I am really excited to document my first medical research experience at UC. It is such an incredible opportunity that I have never thought would come to me after my first year in U.S. I will be joing the SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) program through honors program to do research at Cincinnati children's hospital. In this experience, I help Dr.Jing to do research on how to reprogram stem cells into Retinal Ganglion Cells, the cells that without which you won't be able to see. Our lab is really interested in mitochondrial diseases and there is a disease called Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) that is widely seen in a lot of cases with mitochondrial mutation. People with this disease will lose their vision during Adulthood and it usually happen in male. We hope that we can be able to reprogram stem cells into Retinal Ganglion Cells so that in the future we can use this technique to create suitable and normal ganglion cells for patients. I also was able to do research on TBX3 and NARS2 with Dr.Wang during this time too. TBX3 has been proven to have affect on the proliferation and differentiation of stem cell while NARS2 is a gene that we have decided to study more. This is a huge step up from what I usually do in class. This is real research and I am really excited to learn something that is not written in a book. Everything happen in this experience is just so different from what I have imagined. As an assistant in the lab, I was able to work with a lot of people, not just Dr.Jing. I helped out on simple tasks like PCR, cell culture and these are also really cool for me because I have never done these techniques before too. I am like a plank piece of paper happy to be filled with new vocabulary everyday. I understand more about the research system and how everyone makes new knowledge together. It is not a one man job, it is the work of the whole team to bring new knowledge to the world. I am happy to learn and able to help out during the process.
This is the most important experience that I have had so far because it set me on the right track and teach me how to work in a professional environment. I learned everything that I need to be able to do research in this experience and it give me the drive to do more in my next 2 semester with the lab. Every time I look back, I always feel thankful to the honors program for giving me such an invaluable experience.
here is my reflection on this research:
This is the most important experience that I have had so far because it set me on the right track and teach me how to work in a professional environment. I learned everything that I need to be able to do research in this experience and it give me the drive to do more in my next 2 semester with the lab. Every time I look back, I always feel thankful to the honors program for giving me such an invaluable experience.
here is my reflection on this research:
summer_research_reflective_ess_ucdts_20142602054752_1.docx | |
File Size: | 139 kb |
File Type: | docx |