I was extremely lucky to have a connection to a graduate student, Stefan Zdraljevic, working on interesting and groundbreaking research. As a high-school student contributing to graduate research, one thing I regretted both internships was my lack of knowledge in molecular biology and genetics. Having more background on these subjects would have made my experience both more useful and more enjoyable (I would not have been lost, as I mostly was). Despite the challenges I faced, I learned about lab research and the general procedures that will sustain me as I pursue lab science during my undergraduate years. Below is documentation formed during and after both my internships, each of which contains the protocols of the research and the results. During my Fall internship, I spent about 2 weeks with inconsistent hours. Generally from 9-10AM to 6-10PM (Zdraljevic started at 4AM and stayed until midnight). Summer was much more consistent, as I worked a consistent 40 hour week (9AM-5PM).
2015 Fall Internship (2 weeks)
Working with Stefan Zdraljevic, he and I worked to determine what genes potentially contribute to C. elegans responses to chemotherapeutics. As a result, we discovered 19 quantitative trait loci (QTL)--areas of the genome that may hold the causal gene.
2016 Summer Breakups (6 weeks)
The overall goal for Stefan Zdraljevic, acting supervisor, and his 3 summer interns. An intensive project requiring polymerase-chain reactions (PCRs), picking worms, and crossing C. elegans strains in order to create nearly isogenic lines (NILs). After the interns left, Zdraljevic used the NILs in a different protocol used for the original C. elegans strains.
As a final project, two other interns and I were to report back to the lab during a lab meeting. This is the report we gave.