Ivan Flores Blog 2

Research has been going well so far. I am continuing to trouble shoot my cell culturing experiments by collecting cells on coverslips at different time points to be assayed for differentiation. At the same time, I have also begun to study the effect that IL-10 has on the transcription factor MyoD on quadricep muscle in vivo. This approach comes from qPCR data showing that MyoD is upregulated in IL-10 treated mice. Hopefully, everything goes well and the data I collect shows positive results. Other than research, I am still studying for the GRE and become more inspired to be accepted to graduate school. The mentoring on personal statement writing and advice that is given at the seminars greatly help with planning for graduate school early on. 

Brian Perez Blog 2

Just hanging out by one of the many
Stanford fountains

It is now the start of the fourth week of the Stanford Summer Research Program and I have now ordered everything I need in order to conduct quantitative PCR which will give my project on cardioprotection new data to analyze. I have also taught a high school student to conduct CPK assays which I think was a good teaching experience for me. I am still working on mastering the western blot techniques so that I can then obtain more data for my project. By the end of the week I will attend this year’s Amgen Scholars U.S. Symposium held at UCLA! I will be coming back home for the weekend, so I will have a chance to hello to some friends of mine.

This last weekend I also celebrated my birthday. I was fortunate enough that my family came to visit me all the way from Riverside. It was great to see my family again. We spent the day touring Stanford’s campus and then went to check out the Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco.

  

At the Golden Gate Bridge!





On the 4th floor of Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge Building (LKSC)





 



Brian Perez Blog 1

At the Oval, Stanford Univ.

My new summer research experience at Stanford looks promising. The first few days it rained all day, not what I expected for summer weather. The general climate here is much cooler that Los Angeles which I totally love.   Do not want to be too hot over the summer. The first week was very busy, so many orientations and ice-breakers, but it was worth it. I feel much closer to my new roommates who I am sharing a house with. During the end of the first week, the Stanford Summer Research Program took us on a scavenger hunt in San Francisco. It was great! The next day many of us from the program went to attend the Pride Parade held on Sunday which was also lots of fun. I finally got to see the amazing city.


I feel like I am going to learn a lot from this summer in the lab doing research and also about improving my professional skills. I am working in a lab that works with proteins and making peptides for pharmaceutical purposes. My project specifically focuses on new drug discovery aimed at protecting heart tissue during a heart attack. I am also going to be learning many new techniques that I am not familiar with that are essential in almost every lab like Western blots and cell culturing techniques. I have also been giving the opportunity to set up protocols for new experiments that the lab does not do, so the experience will be interesting since no one here really knows what to expect.

Some of my new friends on a tour of Stanford Univ.

Hanging out at San Francisco by the ocean!

 

Richard Flores Blog 2

Oh science....this week made me think of a quote I was told by my up and coming scientist buddy Jamie, it goes: “Science-if your experiment works the first time around, you’re not doing it right.” That sums up my week. I spend an entire week writing and testing the protocol for my experiment, Novel Object Recognition. It has never been done by anyone in my lab so I’m in charge of figuring it out. I was careful to make sure I had everything perfect.

Finally, after a week of preparations, I did my first ‘real’ test  in which I would actually collect data. Of course, it did not go as planned. The camera was having difficulty tracking the mice, the mice were running around as if they had never seen the arena (completely ignoring the objects), and the software was switching around parameters at random. Thus, I’ve spent this week reviewing my protocol with a fine toothed comb. Even though I was very distraught at my failed experiment, I remain optimistic that when I re-test it on Saturday, everything will go according to plan!

Ivan Flores Blog 1

My summer research has had a great start. This summer I am staying in my regular lab, working on getting more data for my research. Currently, I am in the middle of trouble shooting a few techniques that will be necessary for me to complete the in vitro portions of my project. The trouble shooting has been fun so far, since I have had to learn new techniques. These techniques include culturing cells on cover slips as well as collecting cells for creating kinase assays. Apart from doing research, I have also started taking GRE preparation classes. The classes add a new and fun challenge to balancing my time this summer. I have met new friends in the class, making it more enticing to attend each class. Hopefully the summer will continue being as great as it is now. Obtaining good results and doing well on the GRE exam will make the work thus far worth it.

Walter Hardesty Blog 1

Hey everybody!

 

My name is Walter Hardesty and I am beginning my fourth-year as an MIMG major. I’m one of the new MARCers, and am excited for a productive summer of research in Dr. Kent Hill’s Lab who works with Trypanosoma brucei. For those of you who are curious, T. brucei is a unicellular, eukaryotic parasite that causes a devastating disease in humans called African Sleeping Sickness. My work has been centered on a protein called carbonic anhydrase and its role in social motility. I am investigating its role by performing social motility assays on carbonic anhydrase knockdown lines at different levels of carbon dioxide, and seeing what happens!

 

Here’s what the assay looks like for a plate inoculated with cells and incubated at atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide:



 

How cool is that! Anyway, that’s just a taste of the work I will be doing this summer in the Hill Lab. Besides lab work, I’m also having a great time working with the other graduate students and post docs. My mentor, Edwin Saada, is great. He always pays close attention to my work in the lab in an effort to guide me on my path. I can’t wait until he teaches me a new technique in the lab called immunofluorescence!

 

Dr. Kent Hill is also terrific! He’s in his office in the lab nearly 3-4 times a week, which is a whopping amount of time (compared to what I’ve heard about other P.I.’s). We have meetings once in a while where he provides me with direction in my project. All in all, his help and support are excessive, and it feels great to know that I am at the forefront of science, alongside one of the leading scientists in trypanosome biology!

 

Until next time, later guys!

Here’s me at the lab! Keepin’ it reallllllll.

 



Julio Silva Blog 1

Hi everyone!
 
My name is Julio Silva. I’m a Biochemistry major and I’ll be starting my senior year and my second year of MARC this coming fall at UCLA. Like other MARC-ers, I am also in Cambridge/Boston, MA under the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP).

 
This week will mark the fifth week of my summer experience and I must say that it has so far been scientific heaven! I am doing HIV research at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard. The institute is a collaborative partnership between these three institutions and does cutting edge HIV research with the goal of effectively eradicating the AIDS epidemic. I’m doing my research in Dr. Bruce Walker’s lab, director of the Ragon Institute. My project is on the role of miRNAs during acute HIV infection, particularly their role in causing large bystander CD4T-cell (the target white blood cell of HIV) depletion.  I’m learning a lot of cool techniques, like flow cytometry and many miRNA-based techniques and I’m working with fresh human tissue that is sent to us straight from MGH! My results have so far been promising and my experience in general is amazing! The collaboration between these institutions and from the people that work here is one of the things that make this place so great. It’s like a giant team effort that comes from several arms to reach an ultimately unifying goal. The type of work that gets done here, even my own work, could not get done so efficiently if this type of collaboration did not exist.  My direct mentor, Dr. Juan Cubillos, too has taught me so much within these four weeks and has given me an enormous amount of his time. I am very grateful to have him.

 

I’ve also had the opportunity to go on rounds with Dr. Walker at MGH and I was able to see some amazing cases and even rare diseases like Gorham’s disease, a vanishing bone disease.  He treated me like a med student and he taught me some valuable, essential information about what it means to be a doctor. His patients love him because he profoundly cares about them. He goes on several trips to South Africa as well every year and I casually mentioned my interest in going there perhaps for next summer…. We’ll see how this turns out :)

Well, time to get back to figuring out why I suddenly got an increased amount of CD4 T-cells nine days after infection compared to day 3…. I think I must have gated wrong the first time… :(

I’ll share more soon!

Julio

Taylor Brown Blog 3

Hello Everyone,

 So I attempted cloning again to try and get an insert for 2 of my mutants and the wildtype RRM2, hoping that the third time was the charm. However after the letdown of Cloning attempts 1 and 2 (Cloning attempt 1= only 1 out of 3 of the inserts in bacteria; Cloning attempt 2= no inserts/bacteria!), I packed my bag for the beach this morning, with the intention of checking to see if I had bacterial colonies from my cloning and if there were none (which was the case the last time) I was going to do my labwork (work on assignments due for the MARC program as well as reading scientific papers) on the beach. Win-win situation, right? I thought so. So I walk into lab, and then to the common equipment room where I let my bacterial plates incubate overnight, telling myself that if I didn’t get colonies this time, it’s okay, I’ll get them next time and at least I get to enjoy the beach…and Wah-Lah!!! I had colonies on all of my plates, and none on the ligation control plate, which is EXACTLY what I was hoping for!!! (here is a very fuzzy picture of my plates haha…basically I got bacterial colonies and could proceed to the next step!....New phone with a better camera coming soon! lol)

 So I excitedly texted BJ, my mentor, (oh I didn’t show you a picture of us huh? Here you go haha)

 









Anyway, I excitedly texted him saying I got colonies, and he gave me the okay to go to the next step (he was on his way to lab). So today, I’ve been busy picking colonies, doing colony PCR, and I just finished loading my gel…We’ll see if the colonies I picked have an insert! I really hope so, because if they do it’s on to a miniprep and then sequencing to REALLY confirm that I did my cloning correctly; wish me luck! :D

 

P.S…after my gel is finished running, I’ll post the picture on here(:

 

That’s what I was looking for guys!!! ^ (not the circle; the bright bands). I’m so excited! Progress is being made! :DThanks for sharing my excitement :) I’ll write again soon!

-Tay

Taylor Brown Blog 2

Hello Readers! :)

Well, I’ve officially been in the MARC Research Summer Program for a week and a day! Boy has it been a ride (in a good way)….and it’s only just started! I’ve met so many cool people (and several of them are from out of state); that’ll be me next year! I’m excited! I should start thinking about where I want to go for the summer…hmmm….but anyway back to the program!
We had a “Considering Graduate School” Workshop with Dr. Simmons last week on Tuesday, and I found it very helpful! It’s nice to have a timeline of when everything should be completed, as well as the guidelines for the documents you have to submit with your graduate school application. I will definitely be using the handout as a reference!

When I’m not in a Workshop or eating lunch, most of the time I’m in…hah well where do you think? 40 hours a week baby! And boy do I need all the time I can get….I’m learning how to clone! And it is not easy hah! Bbbbuuuttttt, yesterday, I think I got 1 out of 3 of my constructs successfully cloned on my first try! (which may not sound like an accomplishment to you, but it is to me; cloning is no joke! Haha). Yesterday I ran a colony PCR on my bacteria, just to see if the DNA insert may be there before we send it to sequencing to confirm…and it looks like we have the insert we’re looking for! Hah I had to take a picture of it, even though it may not be my insert….but it’s still exciting stuff! :D

 (basically, the lanes with the letters are colonies from a plate that should have my construct. And the bands in the row with the two bright bands might be my insert! I’m sending colony A to sequencing to make sure)

I have to get the cloning finished before I can actually do experiments that will give me the data I want, and cloning doesn’t always work…so I’m working really hard to get through this step so I can start working with my cell lines (eventually…there are still lots of steps to do in between before I can get to that point…but progress is being made!). I’ve definitely learned that science requires PATIENCE haha.

When I’m not in lab (or rather, am waiting for a 2 hour digestion or PCR reaction to finish hah), I enjoy playing basketball (there’s a court in CHS! The court isn’t fabulous, but there’s a net, and that’s all I need! Haha).

Otherwise I am reading papers pertaining to my lab or project at one of my FAVORITE study spots on campus, Janss Steps!

(I’ve also recently discovered that the Bombshelter sells Crepes in the morning….I love Crepes!)

This past weekend, my parents also came to visit me! So I had lunch with them on Friday (sushi; yummm!) and then my Dad and I went to Santa Monica Beach on Saturday! I love our Daddy Daughter Days(:

Well, that’s all for now, folks [oh, and I promise the picture quality will be better once I get my new phone in August!]

Thanks for reading!(:

Taylor Brown Blog 1

Hello! (:

My name is Taylor Brown, and I am an incoming 3^rd year MIMG (Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics) major and Biomedical Research minor at UCLA. I work in the laboratory of Dr. Heather R. Christofk, which studies novel genes and signaling events that contribute to metabolic transitions in human health and disease. I have been accepted into the MARC program, and am doing research on my own independent project this summer. My project is focused on viral ribonucleotide reductase small subunit (RRM2), an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides. In a nutshell, the goal of my project is to better characterize how specific amino acid differences between human RRM2 and its viral homolog lead to potentially altered enzymatic function, and how these differences promote viral replication in the host cell.

After graduating from UCLA with a degree in MIMG, I will continue my education by pursuing a Ph.D in Cancer Biology or a related field. My goal is to continue working in cancer labs (and other labs with interesting topics as well) to gain more research experience, to better understand the scientific process, and to acquire background knowledge on cancer in general. I hope to become an effective cancer researcher, and to hopefully run my own lab one day, so I can apply the knowledge I have acquired through my research and schooling to develop therapeutic drugs and to help cancer patients worldwide.

I will be keeping you updated on my research progress this summer through this blog (as well as fun stuff too!). Hope you enjoy reading, and nice to meet you! :)

-Taylor

(p.s. don’t worry, my gloves were clean in this photo haha)

Alyson Ramirez Blog 1

Hey MARC-ers!

            For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Alyson Ramirez. I’m a fifth-year Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology major at UCLA with a minor in Biomedical Research and I’m currently a MARC Trainee. (Yea, a fifth year. It takes some of us a little more time to finish all of our classes). I’m currently a student in the Exceptional Research Opportunities Program run by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and I’m doing my summer research in the lab of Dr. Leonard Zon, who works on hematopoiesis and cancer in the zebrafish. Which means I get to play in Cambridge at Harvard University all summer long! I’ve been at the on-campus lab, located in the super nice and newly renovated Sherman-Fairchild building for about two weeks now, and I am having ridiculous amounts of fun. My project this summer is to perform a small chemical screen in zebrafish embryos to try and identify chemicals that can cause the halt of the development of melanocytes, the cells that undergo oncogenic transformation to become melanoma (skin cancer!) Other studies have shown that malignant melanocytes express genes found in their progenitors, neural crest cells, and my project is to see if any chemicals in our library can downregulate or abolish neural crest gene expression. So far I’ve set up my first chemical screen, made two different probes for identifying neural crest markers, crossed lines of wild type fish, collected/cleaned/sorted embryos, and am going to start my first in situ hybridization next week. It’s been busy! In addition to running around lab, we’ve also had a ton of meetings- because the Zon lab is so huge, we have a lot of joint meetings with other labs as well as regular lab meetings at the Cambridge lab, and then other lab meetings with the lab based at Children’s hospital. And that doesn’t even include seminars for my summer program. Meetings on meetings on meetings, but all of the presentations are really interesting and it’s so cool to see so many different projects stem from a few basic questions. Everyone who works here is really outgoing and humble about their work, so it’s a very cool environment to be in.

            I’ve also done a fair amount of stuff outside of the lab since I’ve been here. Between the thunderstorms (gotta love east coast weather), I’ve been romping around the city. My first weekend, we followed the Freedom Trail, which was such a cool way to see a lot of Boston. We got cannoli from the North End, beer from the first tavern in the US, and lots of delicious fruit from the best farmer’s market I’ve been to. Five nectarines for a dollar? Yes please! On Sunday, we went kayaking- it was really cool to be on the water that I see from my window every morning, and the views of the city were awesome. Although the sunburn after was not so awesome. This past weekend was pretty adventurous too! I did the Warrior Dash, a three-mile mud run/obstacle course that really lived up to its name. Three of my friends from my program and I drove about 1.5 hours to the boonies of MA to slug through mud, jump over fire, haul ourselves over wooden walls, and earn the warrior title. I’m still finding mud in places I didn’t know it could stick, and I’ve got some pretty nice bruises. I’ve also had a ton of fun exploring Cambridge- there’s so many new restaurants here to try, and I spent a good hour or two reading next to the river yesterday, which was a nice way to pretend that the weekend wasn’t ending. Although I’m having so much fun in lab that the week feels just like an extended weekend. It’s safe to say I’m having the best summer ever! 

Until next time,

Alyson 

The view from my room! 

 Kayaking the Charles

 

 The view from outside my window in lab. Everyday.