End of the Year Poster Section

Today (May, 1st 2013) was my last day of internship of the year! Time passed by so fast and I couldn't believe I have come so far! I made aposter and we interns presented our research during lunch today in Kellas Commons. Many people came and we explained our researches to them. Not until I repeated myself over and over again did I realize how much I actually learned. What seemed so incomprehensible back in November now made perfect sense to me:)

A screenshot of my final presentation poster.

That afternoon I went to RPI for the one last time. Eun Ji gave me a general view of some cool stuff she was working on in other labs. Guess what are those?

Frozen bovine (cow) cornea!

On the project on malaria prevention in fetus during pregnancy, Eun Ji was trying to extract and modify a compound from bovine cornea that could bind to specific receptors on placenta to block parasite-encoded variant surface antigens to bind to those receptors and transmit malaria to fetus. Later, I also helped prepare some dye for silver staining that is used widely in protein detection in gel.

In the end, I said goodbye to both Eun Ji and Namita. I really had a wonderful year doing STEM internship at RPI! From the people I worked with, to lab environment, to the actual lab work, it gave me a taste of the life of a scientist. The uppermost thing I would take away from this experience in addition to a plethora of laboratory techniques is the “qualities of a scientist” – precise, robust, patient, inquisitive, inventive, and inspirational. Not everything will yield the result we want, and we just have to keep trying. This experience makes me more certain about my goals. In the future, I would like to participate in more research focusing on molecular biology to enrich my experience and widen my horizon! Last but not the least, I will be working in another lab at Cornell this summer on intracellular communication, which I am very excited about! I will keep posting interesting things and events, so stay tuned!:)

When I grow up...