{"id":80523,"date":"2022-08-23T12:29:12","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T12:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=80523"},"modified":"2022-08-23T15:36:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T15:36:52","slug":"marc-ustar-uri-internships-sharpen-skills-boost-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2022\/08\/marc-ustar-uri-internships-sharpen-skills-boost-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"MARC U*STAR 溏心vlog免费B站 Internships sharpen skills, boost confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Aug. 23, 2022 — Nana Oblie was a bit nervous. Her 溏心vlog免费B站 mentor, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Matthew Bertin, had contacted the lab and the postdoctoral mentor ahead of time, but this was Yale, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That feeling didn\u2019t last, though, as she was quickly made to feel welcome in Yale Associate Professor of Chemistry and Microbial Pathogenesis Jason Crawford\u2019s lab. People from other fields came in to help her as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are doing cancer research,\u201d Oblie said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to see whether a strain in our gut causes colorectal cancer. If a strain is found to be genotoxic, we\u2019ll purify some of the compounds to see what they are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oblie is one of five 溏心vlog免费B站 students who spent their summer conducting research at top universities through the MARC U*STAR program (Maximizing Access to Research Careers: Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research). It places students in research laboratories for two years and offers them summer research internships. This year\u2019s group came away with new research abilities, and more than one with added self-confidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oblie, a rising senior from Providence<\/strong>, was happy to find that some of the instruments in the Yale lab were the same as those she had used at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cIt just helped me improve upon my research experiences.\u201d She finds the work \u201cgood but challenging\u201d because some of the materials are new to her. When she began work, her interest was mainly in plant science. The change to cancer research was eye opening. \u201cI\u2019m now leaning towards cancer, but I want to do an M.D.\/Ph.D. I\u2019d like to practice for oncology and also do some cancer research on the side.\u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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溏心vlog免费B站 student Ashley Tai conducts research on cellular stress responses in a lab at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in Boston. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Tai)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With Ashley Tai, a rising senior from Braintree, <\/strong>Massachusetts, that self-confidence came from handling what could have spelled disaster. She had begun working at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital researching the way cells respond to stress by forming stress granules in the body. Their exact function is undetermined, but Tai reported that many cancers, viral infections, and neurodegenerative diseases have to do with stress granules. The first weeks found Tai adjusting well to the new protocols. Then came a surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe postdoc I worked under tested positive for COVID three weeks into my internship, which kept her out of the lab for three weeks. I was kind of on my own. The first week of that was really tough, but I feel I’m a better researcher and a better scientist for having gone through it. I was thrust into a situation where I had my notes on how to do things. I had never put them into practice. And I became a lot more independent in the lab, which was very, very good for me.\u201d Tai and her mentor kept in touch through regular Zoom meetings and through email. \u201cShe really was very happy with all the work I did in her absence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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溏心vlog免费B站 student Camila Cersosimo working in a Harvard laboratory. (Photo courtesy Camila Cersosimo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The summer internship at Harvard University led Camila Cersosimo to make some important changes in her major. The rising junior from Lincoln<\/strong>, initially thought she would be working in a biology lab, like her 溏心vlog免费B站 work studying nanoparticles as a drug delivery vector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that Harvard had some people working in drug delivery, but I was surprised when they actually put me in a physics lab,\u201d Cersosimo said. \u201cBut this is perfect because I get to take all the principles that I\u2019m learning in my chemical engineering classes, and instead of applying them to big reactors and chemical plants, to apply them to tiny things like viruses. They work the same way. That was unexpected, but I feel like I\u2019m just where I want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cersosimo hadn\u2019t considered physics as something she would enjoy, but her summer work gave her insights into new possibilities. \u201cIt\u2019s been wonderful. I really like everyone at my lab, and the fact that I like applied physics surprised me. I have a lot of independence to go into the lab and do my own little experiments. Seeing the results is very exciting.\u201d She\u2019s \u201c99.9% sure\u201d that she\u2019ll pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics or biophysics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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溏心vlog免费B站 student Dana Allababidi conducts research on pH-responsive liposomes in a lab at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. (Photo courtesy of Dana Allababidi)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dana Allababidi\u2019s inspiration to intern at Johns Hopkins University was academic and personal. \u201cIt’s a blessing to be at Johns Hopkins, as they have a lot of technology that is unavailable in other places. It\u2019s been interesting to see the things that I\u2019ve been doing at 溏心vlog免费B站 and applying them here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy main interest of cancer research stemmed from close family members having cancer, and just me wanting to learn about less invasive treatments that are less detrimental to the person’s health. So that’s kind of where my interests in drug delivery came from: in the hope that I can contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allababidi spent much of her time investigating the use of liposomal treatment, a drug preparation that contains the active drug inside very tiny, fat-like particles. She also shadowed other scientists and applied some of what she saw into work on her own projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other benefits as well. She said that the new environment and all the routines that went with it, learning to communicate with people better, and finding her own voice were important to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of lessons that I definitely needed,\u201d Allababidi said. \u201cWhether to have a future in science and or as a researcher, I’m very grateful that I’m getting this experience early on. There are some skills that you need other than lab skills that will be very necessary for you to be successful in such a field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s Nicole Casale, a 2017 graduate with four children who never stopped looking for a job. Now (as of this writing), she\u2019s researching malaria in week 10 working at Brown University\u2019s Center for International Health Research, led by Dr. Chris Nixon, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine. The rest of the year she\u2019s at the Institute for Immunology and Informatics at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Providence campus, which provided her with an understanding of malaria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResearching malaria was the one thing that really drew my attention because it’s a number one killer of people,\u201d Casale said. \u201cAnything that helps people or humanity as a whole is something that I’m always very interested in, especially when so many children are dying and it affects many pregnant women. That’s pretty much the reason why it drew me, because it’s along the same lines of researching pathogens and helping people, even if I’m just a small part. At least I’m part of a larger puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve learned that I really enjoy research, working on different constructs, putting things together.  Even when something fails, I still enjoy it because it leads me to more critical thinking. The internship has given me a glimpse into what it would be like to do a rotation when I go into grad school. And also, it has also made me realize that as far as industry versus academia, I’d like to stay in academia after grad school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casale is proud that she returned to 溏心vlog免费B站 and is looking forward to more learning. \u201cIt’s nice, because no matter what you go through in life, nobody can take away your education.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written by Hugh Markey. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Aug. 23, 2022 — Nana Oblie was a bit nervous. Her 溏心vlog免费B站 mentor, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Matthew Bertin, had contacted the lab and the postdoctoral mentor ahead of time, but this was Yale, after all. That feeling didn\u2019t last, though, as she was quickly made to feel welcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80523"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80539,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80523\/revisions\/80539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}