the entire prospect of researchers even existing, much less being one. Thus, choosing from research and clinical work whenever asked by peers and advisors alike seemed entirely too daunting, but Dr. Klotman is an amazing example of stringing the two fields together through her translational research.

Thoroughly Duke-bred since her undergraduate years, Dr. Klotman entered research in a slightly unconventional route to other scholars. Marked by the concurrent AIDS epidemic, her rotations and residency at Duke drove her to seek more ways to help her bedside patients out of compassion.

After pushing herself into the world of HIV research, she began investigating the mechanisms and properties of the virus as the research remained relatively fresh. Developing techniques at the time rushed to fill the dire gaps of the crisis, leading to major discoveries such as the limited function of failure drugs like AZT as potential treatments and the entire sequencing of the HIV genome. However, Dr. Klotman’s research focuses mostly on a fatal kidney disorder related to the virus targetting the young African-American male community. By studying the behavior of this disease, Dr. Klotman would be able to investigate the infection methods of the virus and potential treatment targets, as the virus is typically associated with infecting T cells, yet the kidney lacked many traditional immune cells. Combined with her continued bedside activity, Dr. Klotman labored tirelessly to resist the terminal diagnoses given to AIDS patients, even leaving Duke to Mount Sinai to work as the chief of the Infectious Diseases division after determining that HIV evolved and behaved distinctly differently in the kidney.

Since the end of the AIDS crisis, Dr. Klotman has persisted and furthered the field of HIV through her work, investigating specific factors of the virus heavily tied to the virus’ pathogenesis in immune cells. Despite the subsiding of the urgency for a cure, her projects have transitioned back to Duke’s Medical School to work with the Viral Vector Core on a potential vaccine for HIV using integrase-defective lentiviral vectors to stimulate the immune system. Since HIV itself is a lentivirus, using a vector with mimicking properties/factors that is unable to reproduce would allow for the development of a vaccine. Now, she juggles both her previous responsibilites to the clinic and laboratory, while adding the administrative workload of a Dean of the School of Medicine, which is simply incredible. Plainly put, Dr. Klotman’s story is inspirational, as it evinces that one doesn’t have to really decide strictly between M.D. or Ph D., as in the end, she never chose to be either but became both out of her passion and interest in her work. It is quite relieving, as I was worried about the practicality of pursuing research if I were to choose the M.D. path, but Dr. Klotman’s extraordinary work in both paths despite technically belonging to one shows how arbitrary those divisions can be in the face of hard work (and probably a whole lot of skill).

Weekly Highlights

“CRISIS CRISIS”-Dang as membranes dry up
“I’ll go get Huifang and take care of what she’s working on so she can help you”-Joan who leaves
*crisis immediately fixes itself*
“What’s wrong, I was feeding mice [an hour task]!”-Huifang
“…so, guess who doesn’t have to feed mice anymore?”-Dang

“Tell me when things are running low so I can buy them before we run out”-Joan
“Oh ok, um can you buy DMEM/F12 [$100], RSAD1 antibody from Novus [$400], West Femto ECL[$350], 6-well plates for cell culturing [$150], Stainless Protein Ladder [$100], anti-tag FLAG antibody [$300], 20x TBST [$100], 10x Tris/Glycine/SDS buffer [$40], BCA Reagant A [$60], and some precast Western gels.”-Dang
“Oof.”-Huifang

“So I put the marker in the well, and I was telling myself not to load the sample in that same well.”-Dang
“And then you did exactly that”-Joan

“Did you remember that you were supposed to present at the lab meeting today?”-Joan
“Yes, save meee.”-Dang
“Are you done preparing?”-Christine
“I mean, not completely…”-Dang
“Good, lab meeting cancelled!”-Joan

“Isn’t there a lab meeting today?”-Kendra who runs Mass Specs so you know these things are a journey
“Just the two of us have been sitting in the conference room for 20 minutes confused.”-Huifang
“Oh, uh, yeah we cancelled it, did nobody tell you?”-Dang
“Really? Oh I guess I didn’t, when?”-Kendra
“5 minutes ago”-Dang