Each of the presentations that various faculty from various departments throughout the summer were exciting and intriguing and gave me an insight of what was going on within other labs similar to the chalk talks. I wish we had more of them and more time to listen to each of them! However, out of all the projects presented, it was Dr. Geoff Ginsburg’s project on translational genomics that really caught my eye.
Ginsburg’s ideas on the different phases of research told us about what goes on with any particular product and how it goes from the bench to a patient. This ties together all the various types of research to accomplish a common goal ensuring that no one is alone on a particular project and that this may be the model of science in the near future as more and more research in similar fields are being performed. He also emphasises the increasing growth in genomic research. His work on determining whether we can predict if someone will be sick or not by studying their genome, in my opinion, is revolutionary! I am interested in how this could lead to work in figuring out in what part of the genome are people immune or resistant to certain diseases or infections and how we can apply them to other humans reducing disease worldwide. I will be paying close attention to the final 2 speakers this week to learn about more interesting things about what goes on in Duke research and to read and listen about all the posters come Friday to learn about what others in the HHRF have done.
