University of Washington Medical Center: Seattle, Washington - Dan

Over the past 7 months I have had the incredible opportunity to work with the abdominal transplant team at the University of Washington Medical Center.  My mentor for this internship was Dr. James Perkins, professor of surgery and vice chair of the Department of Surgery.  I worked closely with current Medical Student Ryan Hall in an experiment to risk stratify liver transplant patients with common post-transplant complications.  The study focused on how predictive analytics may be influential in the medical field, being thought of as the sixth element to medical decision making especially with patient handoffs.  The study included a retrospective analysis of 386 orthotopic liver transplant records noting variables such as height, gender, race, anatomical abnormalities, and post-transplant lab work.  Using decision tree analysis, we created a predictive model that risk stratifies records into two of the most common complications after liver transplant.  We proved that predictive analytics can be used in medical decision making as a sixth element, assisting the medical team through patient handoffs.

This internship provided me with the incredible opportunity to work with the abdominal transplant team.  Among my cherished memories from this internship was the opportunity to stand in on a full liver transplant.  I am grateful to those people who helped to provide me with such an unique opportunity.  

I also enjoyed striving for personal goals during my internship, which included understanding and implementing the scientific method.  For a type A personality, it is difficult to experiment knowing failure is a possible outcome.  I had many opportunities to experiment and work with the scientific method.  This didn't always result in statistically significant results, but rather helped me to fine tune my research and come closer to my goal. I learned that my value to the project was based on much more than the outcome of my studies.  

I am again grateful to those at BYU and UW that helped me have such an incredible internship opportunity!

Bethesda, MD: TBI Research At USUHS -Joseph

Snap-frozen mouse brain being sectioned
in a Cryostat at 40µm.

Mouse being exposed to a moderate
 dose of HIFU.

This summer I worked in a lab of military medical school in Maryland just north of DC called Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS). I helped explore the impact of low and moderate non-penetrating blast induced Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) after exposure to stress (restraint) in mice. It was wonderful exposure to lab life and how research works.  It also was quite difficult and I felt like my learning curve the entire summer was quite steep. I would highly recommend it though to those interested in getting a PhD in neuroscience or other sciences.
 For more information visit: http://www.usuhs.mil/

Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virgina -Spencer

This summer, I spent seven weeks in Charlottesville, Virginia working in a biochemistry and molecular genetics lab focusing on cancer research.  It was a fantastic learning experience.  I consider myself very fortunate to have had this opportunity.  I lived with family in the area and it was because of their connections that I had this opportunity to work in a very successful lab at the University of Virginia.

What I enjoyed most about the internship was learning how to actually do things that I had learned about in school.  It's one thing to learn about Northern Blotting, it's another to harvest your own cells, prepare the samples, run a gel, and develop your very own blots.  That is what I liked most.  The experience further cemented processes I have learned about but it also made it much more interesting to me.  I am way more interested in Molecular Biology now than I was when I took the class, for example.

In the lab, I worked with a post doc who helped me considerably.  He was working on studying TIP60, and indirect cancer suppressant.  I worked side by side with him and conducted my own experiments regarding a similar protein--a cousin to TIP60--called hMOF.  I found it very beneficial to run my own hypothesis and my own experiments.  I was able to watch a mentor conduct similar experiments, and then I was able to apply it to my own work.

Another benefit for me was simply being able to observe people work.  I am currently trying to really discover what I want to do in life, and I think that can be a very hard decision.  It was invaluable to me to watch first-hand what researchers actually do--what their daily routine is like.  I was able to talk to PhD students and medical school students.  I talked a lot with my supervisor and the lab manager regarding careers.  This interaction was probably the most valuable of the whole experience.

In short, my experience was fantastic and helped me in multiple ways.

For more information visit  http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/education/phd/gpo/srip/home-page.