Tell us about a typical day at your co-op.  How do you spend your time?  What motivates you to do this work?

My motivation for this work is the faith that the research I do will eventually lead to improving the lives of others. I also find the work interesting, and with each discovery I learn more about the the world, and this is a strong motivation as well. My typical day in the lab begins with cell culture. Once my cells are taken care of for the day, I choose how to sturcture my time for the rest of the day. Many days I am planning for upcoming experiments, doing calculations or researching protocols. Often I will be running experiments on the benchtop. Recently I have been performing Recombinase Polymerase Amplification, a method of isothermal DNA amplification. I am optimizing this process to amplify HPV DNA for our detection assay. Each day I try to set aside time to read relevant literature to stay up to date on developments in the field. Each week I attend our lab meeting run by the PIs. These meetings are valuable for me as I hear updates on results and progress from many groups in the lab, some I work with directly and some I do not. 

In what ways is CaNCURE contributing to your personal and         professional learning objectives?

My goal is to earn my Ph.D. and to continue working in academia and eventually work my way up to PI. My objectives for this co-op experience are to prepare for my journey through academia and to make myself a outstanding candiate for a strong graduate program. Most importantly, I hope to develop ideas for my graduate work. In my lab, I work alongside graduate students, post docs, faculty, and other lab staff. Seeing the day to day life of each member of the and being a part of the team has given me a good idea of the structure of my future life. Importantly, it has forced me to come face to face with the challenges involved, and also to watch other work through them and work through these challenges myself. As for lab skills that I have been learning on the job, I have learned and practiced cell culture, PCR, and experimental design, optimizaiton and trouble shooting. I have been able to observe weekly as different groups within our lab work through the processes of academic paper writing, submission, and review. Going into graduate school, I will have mastery of these skills which will allow me to preform my best right away. 

Describe a challenge you have encountered during your co-op.  How did you approach it?  What did you learn from it?

Currently, I am attempting to optimize an isothermal DNA amplification technique called Recombinase Polymerase Amplification to amplify high risk HPV DNA sequences This is a relatively new method and is not as standardized as PCR. The benefit of this method is that it does not require an expensive thermocycler like PCR. RPA is also much quicker, which decreases our overall assay time. However, I am currently facing many challenges with RPA. I found that the method I am used to using for visualizing results, gel electrophoresis, may not be the best tool in this case. This has forced me to move out of my comfort zone and explore new solutions. Learning a new process to test confirm results has been difficult, and the new process has not yet worked for me. I am now trouble-shooting the new process. Trouble-shooting can be frustrating and time consuming. However, these challenges are forcing me to be creative in looking for new ways of doing things. These challenges also give me a chance to re-evaluate the way I do things. This critical thinking ultimately improves all the work I do in the lab. 

What opportunities have you had during your co-op to apply skills and/or knowledge that you learned in the classroom?

In the spring semester of my third year, one of my classes was Cellular Engineering. In this class we learned theoretically how to amplify DNA using PCR as well as how to design and optimize primers for PCR. The assay I am developing is based on DNA, so amplification is crucial. I took what I learned in the classroom and used it to design, order and amplify DNA for my assay. In Cellular Engineering I learned how to search primer sequences using the NCBI database, and how to make hypotheses about which primers would preform better than others. I used these what I learned in lessons to design a PCR assay for high risk HPV types. I then extrapolated what I knew about PCR and applied it to an isothermal amplification technique known as RPA. 

Describe an ideal future co-op experience.  How will it be different from and/or build upon your CaNCURE experience?

My dream for my third co-op is to take the HPV detection device I have developed  to Botswana, where my lab has a partnership with a field hospital, and do HPV screening on patient samples there. I have developed the detection assay over the past six months. The next step is to use my engineering skills to integrate this biological assay into a user friendly, portable and affordable device. I will be continuing this work during the Spring 2018 semester for Northeastern course credit. If I meet this goal, I can take the project to the level of clinical sample testing in the field during my third co-op. 

CaNCURE is a Northeastern University and Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center

 partnership funded by the National Cancer Institute