Amoeba
Sheltzer Lab Research
IAt Cold Spring Harobr, I researched under the direction of Dr. Jason Sheltzer, who earned his PH.D. under the supervision of MIT's Dr. Angelika Amon and eager to help unravel an interesting scientific dilemma--the aneuploidy paradox:
In vitro, cells with extra chromosomes lag behind their peers, growing far slower than cells with normal chromosome counts. Yet, over 90% of tumors show aneuploidy and frequently possess multiple copies of not just one, but many chromosomes. How could aneuploidy, a condition that inhibits cell growth, be so intimately connected to cancer, a disease marked by rapid cell proliferation?
I gained experience in a myriad of techinques including qPCR, RNA and DNA extractions, transductions, transfections, and various cancer-related assays such as the 3T3, sctach assay and soft agar.
Additionally, I potentially helped to solve one piece of the puzzle through the finding that certain cell lines harboring either randomly induced or specific anueploidies repeatedly showed exhibited motility in a wound healing assay.
Preliminary qPCR data suggests upregulation of genes associated with the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), a developmental program implicated in metastasis. Graduate fellows arriving to the lab aim to follow up on these findings and pursue further research in this regard.
Langer Lab Research
During the fall of my freshman year, I worked as an intern for Dr. Robert Langer under the supervision of Benjamin Larson and guidence of technical assistant Miralem Prijac, hoping to assist the laboratory project with exciting potential:
The aim was to optimize the growth of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro.
While working for the Langer Laboratory, I gained tissue culture experience and an introduction to laboratory techinques including various imaging platforms and PCR.