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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Hi everyone! My name is Janelle Mande, I am a rising senior from California State University Stanislaus, and a Biology major, minoring in Chemistry and Sociology :) This Summer, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Dr. Jane Kim, investigating molecular mechanisms that are responsible for genetic instability, or a change of length in DNA, of long CCTG repeat regions using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or budding yeast, as our model organism. The reason why we’re so interested in these repeats is because they have the potential to cause human diseases, such as Huntington’s and Myotonic Dystrophy, yet little is known about tetranucleotide repeats in particular. My personal project involved investigating the role of transcription on CCTG DNA repeat large-scale contractions, and the most gratifying feeling I've experienced in the Kim lab is the fact that I'm actually applying what I've learned from previous semesters. My love for Biology has absolutely been reinforced with this lab, and I can’t wait to apply what I learned to future endeavors 😊 As we approach the end of the program, I realize that I have a lot to reflect on. Prior to this internship, I actually wasn’t aware that the REU program existed until the last application cycle ended. At the time, I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted to pursue a PhD or not, but then I slowly settled on the idea of potentially pursuing one. The moment this application cycle approached, I was more than determined to apply for this Summer. Then lo and behold I got accepted into CSU San Marcos 😳 There was only ever one goal I had being a part of this program: to learn. Every day for the past 9 weeks, that’s all I’ve been doing- learning, and it amazes me that there’s still so much more I want to explore after this program ends. Research aside; however, I've done my fair share of exploring Southern California. Sprinkled across the weeks, I’ve tagged along and explored lots of places: the Salton Sea basked in heat, the cool Iron Mountain trail, and the luscious green Escondido Creek. During down time, I’ve visited Downtown San Diego, walked through the throngs of the Sunset Market at Oceanside, and explored Koreatown and Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. If you're not a local, and especially if you're not from California, I highly recommend taking the time to hang out with members of the cohort. Hanging out with folks from the cohort, if anything, has taught me how valuable it is making connections. ‘Connection’ was the staple theme I thought of when my wonderful lab partner, Maya Qaddourah, and I designed the logo for our REU sweaters. Integrated through our DNA, and in life itself, connections are important in molding who you are as a person. Needless to say, I’ll be taking a piece of everyone I’ve met in this program with me when the end comes. (And as for the folks who put effort into striking a conversation with me, you hold a special place in my heart ❤️) But alas, just as week nine draws to a close, the end feels bittersweet. It's so surreal weaving together the details of my research onto a single poster. It really puts into perspective how much hard work and effort I dedicated to the entirety of this program. I still recall the first week, and the parting words Dr. Read left us before we scattered to hunt our labs down. You really do blink, and ten weeks pass without you realizing it. To future REU cohorts, a few parting words: the hardest part is starting. Believe me, it can be tough at times. You'll naturally mess up procedures, forget to remind your PI you ran out of reagents, and the imposter syndrome will always linger. I hate to admit it, but there will even be times you feel viscerally lonely. Whether you make mistakes or feel unsatisfied with the results of your experiment, don't doubt that you're still a self-discovering scientist and learned something new. Just trust the process 🌱 Here’s my LinkedIn if you’d like to reach out to me: linkedin.com/in/jmande07 Hello from August! My name is Teresa Cajina and I am a rising senior at the University of Rochester based in Rochester, NY. I’m a declared Biochemistry major with a Certificate in Biotechnology looking forward to applying to graduate school after the end of the REU program. I grew up in a small town in New Jersey which is 5 minutes away from New York City, making me somewhat bias to the East Coast life. That being said, this program gave me the chance to visit California for the first time and there’s no other way I would’ve wanted to experience Southern California without this wholesome cohort and mentors! This week I had the opportunity to discover the Thursday night market at Oceanside (with my roommate Janelle) and adventure around Los Angeles (with Janelle and Gracie)! The first is a hands-down must for all newcomers since its accessible by the Sprinter (the light rail that has a station right next to the CSUSM University Village Apartments which is where we live during the program) and a ride only costs $2.50! Something I learned about California is that not having a car can be a major limitation in doing activities and trying out new places to eat so I highly recommend taking advantage of the Sprinter to visit Vista and Oceanside. If you do go to LA I recommend going to Porto’s bakery in Glendale first for morning breakfast since they have papa rellenas (potato balls), guava pastries and many more small eats for all taste buds priced A DOLLAR EACH! Yes, a dollar! After Porto’s my favorite spot was the Sanrio Village in Little Tokyo because it was the cutest area for the best photos and had some amazing independent-artist vendors nearby selling art, stationery, clothes and more! It is also where I had some of the best bread from Okayama Kobo bakery. Sadly, the trip was not so great at the end because the Amtrak train back to San Diego was delay by two hours due to a ‘trespasser strike’ in Anaheim so it took 5 hours in total to return to the dorms ;( Back to the research, I am currently working in the Dr. Luna lab focusing on microscopy and cell morphology of spheroids comprised of breast cancer and preadipocyte fat cells. Established in the literature, preadipocyte cells have been shown to transition between mesenchymal and epithelial states with no distinctive reasoning as to why and in the presence of breast cancer have been alluded to possibly altering the invasive properties of cancer. The lab works with both brown and white preadipocyte fat lines to observe any differences in cancer behavior. I specifically focus on the cell culture of maintaining these spheroids at different seeding densities and imaging them under 24-hour timelapses. Recently, I’ve done immunostaining with KI67 antibodies to measure proliferation within these spheroids as another means of finding factors that may influence cell structure and communication. We have two cancer lines in the lab currently called MDA-MD-231-ECADH-GFP and MCF-7-GFP which allow us to explore cancer that is not only triple negative but also fluoresce the e-cadherin protein emphasizing increased cell-cell membrane communication. I’ve had an incredible experience developing the project under Dr. Luna’s guidance that the lab was able to integrate Python programming to measure cell count and fluorescence intensity in the images making data analysis more efficient! I hope all readers have the chance to participate in a research program like the one offered at CSUSM as you’ll leave completely enriched with new friends, experiences, and life lessons! |
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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