More Plasmids? Please!

When we gathered for our first official morning meeting as Howard Hughes Fellows, we were given—in addition to coffee and an immensely appreciated breakfast—a few handfuls of useful advice, encouragement, and assurance about scientific research, its methods, purpose, and benefits. We were especially encouraged to consider what we expect and want to gain from our experiences as members of the program. Although this question seemed difficult to answer as I contemplated it while walking to my lab that first day, this past week has served to reveal what I desire from the coming seven weeks.

I expect a challenge.

Now, before I elaborate, I should elucidate what this past week has entailed. I am working in Dr. Nicolas Buchler’s lab under the direct guidance of Sargis Karapetyan on the development of regulatory gene switches and oscillators in bacteria. Needless as it is to say, I knew little to nothing about what the end of the above sentence meant when I first walked into the lab. The past week, therefore has consisted of a nearly endless cycle of reading, studying, questions, and explanations from Sargis (not to mention my careful yet often unproductive examination of several plasmid maps). At first the going was tough and I struggled to keep up with the theories and scientific jargon common to synthetic biology. But I slowly picked up speed until I had a basic working understanding of our objective, the methods needed to reach it, and the results that we hope to obtain. In other words, I succeeded this past week. And I felt accomplishment along the way. So, to say that I expect a challenge doesn’t quite paint the full picture.

I expect a challenge that I can overcome.

Let me expand on this. Scientific research is a brain-straining, time-intensive, and laborious pursuit that requires dedication and a deep familiarity with the subject under investigation. As such, I expect to feel a little in-over-my-head at times. Not in a desperate, “this is impossible” way, but as a pleasant reaction to the vast amounts of knowledge, skills, and experience that wait for me in the coming weeks. As I have said, building a working level of knowledge on the particular subject of regulatory genes in bacterial plasmids, let alone the rest of molecular and microbiology, has already proven difficult. I’ve read several papers of which I understood approximately 25% on first reading. Now, however, I understand them almost completely. I’ve also become competent with plasmid mapping programs that, at first, made my head spin (one very specific goal I have for the summer is to become a master of SnapGene and SeqBuilder). Because of these small, but important steps forward, I also expect that I will build a working understanding of the knowledge necessary to pursue my project. But more generally, I expect to learn about the scientific process—from idea development and project planning to execution, analysis, and presentation of the results. I expect these things not because I believe the specific outcomes of this project will be indispensable to my future, but because mastering both theory and method would mean that this program has helped me start thinking and learning like a scientist. In light of this, my general expectation can be extended once more.

I expect a plasmid-filled challenge that I can overcome and benefit from.

Finally, I expect to better understand what I will call “the people side of science” by the end of my eight weeks in Dr. Buchler’s lab. Science is by necessity a collaborative effort, so being able to interact effectively with peers (who are tremendous sources of knowledge and experience) and to contribute meaningfully to the group’s ideas and knowledge is an essential skill for a scientist. I, for instance, would sill be stumbling around in the dark were it not for Sargis, who not only supplies me continuously with the background knowledge that I need but has also helped to steer my project in a meaningful direction. Without his guidance and experience, many flaws and overlooked complications (not to mention an important pair of poorly-selected primers) would have gone unnoticed. More than anything, I have enjoyed learning from him, picking his brain, and reveling in his intellectual fervor (he, for instance, has completely changed for the better my opinion of scotch tape as a tool with a short anecdote about its centrality in the creation of graphene). By the time I leave in late July, I hope to have built a strong relationship with him, Dr. Buchler, and the rest of the members of the Buchler lab. In other words…

I expect a plasmid-filled challenge that, with the help of others, I can overcome and benefit from.

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