- While all Laidlaw Scholars will be presenting their research at the Columbia Undergraduate Research Symposium in the fall, what are the more immediate expectations that you have for your research? Are you writing a paper? Will your research be part of a larger scientific study? Do you hope to produce an annotated bibliography that you reflect on down the line? Is your research now the first phase of a project you’ll continue to work on throughout the year, and/or next summer? Now that we are nearing the one month mark of the program, please write about your expectations for your research.
As the background of my research, I plan on spending the rest of my time in New York and my remaining summer at home researching, writing, and refining a literature review for my project. My hope is that this lit review can be later incorporated into the lab's paper, and my personal goal is that I can understand these complex and nuanced biological processes on a deeper level. As someone who started working at this lab with zero wet lab experience, this summer has been a grace period for me to make many mistakes and learn from them slowly. My next goal is to take what I have learned: RNA extraction, how to take high-quality and precise images of ovarian tissue samples, how to interpret ovarian anatomy and structures, and how to analyze and optimize these tissue samples, and apply these skills to the actual experimentation necessary to carry out my project's question. I intend to refine these skills further now so that I am prepared to run highly complex experiments (that even my lab mentors have never tried before) in the fall.
- Why does your research matter? Explain the significance of the question you are investigating, and why you are interested in it.
My initial plan to run experiments with ovarian samples focusing on the HELB gene has shifted due to unforseen delays in the lab, and my current research has instead been on the ZNF 518A gene, a type of transcriptor regulator that helps with chromatin organization and gene silencing. Basically, this gene helps dictate how and when DNA converts, or transcribes, into RNA -- the "central dogma of biology" for those who took FroSci or any intro bio class in high school. Our current understanding of this ZNF gene is that it is related to early ovarian aging, but the gap is that no one knows how. More specifically, my research wants to know what cell types this transcription factor is expressed in, and how this changes with age. What is difficult and necessary about this research is its newness and the gap in knowledge that exists surrounding it. In a time where research funds are slipping away and labs are getting progressively worried about the future of their work, I believe it is especially important to pursue questions that can fill meaningful and clear gaps in our understanding, and generate knowledge that can guide future discoveries. Even if my work does not provide all the answers or an over-the-counter immediate drug, I hope it contributes one important piece to a much larger scientific puzzle.
*Cover image showing an ovarian tissue sample with its follicular stages identified and labeled