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Yes.

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All right.

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Hi.

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My name is Zollie Yavarow.

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So I'm going to be telling
you today about my work

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at the Jackson laboratory in
the Summer Student Program.

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So I was looking into
hematopoietic protector cells

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and how their differentiation
is disregulated with aging.

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So a little bit about finding
research opportunities.

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So one really great website
that I found useful,

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especially as a first-year
student was a website

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called Pathways To Science.

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So it's a really
great website that

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has a whole bunch
of opportunities

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through labs, companies,
portable funding, and also

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RU assertive programs.

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And there's a lot
of different ways

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that you can narrow
your searches.

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So you can narrow it by area
and also different requirements.

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So that was a really great
way to find opportunities

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that would be available to me.

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Another option is to email labs.

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So you can either
find a lab that's

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near where you work or perhaps
in a specific area of interest.

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What I found has worked well for
me in my three years of Summer

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experience are RU programs.

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So they're a program
that is funded by the NSF

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and has a lot of
structured requirements.

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So for example, weekly
developmental meetings,

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and that sort of stuff, and
presentations towards the end.

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So specifically, what
I do this Summer is

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I was in the Jackson Laboratory
Summer Student Program.

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So this is a
subdivision of the RU.

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So it's partially
funded by the NSF

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and partially funded
by outside sources.

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So the Jackson Laboratory
Summer Student Program

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is really great.

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They provided a stipend of
living combination, food,

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and even planned trips.

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A Jackson Laboratory
is a leading genetics

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institution. "focused on leading
the search for tomorrow's

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cure," is their slogan.

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So this is really great
for me because I'm

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interested in doing
research, and understanding

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the molecular
mechanisms of disease.

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So most people in the
program were either

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focused on wet lab work
involving mouse models,

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or they're more on the
computational side of things.

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So I was living
in High Seas which

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is a beautiful mansion nestled
between Acadia National

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Park and the ocean.

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No complaints.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I was living with around 35
other students in the program

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and then a couple
of CAs as well as

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well as a residential
supervisor and his family.

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I had three roommates,
and they provided a place

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to stay, furniture.

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It was fantastic.

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So we had a couple different
outings and activities.

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So we had two different trips.

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So we had a weekend camping
trip to [INAUDIBLE].

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And we also had a
white water rafting

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trip, which was a lot of fun.

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Also, some more casual
activities that we had is--

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there was Acadia National Park
right outside your front door,

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so lots of hiking and
exploring the park.

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Also, downtown Bar Harbor
is a beautiful place

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to just go to get ice
cream and enjoy the views.

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So my research in
the Trowbridge Lab

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was focused on
understanding aging,

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and how to put it in
the stem cell system,

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and how it's
disregulated in age.

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So hematopoiesis
is the formation

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of blood and blood cells.

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So this begins with the
hematopoietic stem cell.

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So hematopoietic stem cells are
characterized by their ability

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to self-renew and then
just to differentiate

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a whole bunch of different
mixture of cell types.

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So the agencies are
also characterized

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by their quiescence.

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So quiescence means that
they're resting in the g

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to 0 phase of the cell cycle.

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So this is thought to
help prevent DNA damage

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because they're not actively
cycling, which helps to keep

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their ability to self-renew.

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So a little refresher on the
cell cycle-- so g to 0, here,

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where they're resting
is a little detour.

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So they're going off
between mitosis and G1

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where they begin growing
for the next replication.

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So the S-phase here is
where this replication

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occurs, where a lot of
the DNA damage can enter.

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So by going off in G0, they're
able to avoid actively cycling

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and let's prevent
some of this damage.

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So this process is
disregulated in H.

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And one of the
places we see that is

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lymphoid-primed multipotent
progenitors, or LMPPs.

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So what we see is that both
in mice and human populations,

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this population has decreased.

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So they have increased
cycling of age,

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and also increased
cell regrowth.

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So they're not resting in G0.

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So this can cause
different predispositions

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to cancers of the
blood, like leukemia,

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and also lead to
an immunoimpaired.

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So as you can see the
lymphoid-primed multipotent

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progenitors go on to
produce a lot of really

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important immune cells, like
b-cells, t-cells, and then

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[INAUDIBLE] cells.

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So since the LMPPs have
increased cycling of age,

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I predicted that the cell cycle
genes regulating their cycling

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will be differentially
expressed.

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So in order to measure this
differential expression,

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I learned a technique
called QPCR,

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or quantitative polymerase chain
reaction, the long version.

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So you probably heard about
this in your biology classes.

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So it's just a method
of amplifying DNA.

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And what's a little
bit special from QPCR

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versus just normal PCR is
there is a fluorescent molecule

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present.

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And this fluorescent molecule
is only-- fluorescent

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is what is incorporated into
the double-stranded DNA.

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So as the replication
reaction goes upwards,

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the fluorescent staple
becomes stronger.

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And the machine is
continuously measuring

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the level of fluorescence.

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So as you can see, I've got
a whole bunch of samples

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here in this graph.

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And So it's taking the
fluorescence level over times,

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and it's looking at--
at what point are they

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all in the logarithmic
phase, which

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is this green line
right here, which

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is termed the cycle threshold.

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So from this, you can go back
and determine a cycle threshold

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value or a CT value
from which you're

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able to do a lot of analysis.

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So a photo CT means that you
have a greater starting amount

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of DNA.

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And so one of the things that
is involved in this analysis

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is normalizing to
a reference gene.

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So this is meant to control for
a different background levels

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of transcription in the cell.

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So it's really important
that your reference gene

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is consistent in your cells
and also across the areas

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that you're testing.

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So some of my initial
results, they actually

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have all of the same trend.

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So I have an example
chart here for MCM6,

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which is involved in activating
the helicase between the G1

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and the S-phase
in the cell cycle.

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So what you can see is
that it actually increases

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from two to eight months,
and then decreases again

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at 28 months.

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So how can this be when
I expected my genes

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to have different values
across these ages?

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So one thing I look into is
actually our reference G.

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So we were using HPRT
as our reference gene.

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And when I looked at these
raw cycle threshold values,

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actually noticed that they
were very different with age.

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So as you can see, it actually
exhibits exactly the same trend

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as the chart I just showed you.

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So it increases from
two to eight months

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and then back down to 28 months.

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Guys, you can wee we also
have a lot of variability

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in the individual
values as well.

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So for the average values,
we have a difference

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of around two, which is
really significant, especially

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since this is on a
logarithmic scale.

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So as a result, since
this isn't consistent,

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I needed to find a
new reference gene.

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So I was able to find that
in beta-2 microglobulin.

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So as you can see, it's
a lot more consistent

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across the ages averages.

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So it's only around
a 0.5 difference,

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which is much, much less.

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And it's more of
an acceptable value

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for our use in reference gene.

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So conclusions, what
I think is really

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interesting about
scientific research

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is small observations
just coming in

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from taking good notes and
asking good questions can

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actually lead to really
insightful observations

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for the lab.

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So if I wasn't able
to notice that these

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all have the same trend, and
that's probably not expected

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and not a good thing.

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I would have been able to
find this out in the lab.

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So I was able to establish
this new reference

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gene that they can use in their
aging studies in a modified

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stem cell system.

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So overall, I wanted to
emphasis the importance

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of gaining hands-on
research experience.

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So if you're going
into the sciences

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and thinking maybe it's
something you'd like to pursue,

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I highly encourage
it because it's

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been really influential in the
academic experience in Mount

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00:08:42,289 --> 00:08:45,570
Holyoke and also in deciding
to go to grad school

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after I graduate.

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So I hope you coming to our
panel today and listening to us

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00:08:49,169 --> 00:08:50,710
all talk, you've
learned a little bit

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about different types
of research experiences

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00:08:52,810 --> 00:08:57,185
and also what to expect
and some tips for success.

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Thank you for coming.

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[APPLAUSE]

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