Hi :) My name is Aya Margraf, and I am a rising senior at Lewis & Clark University majoring in biology and minoring in Japanese. This summer, I have had the exciting opportunity to take part in Dr. Carlos Luna-Lopez’s breast cancer research. I have been working with two epithelial human breast cancer lines, the MCF7/GFP line, which contains ideal, in-vivo characteristics particular to the mammary epithelium, and the ECADH/GFP line, a particularly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cell line. Along with two of my REU labmates, we have been investigating how different types of fat cells, white and brown pre-adipocytes, affect the behavior of cancer cells. For my project, I have been using biotunable frequency assembly as a cytocompatible, “bottom-up” tissue engineering technique to assemble cell spheroids, or three-dimensional cell aggregates, into tightly packed organoids. This incredibly efficient, scaffold-free method has allowed me to organize multiple assemblies of breast and fat cell organoids in a matter of seconds, mimicking native tissue to examine movement and behavior of cancer cells in the presence of host adipocytes. I have also spent alot of time using 24-hour timelapse FITC imaging, as well as challenging myself to some python coding to quantify and visually mark cell migration in various organoid organizations over time. In the midst of this all, my labmates and I have been able to properly familiarize ourselves with the routine work of cell passaging, sterilizing, technical difficulties, and laughter-inducing bits. While being blessed with some wonderful PIs, we have also had the privilege of being introduced and connected to the work of various professors and graduates students, the impressive research facilities and graduate schools in San Diego, and incredibly valuable mentor advice to navigate and enlighten us on the potential avenues up ahead. I have also acquired loads of San Diego sun! I have combed through the running trails around here, climbed in Carlsbad and Oceanside, played beach volleyball, attempted to surf on a day of no surf, paddled out in a kayak with Dr. Read at the Salton Sea, and hiked Moonlight trail to see the supermoon, a rattlesnake, and a tarantula. I also can't fail to mention that the Luna lab has never missed taco tuesdays. Never... The program is nearing its end, and gears are switching into poster presentations mode, but I have been exposed to so much this summer and have been very grateful to have been able take part in the REU at CSUSM!
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Hi everyone!!!! My name is Maya Qaddourah and I am currently going into my 3rd year as a Biochemistry major here at CSUSM! My goal at the moment is to enter an MD program, hopefully somewhere in California, to eventually pursue plastic surgery/dermatology.
I have the pleasure to be working in Dr. Jane Kim’s lab, which is focused on tetranucleotide repeats, specifically CCTG nucleotides, and exploring the molecular mechanisms that may cause Myotonic Dystrophy type 2. I am currently investigating the role of Mismatch Repair (MMR) on CCTG repeat instability. I work together with my lab partner Janelle, who is also an REU student (look forward to her blog post, she has week 9!) MMR has its own set of proteins that work together to recognize small base-base mismatches, Msh2 and Msh6, and larger secondary structures, Msh2 and Msh3. Using the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the model organism, repeat lengths were monitored via Polymerase Chain Reactions to investigate the role of the MMR genes and their contribution to DNA repair on these CCTG repeats. We investigated the role of the DNA repair genes by knocking one out to see its effect on instability frequency. We started our week off by completing a fluctuation assay, which was able to give us the mutation rate of these contractions. We streaked 72 plates, which was not easy at all TT. My lab partner and I still had fun! We set them in the incubator to be able to count them after 72 hours. We use yeast as our model organism as it is easily manipulatable and cost-effective. My favorite part of the day is when I open the incubator to grab my projects and suddenly the lab smells like a bakery due to the yeast! Really makes me want bread….. As our week went on, we had the pleasure of visiting a few labs on the UCSD campus! We met so many awesome people and were able to tour some amazing labs. I was happy as we were able to walk into the UCSD School of Medicine, which is actually my dream school! I was really excited to see it in person and it did not disappoint. We also went down to Escondido Creek to collect some samples from the water. It was my first time visiting the creek and I was so happy to see all the nature and running water. It was so beautiful to see, especially first thing in the morning. In my free time, you will probably never catch me alone as I am always hanging out with my best friend Ileen! We do everything together like grocery shopping, working out, to watching tv. We like to go out and spend money (even though we're both broke) but that's what makes spending money even more fun. Overall, I have had so much fun in this program and I have learned more in these few weeks than I have in certain semesters! I am excited about what is yet to come in this program! |
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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