Week 1

[caption id="attachment_3660" align="alignnone" width="169"] Me in the lab[/caption] Making the long walk from French Family Science Center to Genome Sciences Research Building II into the Yin Lab for the first day of BSURF, I felt nervous about my first day...

Hello readers! Welcome to my weekly stream of consciousness blog about my research experience as part of the BSURF program! I just completed my first week of research in the Pendergast Lab, and it has left me excited to begin...

A year ago, I had no idea what doing "research" meant. The idea, concept, and process always seemed incredibly abstract and foreign, the word eluding to images of sterile rooms filled with people wearing white lab coats seriously tinkering with...

On the first day of lab, I was greeted by the familiar weight of the heavy steel-rimmed doors, the luminous glass windows lining the lobby, and a never-changing view from the sixth floor of the picturesque Chapel, but something felt...

Coming into B-SURF, I had very limited experience working in labs outside of the structured step-by-step procedures I followed in the lab section of my science courses. I was even less familiar with the research and the process behind the...

We’re sitting in a classroom in French. It’s 9 in the morning. With coffee and nervousness in our veins, we’re listening to Dr. Grunwald as he discusses what is to come in the next eight weeks. “Science isn’t just moving...

I applied to BSURF in hopes of a hands-on research experience that would allow  me to explore the mechanisms of the brain. I sat at my desk and wrote about my fascinations in the subject. I typed away about neurons...

[caption id="attachment_3667" align="alignright" width="300"] Me with Miss Pika! I dyed a lightning bolt on her back![/caption] All terrible puns aside, I'm so excited to be a part of this program and work in Dr. Mooney's neurobiology lab. Coming into this...

This is new to me. Everything here. My first research experience has been a whirlwind of pipetting and centrifuging and following protocol this past week–a routine of mundane tasks in the lab that, to me, have yet to seem so...

It’s a hot Monday afternoon. After my first day in the lab, I’m marinating in sweat and being roasted alive in the Durham heat when a girl at the bus stop approaches with a big smile and asks, “Are you...

My familiarity with the anatomy of the brain is extremely limited as is my knowledge of biology in general. During my first week when I was learning to use the cryostat to take coronal slices of a mouse brain, my...

My ultimate career goal is to contribute to democratizing healthcare access, especially in low-resource settings around the world. I’m interested in how engineering and science can help me to reach this goal. There are many ways to do that, including...

This summer I was given the opportunity to work in Dr. Levin’s lab and gain valuable experience that I will use to further my goals of studying biology. My expectations for this opportunity are geared towards knowledge rather than anything...

Day one of BSURF and I was diving in at the deep end with my first lab meeting at the Calakos Lab, where lab members discussed the projects they were working on. I was slightly intimidated by the vast array...

This past Monday I officially started in the Bejsovec Lab, a biology lab that studies molecular mechanisms for embryo development in the Drosophila or fruit fly model. After my first week in lab, I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of the...