Hello!! My name is Astral Heidemann and I am a Biochemistry major! I am transferring from Palomar College to Cal State San Marcos in the fall as a rising sophomore. I am born and raised in San Diego, specifically Escondido. In highschool I had the opportunity to volunteer in a Chemistry lab at CSUSM for two years and I am very lucky to be able to come back and now work in a Biology Lab. This summer I worked with Patricia Byrnes on a project examining how stress affects relative telomere lengths and the rate of telomere loss in South African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) samples from the San Diego Zoo. Telomeres are the protective end caps to DNA that are gradually lost during cell division. Telomere changes are closely connected to cellular aging and age-related diseases. I specifically worked on taking DNA extractions from red blood cell samples of multiple penguin individuals over multiple years, quantifying them on the Nanodrop to obtain concentration. The samples were then run on a monochrome multiplex qPCR (MMqPCR). A MMqPCR has 2 (or more) amplicons, using one fluorescence dye for both amplicons. We then used the Cq values from the MMqPCR to calculate the ∆∆Cq (the change in telomeres over years) and the fold change between years for each individual. My final poster found significant high rates of loss in two specific penguins and I am going to continue expanding data sets, including more individuals as I continue work on the project. My work with Patricia allowed me to visit the Avian Propagation Center (APC) and Beckman Center at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park respectively. I got to see penguin egg membrane extractions and fertilization checks. I also got a tour of the APC where I saw multiple fledgling birds of varying species as well as the machines they work with. The birds were just so adorable! This final week is bittersweet; it's hard to say goodbye to the people I have become close with these last 10 weeks. It’s been a blast showing my roommates around the place where I grew up, showing them my favorite spots and restaurants, and going on fun trips with the rest of the REU such as Pride, the Barbie movie, going to the beach, seeing a Broadway show, making jewelry and many more fun outings. This week rushed by as we prepared for the poster presentation on Friday. During the poster forum it was so to walk around and see everyone else’s posters while we were setting up as well as getting the chance to show the work I have been doing this summer. We finished off by getting a final lunch together at Phò Truc Xanh which is a local family run restaurant I have been going since I was a kid and was one of the first restaurants I showed my roommates. And finally a group of us went to Escogelato Friday night to say our goodbyes to Dr. Read.
This whole summer taught me so much and I can’t wait to use all of the skills I learned this summer for the rest of my schooling and career. I am extremely excited to continue working on this project in the fall and am thankful to have been chosen for this opportunity by Professor Byrnes and to Dr. Read and Dr. Luna-Lopez for running the REU and making experiences like this possible and to my REU cohort for making this such a fun experience!
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Watch this space for weekly updates!Every week, one of our CSUSM NSF REU students will post their blurb, summarizing their week, and chronicling our program. AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2023
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