BSURF 2021

Now that we have passed the halfway point of BSURF, I realize more and more that science is an art of communication. While the experiments we conduct and the data we collect have their own intrinsic value, as Dr. Grunwald...

As the world is returning to normal after the pandemic new methods to potentially improve injection of drugs into the body have increased in value. When a drug, like a vaccine, is injected into a body it is put in...

I particularly enjoyed Colby’s talk about his work in the Alberts lab, which deals with variations in baboon social behavior. I have always found animal behavior to be a very interesting topic, so I was excited to learn about one...

As I am working with plants too, Ali's chalk talk on pitcher plants stood out to me.  Ali's project involves looking at different species of pitcher plants that grows in different regions. Her lab is analyzing going in these different...

This week’s “chalk talks'' were very entertaining and it was exciting to see how my peers took ownership and pride in each of their respective projects. Last week, over the course of three days, each of the individuals in the...

We have proof of concept that our RNA trans-splicing technology works in vitro. We’ve shown that we can efficiently edit pre-mRNA by transfecting and transducing Human Embryonic Kidney cells (HEK293) and are planning to move into patient-derived cardiomyocytes (human heart...

As someone who had no prior exposure to biomedical engineering, this week's chalk talks were especially enlightening. Out of the engineering related talks, Neica's talk on developing drugs for ischemic strokes stood out to me because the methods used to...

Throughout my experience in B-SURF prior to this week, I have been immersed in engineering approaches to various biological issues. However, this week, I was exposed to multiple different topics through the Chalk Talks, and I was amazed by how...

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the different projects everyone was working on this summer, and was pleasantly surprised to see a large variety in the topics. One such presentation that interested me was Ben’s talk about cell migration. He explained...

I really enjoyed Xitlali Ramirez's talk, which focused on her research regarding the effects of urban development on local watersheds and their capabilities to act as insect habitats. What drew me to her research was how much it stood out...

This week, I really enjoyed seeing what everyone was working on in their labs.  There was an impressive amount of variety, and everybody’s topics were incredibly interesting.  8 minutes is not a lot of time to capture one’s project, and...

This past week in BSURF, we had chalk talks all week. What this meant was that every single BSURFer stood up in front of the rest of us and explained what they are researching this summer while drawing helpful diagrams...

Because Misaki Foster and I have been friends since we met last fall, I was bound to know something about her research before the chalk talk. While I knew she was working on mitosis in caterpillars, I didn’t fully understand...

While my research occurs in a lab, it was very interesting to learn of our other peers’ research that happens in the field. I was particularly fascinated by Xitlali’s project and its intersection in the broader efforts of environmental nonprofits. ...

This week I wanted to take the time to shout out the work being done by George in the Mooney Lab! George’s talk stood out to me for two different reasons. The first is the fact that he gets to...

At the Bursac lab, Anuj is working on engineering muscle cells by differentiating human iPSCs (as well as primary cells) into cardiac and skeletal tissue. These cells generate forces that model actual human tissue, which is pretty cool! In one...