Filled with trepidation, I arrived at the Pittsburgh airport at 4:00 am on June 2. Not only would this be my first flight since I was five years old, but this would be my very first time traveling further west than Ohio. Exhausted, I tried my best to drown out the chatting couples, the cackling group of old friends, and the sound of music seeping from the headphones of the passenger next to me. But I couldn’t sleep, not even a wink. I was teetering on the precipice of new experiences, and I was more than ready to fall.
I arrived at Cal State San Marcos, and the program took off like a high-speed train hurtling down the scientific track of discovery. I began working on the toxin producing cyanobacteria Microcoleus. What we wanted, more than anything, was to extract high quality RNA from our samples. However, it’s hard to achieve that goal when your samples look more and more like strawberry jelly at the passing of each day. That globular mass of cyanobacteria was producing substances that were contaminating our RNA. We tried to handle this in so many ways. The first few times our extractions didn’t work, it was a major disappointment. But, we ultimately became numb to the failure and tirelessly continued searching for a solution that would unlock the toxic secrets held in the RNA. Bam! After eight weeks, we had our breakthrough! Our triumphant cheers were so loud that the next lab over cheered back through the closed door. We began preparing libraries of our samples and running quantitative PCR. Bursting with excitement, we were finally going to sequence our samples. Alas, another setback. Something misfired. Such is the nature of science itself. Discovery and innovation do not exist in a linear plane and research requires failure and persistence. I understand that, now more than ever, my personality aligns with this type of work. As someone that had begrudgingly planned on going to medical school because I had no idea what else I could do with my degree, this was an awesome discovery and experience overall. Thanks to the great mentorship and work environment that I was in during the REU program, I am without a doubt applying to Ph.D. programs. In our final week, we felt the pressure to finish our posters. Although the halls of Science Hall 2 were teeming with the anxiety of an approaching deadline, there was an underlying thread of excitement. After ten weeks of hard work, we would finally get to share the projects that had essentially become the air we were breathing for months. As we set up our posters and the room filled with visitors, the sweaty palms and nervous energy were replaced with animated passion with each new audience that arrived at our posters. The event was truly a success for each REU student personally and for the program as a whole. Over the last ten weeks, I’ve made some great friends, explored quite a bit of southern California, received awesome mentorship, and performed meaningful research on current hot button issue. Although I am sad for the haze of a perfect summer to lift, I am invigorated and empowered moving into my last year of undergrad. This is Allison Sullivan, signing off from summer research and signing on to a future as a scientist.
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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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