WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.395 align:middle line:90%
Hi.

00:00:01.395 --> 00:00:03.340 align:middle line:90%
My name is Miranda Lee.

00:00:03.340 --> 00:00:05.010 align:middle line:90%
I go by Lee generally, though.

00:00:05.010 --> 00:00:07.150 align:middle line:84%
And I'm a senior
biochemistry major.

00:00:07.150 --> 00:00:10.230 align:middle line:84%
This summer I worked out
at Sbarro Health Research

00:00:10.230 --> 00:00:11.430 align:middle line:90%
Organization.

00:00:11.430 --> 00:00:15.810 align:middle line:84%
It's located at Temple
University in Philadelphia, PA.

00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:17.610 align:middle line:84%
It's a nonprofit
committed to researching

00:00:17.610 --> 00:00:19.748 align:middle line:90%
the genetics of disease.

00:00:19.748 --> 00:00:21.640 align:middle line:84%
It was founded by
an Italian scientist

00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:27.030 align:middle line:84%
named Antonio Giordano, with
money from the CEO of Sbarro.

00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:28.840 align:middle line:84%
Hence the name, like
a pizza company.

00:00:28.840 --> 00:00:29.780 align:middle line:90%
Yes.

00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:33.972 align:middle line:84%
[INAUDIBLE] And this is the
building where I worked.

00:00:33.972 --> 00:00:38.200 align:middle line:84%
That's just a picture of
Temple University's campus.

00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:42.169 align:middle line:84%
So I got this internship by
just emailing Dr. Giardano, who

00:00:42.169 --> 00:00:43.710 align:middle line:84%
is this guy right
here in the middle,

00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:45.251 align:middle line:84%
because I didn't
have any connections

00:00:45.251 --> 00:00:46.980 align:middle line:84%
and I wasn't really
finding anything

00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:49.170 align:middle line:90%
that I wanted through LyonNet.

00:00:49.170 --> 00:00:54.746 align:middle line:84%
So I knew that I wanted to be
in Philadelphia for the summer,

00:00:54.746 --> 00:00:56.340 align:middle line:90%
because I'm from the area.

00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:58.137 align:middle line:84%
So I just looked
at research that

00:00:58.137 --> 00:01:01.030 align:middle line:84%
was being done at different
campuses in Philly.

00:01:01.030 --> 00:01:04.530 align:middle line:84%
I chose to email Dr. Giardano,
because I was really interested

00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:06.700 align:middle line:84%
in the mission
statement of the SHRO.

00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:08.840 align:middle line:84%
We talked about how
they're a non-profit,

00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.980 align:middle line:84%
so they operate outside of
government funding and outside

00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:14.905 align:middle line:84%
of academic brand funding, and
just receive private funding.

00:01:14.905 --> 00:01:17.450 align:middle line:84%
And every dollar goes
straight to the research.

00:01:17.450 --> 00:01:19.262 align:middle line:84%
And they also stated
that they have

00:01:19.262 --> 00:01:21.470 align:middle line:84%
a commitment to training
young, new scientists, which

00:01:21.470 --> 00:01:23.452 align:middle line:90%
I guess is where I came in.

00:01:23.452 --> 00:01:25.117 align:middle line:84%
And so I thought
that, yeah, they would

00:01:25.117 --> 00:01:26.200 align:middle line:90%
let me come work for them.

00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:28.437 align:middle line:90%
And so I emailed Dr. Giardano.

00:01:28.437 --> 00:01:29.904 align:middle line:84%
He got back to me
pretty quickly.

00:01:29.904 --> 00:01:33.327 align:middle line:84%
He interviewed me on the phone
and offered me a position.

00:01:33.327 --> 00:01:36.261 align:middle line:84%
At the time, I was considering
a couple other offers,

00:01:36.261 --> 00:01:39.310 align:middle line:84%
a couple other positions, but
I had a really good feeling

00:01:39.310 --> 00:01:42.351 align:middle line:84%
about him based on my
conversation with him.

00:01:42.351 --> 00:01:45.508 align:middle line:84%
And I really thought that the
people there would be great.

00:01:45.508 --> 00:01:49.050 align:middle line:84%
So I went to work with them,
and I was proven right.

00:01:49.050 --> 00:01:51.220 align:middle line:84%
Dr. Marcella
Macaluso is this one.

00:01:51.220 --> 00:01:53.852 align:middle line:84%
She's the one that I worked
with most closely day to day

00:01:53.852 --> 00:01:55.307 align:middle line:84%
along with her PhD
student, Carlo.

00:01:55.307 --> 00:01:57.140 align:middle line:84%
And in case you can't
tell from their names,

00:01:57.140 --> 00:01:59.894 align:middle line:84%
they were all Italian,
every single one of them.

00:01:59.894 --> 00:02:01.560 align:middle line:84%
So that was kind of
difficult sometimes,

00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:02.910 align:middle line:90%
but I learned a lot about Italy.

00:02:02.910 --> 00:02:05.700 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:09.669 align:middle line:84%
So I'm not going to go into
detail about the research,

00:02:09.669 --> 00:02:12.300 align:middle line:84%
really, but I wanted to give
you at least a general overview

00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:15.946 align:middle line:84%
of what the organization
does and what I did.

00:02:15.946 --> 00:02:20.990 align:middle line:84%
So Dr. Giardano is known
for discovering this tumor

00:02:20.990 --> 00:02:23.631 align:middle line:84%
suppressor for the
gene called p130.

00:02:23.631 --> 00:02:25.812 align:middle line:84%
It does a lot of different
things in the body,

00:02:25.812 --> 00:02:29.190 align:middle line:84%
but basically, it controls
different protein levels

00:02:29.190 --> 00:02:31.580 align:middle line:90%
in different kinds of cells.

00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:33.560 align:middle line:84%
So a lot of the
research that the SHRO

00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:36.570 align:middle line:84%
does centers around this
p130, because, I mean,

00:02:36.570 --> 00:02:37.510 align:middle line:90%
it's his protein.

00:02:37.510 --> 00:02:41.970 align:middle line:84%
So Dr. Macaluso's research
focuses on the role

00:02:41.970 --> 00:02:45.730 align:middle line:84%
that P130 has in breast
cancer and eye disease.

00:02:45.730 --> 00:02:49.210 align:middle line:84%
Both of them are linked
to weird levels of P130,

00:02:49.210 --> 00:02:52.885 align:middle line:84%
and both are also linked
to hormone [INAUDIBLE]..

00:02:52.885 --> 00:02:54.510 align:middle line:84%
That might seem kind
of weird at first.

00:02:54.510 --> 00:02:56.134 align:middle line:84%
Like, it would make
sense that estrogen

00:02:56.134 --> 00:02:59.220 align:middle line:84%
is involved in
breast cancer, but I

00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:02.470 align:middle line:84%
think it's also really
implicated in eye disease

00:03:02.470 --> 00:03:04.155 align:middle line:84%
and it has a lot more
roles in the body

00:03:04.155 --> 00:03:05.127 align:middle line:90%
than you may actually realize.

00:03:05.127 --> 00:03:07.376 align:middle line:84%
It's not just involved in
puberty and menopause, which

00:03:07.376 --> 00:03:08.828 align:middle line:90%
is what I originally thought.

00:03:08.828 --> 00:03:11.690 align:middle line:90%


00:03:11.690 --> 00:03:14.204 align:middle line:84%
So the project
that I worked on--

00:03:14.204 --> 00:03:15.870 align:middle line:84%
wanting to know how
these two proteins--

00:03:15.870 --> 00:03:18.010 align:middle line:84%
the names really
aren't important--

00:03:18.010 --> 00:03:20.220 align:middle line:84%
but how these two
proteins that were also

00:03:20.220 --> 00:03:24.210 align:middle line:84%
implicated in eye disease,
how they're connected to p130.

00:03:24.210 --> 00:03:27.340 align:middle line:84%
And also, given the fact that
hormone imbalances are linked

00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:29.910 align:middle line:84%
to these different
disease, we wanted

00:03:29.910 --> 00:03:33.860 align:middle line:84%
to know how the hormone
levels impacted the expression

00:03:33.860 --> 00:03:36.140 align:middle line:90%
of those two specific proteins.

00:03:36.140 --> 00:03:37.110 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:38.292 align:middle line:90%
So what did I do?

00:03:38.292 --> 00:03:39.750 align:middle line:84%
Again, I'm not
going to really talk

00:03:39.750 --> 00:03:43.320 align:middle line:84%
about this technical stuff, but
it's there if you're curious.

00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:46.670 align:middle line:84%
A large part of the project
and a large part of my job

00:03:46.670 --> 00:03:47.910 align:middle line:90%
was just cell culturing.

00:03:47.910 --> 00:03:49.520 align:middle line:84%
I had to make sure
that we constantly

00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:51.800 align:middle line:84%
had supplies of retinal
and corneal cells

00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.170 align:middle line:90%
in order to do experiments on.

00:03:54.170 --> 00:03:58.550 align:middle line:84%
So what I did with
that was I would

00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:01.370 align:middle line:84%
be able to split them to grow
them in new Petri dishes,

00:04:01.370 --> 00:04:04.610 align:middle line:84%
add hormone treatments like
progesterone and the estrogen

00:04:04.610 --> 00:04:05.540 align:middle line:90%
that we were studying.

00:04:05.540 --> 00:04:10.130 align:middle line:90%


00:04:10.130 --> 00:04:12.670 align:middle line:84%
Oh, and I had to change
the medium every 48 hours.

00:04:12.670 --> 00:04:14.390 align:middle line:84%
And checking on them
was the first thing

00:04:14.390 --> 00:04:16.680 align:middle line:84%
that I did every day
when I came into lab.

00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:18.320 align:middle line:84%
I would have to go
there and make sure

00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:20.171 align:middle line:84%
that they weren't infected,
which [INAUDIBLE] yellow.

00:04:20.171 --> 00:04:21.459 align:middle line:84%
And that's actually
not my picture,

00:04:21.459 --> 00:04:23.417 align:middle line:84%
but that's exactly what
the cells I worked with

00:04:23.417 --> 00:04:24.440 align:middle line:90%
looked like.

00:04:24.440 --> 00:04:26.630 align:middle line:84%
And make sure that
they were growing just

00:04:26.630 --> 00:04:29.734 align:middle line:90%
under the microscope.

00:04:29.734 --> 00:04:31.150 align:middle line:84%
And I though this
was really cool,

00:04:31.150 --> 00:04:33.460 align:middle line:84%
because I got to work
with primary cells,

00:04:33.460 --> 00:04:36.430 align:middle line:84%
which are non-genetically
modified cells taken directly

00:04:36.430 --> 00:04:39.770 align:middle line:90%
from living tissue, whereas--

00:04:39.770 --> 00:04:43.420 align:middle line:84%
I mean, we don't work with human
cells at all in labs at school.

00:04:43.420 --> 00:04:45.538 align:middle line:84%
At least not as far
as I've experienced.

00:04:45.538 --> 00:04:48.022 align:middle line:84%
And definitely not
primary cells, which--

00:04:48.022 --> 00:04:49.230 align:middle line:90%
I thought it was really cool.

00:04:49.230 --> 00:04:52.260 align:middle line:84%
So I was really glad to
have learned that skill.

00:04:52.260 --> 00:04:56.150 align:middle line:84%
So I would do all this work
to keep these cells alive.

00:04:56.150 --> 00:04:58.660 align:middle line:84%
And then we would kill them,
and take the proteins out,

00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.152 align:middle line:84%
and separate the proteins,
and look for the ones

00:05:01.152 --> 00:05:02.720 align:middle line:90%
that we were interested in.

00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:05.150 align:middle line:84%
This whole experiment is
called a Western blot.

00:05:05.150 --> 00:05:08.031 align:middle line:84%
The result would look something
like that bottom picture.

00:05:08.031 --> 00:05:10.296 align:middle line:84%
And you may have seen that
before in your classes.

00:05:10.296 --> 00:05:14.070 align:middle line:84%
But we can analyze
it qualitatively

00:05:14.070 --> 00:05:16.520 align:middle line:84%
and just kind of say, this
band's darker than this band,

00:05:16.520 --> 00:05:18.110 align:middle line:90%
so there's more protein there.

00:05:18.110 --> 00:05:21.250 align:middle line:84%
Or quantitatively to put
numbers in just how dark it is,

00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:22.619 align:middle line:90%
using a computer program.

00:05:22.619 --> 00:05:24.535 align:middle line:84%
And this is not the
cleanest gel in the world.

00:05:24.535 --> 00:05:26.243 align:middle line:84%
It's just the one that
I happened to have

00:05:26.243 --> 00:05:28.660 align:middle line:90%
on my phone from the summer.

00:05:28.660 --> 00:05:32.658 align:middle line:84%
But this is an example
of what we would get.

00:05:32.658 --> 00:05:34.884 align:middle line:84%
So what we found
out is that estrogen

00:05:34.884 --> 00:05:36.800 align:middle line:84%
does increase the levels
of those two proteins

00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:40.053 align:middle line:84%
that we were interested
in and that p130

00:05:40.053 --> 00:05:42.800 align:middle line:84%
regulates both of them at
a transcriptional level.

00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.300 align:middle line:84%
I should have said there were
also other experiments that we

00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:47.716 align:middle line:84%
did that focused more on the
protein-protein interactions,

00:05:47.716 --> 00:05:51.420 align:middle line:84%
but I kind of observed
those and participated

00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:52.870 align:middle line:90%
at a minimal level.

00:05:52.870 --> 00:05:55.476 align:middle line:84%
And the Western blotting
and the protein cultures

00:05:55.476 --> 00:05:57.168 align:middle line:90%
were my main job.

00:05:57.168 --> 00:05:58.626 align:middle line:84%
But those other
experiments kind of

00:05:58.626 --> 00:06:03.880 align:middle line:84%
showed also how p130 operates
at, like, a whole other level.

00:06:03.880 --> 00:06:08.950 align:middle line:84%
So this experience really
increased my confidence

00:06:08.950 --> 00:06:14.120 align:middle line:84%
in my technical lab skills and
my problem-solving ability.

00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.370 align:middle line:84%
I ran, basically, like
a Western blot in a day,

00:06:16.370 --> 00:06:19.460 align:middle line:84%
so it was a lot of protein
extraction and a lot of gels

00:06:19.460 --> 00:06:20.280 align:middle line:90%
that I was running.

00:06:20.280 --> 00:06:24.030 align:middle line:84%
And so I got really good at
it whereas in labs in classes,

00:06:24.030 --> 00:06:26.610 align:middle line:84%
we kind of learn it once,
learn it twice, and then

00:06:26.610 --> 00:06:28.385 align:middle line:90%
don't really delve into it.

00:06:28.385 --> 00:06:30.522 align:middle line:84%
But doing the same
thing all summer

00:06:30.522 --> 00:06:32.230 align:middle line:84%
meant that I really
understood the theory

00:06:32.230 --> 00:06:34.190 align:middle line:84%
behind every single
thing that we did.

00:06:34.190 --> 00:06:38.556 align:middle line:84%
And this meant that whenever
something went wrong,

00:06:38.556 --> 00:06:40.055 align:middle line:84%
I actually knew how
to fix it, which

00:06:40.055 --> 00:06:41.460 align:middle line:90%
was a really great feeling.

00:06:41.460 --> 00:06:43.595 align:middle line:84%
If my proteins wouldn't
separate in the gel,

00:06:43.595 --> 00:06:45.720 align:middle line:84%
I would just change the
concentration of the agars.

00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:48.860 align:middle line:84%
If my cells got infected
in those Petri dishes,

00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:51.420 align:middle line:90%
I could just regrow them.

00:06:51.420 --> 00:06:55.500 align:middle line:84%
And a lot of the techniques
that I learned over the summer

00:06:55.500 --> 00:06:57.850 align:middle line:84%
are applicable to
the research that I'm

00:06:57.850 --> 00:07:00.740 align:middle line:84%
doing now for my independent
study for my thesis.

00:07:00.740 --> 00:07:02.820 align:middle line:84%
So I worked with
Professor Jason Andras.

00:07:02.820 --> 00:07:03.930 align:middle line:90%
Many of you know him.

00:07:03.930 --> 00:07:05.660 align:middle line:84%
And we are researching
ant genetics.

00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:07.735 align:middle line:84%
And these are our
little ant colonies.

00:07:07.735 --> 00:07:11.970 align:middle line:84%
And this is the very first
PCR/gel that I ran in here.

00:07:11.970 --> 00:07:14.180 align:middle line:84%
And it actually worked,
and I was really proud.

00:07:14.180 --> 00:07:15.020 align:middle line:90%
Woo!

00:07:15.020 --> 00:07:17.330 align:middle line:84%
And it was really nice
to know that I already

00:07:17.330 --> 00:07:19.350 align:middle line:84%
had the skills to
do this, so I could

00:07:19.350 --> 00:07:22.020 align:middle line:84%
jump right into the research
without having to learn

00:07:22.020 --> 00:07:25.306 align:middle line:90%
all these basic skills.

00:07:25.306 --> 00:07:29.610 align:middle line:84%
As far as for the future future,
I personally really liked

00:07:29.610 --> 00:07:31.350 align:middle line:90%
academia.

00:07:31.350 --> 00:07:33.450 align:middle line:84%
I'm a bit of an
introvert, so I really

00:07:33.450 --> 00:07:35.550 align:middle line:84%
like being able
to do my own work

00:07:35.550 --> 00:07:37.716 align:middle line:84%
and just have people that
I can reach out to and ask

00:07:37.716 --> 00:07:40.000 align:middle line:90%
for help when I need it.

00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.470 align:middle line:84%
So I do want to get my PhD
eventually, just not right

00:07:43.470 --> 00:07:44.585 align:middle line:90%
away.

00:07:44.585 --> 00:07:46.210 align:middle line:84%
The other thing that
I learned, though,

00:07:46.210 --> 00:07:48.055 align:middle line:84%
is that the environment
that you're in

00:07:48.055 --> 00:07:49.630 align:middle line:90%
makes a really big difference.

00:07:49.630 --> 00:07:52.330 align:middle line:84%
The people that I worked
with were so supportive of me

00:07:52.330 --> 00:07:53.030 align:middle line:90%
and so friendly.

00:07:53.030 --> 00:07:55.220 align:middle line:84%
And they'd always make
sure I had what I needed.

00:07:55.220 --> 00:07:57.350 align:middle line:84%
So overall, I was
really, really glad

00:07:57.350 --> 00:08:00.370 align:middle line:84%
that I went with my gut feeling
and chose to work with the SHRO

00:08:00.370 --> 00:08:01.270 align:middle line:90%
this summer.

00:08:01.270 --> 00:08:01.870 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:08:01.870 --> 00:08:05.520 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:08:05.520 --> 00:08:07.680 align:middle line:90%