Tag Archives: RF2022-Week1

I definitely felt I needed to include the location of my lab in the title of this first blog post to illustrate the amazing view I have of the Duke Chapel from the space I work in inside the lab area (not to brag:) ).

Long story short, I have very high hopes for the next 7 weeks. Even in these past few days that I have been settling in, I already feel I have done and learned a lot. My two mentors have been very patient with me as I start to learn the ins and outs of the lab and have entrusted me to do a few complicated tasks that I never imagined myself doing in this first week. This is why I expect to gain a large skill set during my time in Dr. Ru-Rong Ji’s lab. Most importantly, I want to contribute as much as possible to the lab and their overall goal in pain research. 

Outside of the lab, however, I do expect to have fun and get to know the Durham area better alongside the new friends that I have made. Making genuine and meaningful connections with colleagues and peers this summer is very important to me to make it a much more fulfilling experience. In any case, I plan to maintain a positive mindset and view it all as a great opportunity to grow as a person

Hi everyone! My name is Amelia and I’m excited to blog about my journey with BSURF. I expect to learn a lot this summer, and grow as both a researcher and a person. 

I am working in the Pearson lab, more specifically with a team that is working on a software called improv. For some basic background, improv is a platform used for adaptive neuroscience experiments. The Pearson lab works in collaboration with other neuroscience labs to collect brain scans, and improv allows for real-time data analysis of neural activity.

Prior to the start of BSURF and working in the Pearson lab, I was apprehensive about my lack of experience with Python and developing software. However, having Week 1 under my belt has eased those nerves and helped shift my mindset to a state of excitement and preparation about the work that lies ahead. From just Week 1, I have already learned so much, and I expect this to be a continuing trend for the next 7 weeks. I have begun maneuvering my way around a Linux command line, I finished installing the improv software, and I am starting to dive into more Python specific tasks. 

Going forward, I foresee a lot of trial and error, and personal devotion to advance my abilities as a coder. It is still intimidating to be a newbie working with very intelligent people on such a cool project. But, I predict that by the end of these 8 weeks, I will feel more confident and proud of the work I’ve done. I am very grateful for BSURF, Dr. Grunwald, Dr. Harrel, and everyone at the Person lab for this amazing opportunity and I am eager to make the most of this summer research experience!

Just to start off with some context, my name’s Vidita, and I’m spending the summer working at the Huang lab. Dr. Huang’s lab works on ovarian cancer cell research. My specific project relates to testing the chemosensitivity of cancer cells when they are in aged fat precursor cells vs when they are in young fat precursor cells, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Since this is my first time working in this lab, or any lab at all, I’ve mainly spent the past week learning the basics. I’ve basically been shadowing my mentor, Lila, as she does her own project and learning from what she’s doing. She’s shown me how to prepare new cell medium, change the medium for a cell culture, trypsinize cell cultures, count cells in culture, and more. Yesterday, I got to trypsinize a cell culture for the first time. Trypsinization is essentially the process of releasing cancer cells from the bottom of the flask that they’re growing on so that they can be frozen down for later use. In all honesty, the process was pretty stressful because since we’re working with cancer cells, they need to stay in a sterile environment. This means making sure everything stays in the hood and having to be incredibly careful about not touching your pipets or tools to the wrong parts of the cell culture flasks. Luckily, my first attempt at trypsinization was a success. I’m really looking forward to getting more familiar and comfortable with these procedures.

This is going to sound pretty trite, but I’m just expecting to learn and experience science in a way that I hadn’t before, by working in this lab. I can’t wait to learn new scientific techniques. I’m excited to work through whatever setbacks may come my way. I’m just interested to see where this experience leads me. I’ve always been interested in reproductive health and healthcare, but I’m not interested in being a clinician. I’m hoping that this experience in a reproductive health lab will help me figure out whether or not I could see myself doing more work like this in the future. I expect to learn more about this side of reproductive health that I hadn’t investigated before. I want to learn more about the various types of tumor cell lines that I’m making and the different chemotherapies they’re using. I’m hoping to get better at reading dense scientific papers. I just want to take advantage of all the experiences this summer throws at me.

What type of experiments will you be conducting? What organisms will you be working with? What will your research be contributing to? 

These were the sorts of questions I received from friends and family in the weeks leading up to the start of B-SURF, and my answers always varied. At the time, it was because I was still a bit unsure myself about what to expect. I could give an overview about the scope of the research being conducted at the Soderling Lab – the focus on neuronal circuits and the neurological disorders driven by genetic mutations affecting protein function – and the techniques implemented there – mouse models and CRISPR-based methods – but in terms of what my daily routine would be, that was wherein the uncertainty lay.

Now, one week into the program, my answers continue to change. And that’s okay. Every day in the lab has been a new experience; one day I will be transferring bacteria cell cultures to new Petri dishes and the next I will be running a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), allowing me to develop skills I can apply for years to come. I have had the opportunity to attend lectures given by visiting scholars and grad students within the Department of Cell Biology at the Medical School, broadening my horizons as to the field of neurobiology. I have made mistakes and asked questions, coming to terms with my gaps in knowledge and areas of improvement. Most importantly, I learn something new everyday, and regardless of how basic or complex the concept, it reminds me of why I decided to apply to B-SURF in the first place. During the next seven weeks, I expect to continue to ask questions and be exposed to new ideas, welcome uncertainty, and be prepared to leave the program with new answers.

I have an irrational fear of all types of bugs, including the illustrious Drosophila, also known as a fruit fly. Upon learning that I would be placed in the Volkan lab, I knew this fear would have to be faced.

What do I expect from my summer research experience? To sum it up, I expect to obtain an appreciation of Drosophila. This appreciation comes from an increase in knowledge and obtaining respect for the fantastic things one can learn from such a small creature. This appreciation also comes from experience in the lab and learning new tools to measure brain development and the impacts of social experiences on the brain. In my first week in the lab, I have already started to obtain this appreciation, and I even found myself speaking highly of the fruit flies and admiring the flies from under a microscope (see below). In addition, by the end of the week, I felt knowledgeable enough to train another graduate student on scoring mating behavior. 

Sexual dimorphism of Drosophila

In addition, I see this summer as an opportunity to also explore different career fields and join a diverse scientific community. I came into Duke with an idea of what I wanted to do after college, but you do not know what options are there for you without trying something new. I am using this opportunity to try something new and have an openness if it does not work out. Just this week, I have accidentally lost flies in the lab, and I expect to make more mistakes–understanding that it is the key to growth as a researcher. On my first day in the lab, I was greeted with excitement which allowed me to feel welcome in the environment. We ended the week with a “celebration” for the new people in the lab and the last day of work for the lab manager. This all allowed me to start to build that sense of community and feeling of belonging in the scientific community. I am excited about many more opportunities to grow, learn, and appreciate Drosophila. 

Female Drosophila under a microscope.

Hi everyone! I am Sid Ghanta and I’m excited to both experience and blog about my summer with BSURF.

This summer I am working with the Varghese Lab, although I have been there for some time now. There, I’ve been learning about and investigating different phenomena in the body using Organ-on-chip models, a method that creates a miniaturized 3-D cell environment mimicking tissues in the body. Moreover, it incorporates microfluidic channels, i.e. extremely tiny channels that allow fluid to move through them, that can be used to simulate movements in the body, such as blood flow or breathing. I’ve worked with numerous types of chips that seek to model areas of the body or different types of cell-cell interactions, each with unique features that aim to mimic different things, or maybe the same thing but in a new way.

I’ve always had an interest in biology and the inner workings of the body. Perhaps it sounds more philosophical than it is, but I was always curious what life was; how was it possible that everything in the body moves the way it does so perfectly and can exist in so many relatively unique forms. Additionally, as a kid, I was always quite handy with taking things apart and putting things together which is where my interest in the more mechanical side of the body was borne. This is what drew me to organ-on-chip research, a model that is so dynamic yet functional, which I hope to use in the near or distant future to investigate oncolytic virology, a long-standing interest of mine.

This summer, I am getting to focus on a specific investigation using this model and I am excited to apply what I have learned and learn some more; I finally feel like I am at the starting line of research after quite a bit of preperation. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what to expect from this because I have never dedicated this much time to the lab, but I know I want to learn and have fun doing it. Fortunately, this summer isn’t limited to just me and the lab, so I’m expecting a great time making new friendships, making new memories, and hopefully, making new discoveries.

Ever since I started learning about molecular biology, I’ve found the approaches in this field interestingly creative. What always amazes me is how scientists were able to find elegant ways of quantifying and measuring big questions from different angles. In addition to learning about the science and the lab techniques, I expect to practice something that’s perhaps more essential — how to think and tackle problems like a researcher. 

An advantage of doing research during the summer is that I actually have time to slow down and just think. One thing I learned during the short time I’ve been in the lab is that a big part of research is planning. This includes asking questions, thinking of ways to operationalize those questions, and designing specific experiments that address different parts of a question. My mentor Rachel’s research is about the interaction between Yersinia pestis (aka the plague) and a transmembrane protein. For the summer, my goal is to help design and study mutants of that transmembrane protein and see how different domains of its extracellular portion contribute to its binding with Y. pestis. There’s a lot of preparation behind every experiment. During the past week, we’ve mostly just been planning for an experiment. To design the ideal protein mutants for the project, we had to first look through literature and see how people have mutated this kind of extracellular domain to study them on other proteins. After that, we had to design several plasmids that express mutated versions of the protein of interest. A lot of effort has gone into just the logistics and designing. I think this is a fun part of research because it involves a lot of brainstorming and discussion. It also makes me even more excited about carrying out the actual experiment next week, as I have a much deeper understanding of the experiment’s proximate and ultimate goals.

I’ve always found biology fascinating, and I’m sure what I do in the future will have something to do with this giant field of biomedical sciences. Therefore, another important goal for the summer, then, is to figure out whether doing basic science research in the academic setting is what I want. So far, I’ve really enjoyed my time at the lab.

Hello, everyone! My name is Rena, and I am so thrilled and honored to be part of BSURF.

The main reason I applied to BSURF was for the exploration component of the program. There are so many opportunities at Duke, and I want to take advantage of them all before deciding any specific pathway and career. I feel like there is no better time to explore than the present, and I feel strongly that BSURF is a step in the right direction for getting my foot in the door and also learning more about new subjects.

I am in an ecosystem and ecotoxicology lab, working heavily with aquatic insects. In just my first week, I have already learned how to identify macroinvertebrates (though I will need to put this into more practice), became an engineer (sort of) with a structure I built with my mentor for subsampling insects, and all about the watersheds around our area and how we can study their different components. And there are still seven more weeks in the program to do more field work and get more experience in dichotomous classification of aquatic macroinvertebrates.

As you can see, I am already learning so much, and this access to and exploration of new knowledge is really what I hope to gain from BSURF – this is what research is to me! Moreover, I have already had so much fun through this program: getting to visit Dr. Grunwald’s house and going to the farmer’s market, and much more to come.

So, all in all, I am looking forward to learning and having fun while I am doing it. I greatly appreciate the opportunity the BSURF gives me for summer research and exploration in that regard.

(Also, if you feel so inclined, look up caddisfly larvae. Their faces are so cute, and some build little houses for themselves!)

My expectation for the summer is to grow a lot. Not only will there be the growth of some friendly (and some not-so-friendly) bacteria at the David Lab, but also the more metaphysical growth of someone starting an entirely new experience.

There are moments this week when I felt that I’d bit off more than I could chew. To be a Duke student- to be part of B-SURF- often relies on exuding a confidence and competence. But thrown into a lab of complicated machines, graduate students rushing about, and a growing list of new techniques to learn, I was reminded of how unfamiliar the world of research was. I’ve had to stomach the idea of being comfortable being uncomfortable. I’ve constantly trying to convince myself: these skilled lab members were undergraduates once and they didn’t know what they were doing any more than me.

The first few days in lab I mostly worked on training modules, a comfortable start to the position. After ensuring I knew not to eat, ignite, or spill our precious samples, I was finally promoted to the classic imagine of a scientist. Adorned in gloves and equipped with my pipette, I spent the day transferring clear liquids between itty-bitty tubes. I swallowed my nerves about messing up and began to enjoy processing samples with a visiting grad student (studying mouse lemurs!) She talked about her path to research and her upcoming trip to Madagascar with other graduate students at the Lemur Center. As we talked and worked she gave me pipetting advice and my own lab mentor explained his process loading the centrifuge and keeping lab notes. We stayed late and loaded one of the now-not-so-complicated machine with the samples. By the end of the day, I was pooped. Though I still feel uncomfortable not understanding all parts of our research process, it was a day of growth for me as I realized my mentors were not expecting me to carry the project and instead allowed me to practice at my level while still aiding in the project.

I feel it in my gut that the people I’m surrounded by (and of course a healthy amount of microbiome-related puns) will guide me to grow into a more competent and more importantly, confident, scientist and person.