I just finished my first week interning at the Coers lab. This first week has been wonderful, and it has made me look forward to the rest of my time in this lab. I’m enjoying the experience because I’m working on a project I find interesting with a helpful graduate student named Tony Piro.
Tony and I are using CRISPR/Cas 9 technology to delete genes, which will allow us to discover if the deleted genes are involved in cell-autonomous immunity. This week we worked on transfecting our cells, and the pictures I’ve included at the bottom of this post are of our transfection control.
Part of the reason that I find this topic interesting is because the CRISPR/Cas 9 method of gene editing is a relatively new method of gene editing. I looked at a graph of the number of publications on this method by year, and it looks like it just skyrocketed in 2013. It blows my mind that we’re able to use such new knowledge in a practical way.
Also, I am rediscovering my fascination with immunology in this lab as I read through the literature associated with my research. All varieties of life have developed such interesting and complex ways of resisting pathogens that there is so much left to learn about! I am particularly interested in the research that can help living creatures improve their natural immune response. To do so, it is critical that we first understand the current mechanisms of immune systems, which I hope the project that I am currently working on helps us to do. My hope for this summer is that we will be able to conclusively say whether the genes we are deleting are involved in cell-autonomous immunity.
As I am working, I very much appreciate the environment of the lab. On Thursday, I was so entertained when I witnessed the lab holding an auction. Tony created a currency called Tony Tokens, which the lab members used to bid for different items, mostly food. Tony was the auctioneer because he is currently the lab czar, the person in the lab that is in charge of making sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to do. It is a role that the lab members alternate. Before Tony Tokens, there were Ryan Rupees. Although there is a useful reason for having a lab czar, the position mostly seems to create an opportunity for the lab members to have fun and relax in the middle of a hectic work week by holding an auction. I think that the lab members work to create a very positive work environment, and I wish only to enjoy it for the rest of this internship as much as I have enjoyed it this week.
I am surprisingly unafraid about the next 7 weeks in which I hope to learn a lot about immunology and the life of a researcher. There are a lot of things that I don’t know yet (how much we’ll be able to discover, the rewarding and challenging aspects of being a researcher), and usually that would frighten me. The reason I am liberated from fear is because I have chosen to go into this experience with a slightly different attitude than the one I usually have — without rigid expectations. I want only to work hard and open myself up to learning new things. I want to be optimistic when I encounter challenges. If it isn’t obvious, I have hope.
