Paola's summer research experience at UCSF

Hello fellow marchies,

My name is Paola Castro. I'd like start by saying that my summer experience at UCSF was absolutely amazing.
I was part of the SRTP (Summer Research Training Program) at UCSF. I had the pleasure to work in the laboratory of Dr. Cynthia Kenyon who is part of the biophysics and biochemisty department at UCSF. On the day to day basis, I was delighted to work with Dr. Della David. Della was a great mentor whose enthusiasm for science was contagious. Della focuses her studies in protein aggregation. I had the opportunity to work on two projects using the fabulous Caenorhabditis elegans model. One of the them consisted in studying the interaction between proteins with a propensity to aggregate with age and proteins that aggregate because of the presence of a polyglutamine expansion. In the second project, I studied the role of the proteasome in protein aggregation.
At the end of the program I not only had to present a poster but also give a 12 minute talk about the research done throughout the summer. Giving the talk was a really good experience.

Now on the non-science part of things, San Francisco was amazing. The dorm all us kids in the program were staying at, which belonged to USF, was accross the city from the UCSF campus I did my research. For this reason we had to use public transportation accross the city everyday. I am happy to say that am very comfortable getting around the city.
Thanks for reading,

Paola Castro