Hello everyone, my name is Marvin Onwukwe, and I am a rising senior at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) majoring in Biological Sciences. I have been working under Dr. Jane Kim’s lab, investigating the genetic instability of microsatellite regions of DNA using yeast. The project I had the pleasure of working on involved performing knockouts of genes in the highly manipulable genome of yeast to investigate mutation rates of repeat sequences to gain a better understanding of the currently incurable genetic illness known as Myotonic Dystrophy type 2 and potential therapeutic treatment. Among the myriad of lab skills Dr. Kim and her work had exposed me to, I had the opportunity to develop into a more independent researcher and academic in general having had the experience of working on a project for the first time. I want to emphasize being kind to yourself especially in the first few weeks. Experiments may go wrong, equipment may be unfamiliar, and hiccups in general do happen. That is only a reflection of the fact that you are challenging yourself in a new environment. Even though perfection is ideal, don’t let it be the gateway that allows you to enjoy yourself and what you’re learning in the lab. I am excited to write to you about week 7 which happened to be the week of my 21st Birthday. That week, we were treated to a tour of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a world class facility dedicated to advance our understanding of the earth system and train the next generation of scientific and environmental leaders. As a department of UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for ocean, earth, and atmospheric research. The tour had explained how they make accurate oceanic simulations in large-scale, cleverly controlled environments among many other features. Not only are we exposed to world class facilities and quality preparation for graduate education, in California you genuinely have a higher prevalence/chance of meeting some of your favorite celebrities. On the weekend of my birthday, I had gone to downtown San Diego to celebrate, and I was elated to meet Brian Posehn on the sidewalk by chance. For any of those who watched the show Big Bang Theory, he was the geologist at Cal Tech. I would like to mention that the following week (week 8), I had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles, which is a mere 40-minute Sprinter train from the CSUSM campus to the Oceanside Amtrak ($2.50) and a two-hour Amtrak from there to LAX union station. As part of the McNair scholars’ program at my University in Maryland I was able to join them and meet the CSUSM McNair scholars at our national conference held at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where I presented research and had tremendous networking opportunities and graduate school prep similar to the standard given at this REU experience. I couldn’t recommend this opportunity more! Here is my LinkedIn: Marvin Onwukwe
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories |