Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
in Neuroscience (Neuro-SURF)
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
June 2015 - August 2015
During the summer of 2015 -- between my first and second years at the University of Cincinnati -- I was selected as a fellow in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience at the UC College of Medicine. As a fellow in the Neuro-SURF Program, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Mindy Call, PhD, as part of the Winston Kao Lab in the Department of Ophthalmology. Dr. Call's research at the time of my participation in the fellowship was aimed at better characterizing the role of Collagen V in the corneal stroma of the eye and treating both congenital and acquired dysfunction and disruption in stromal collagen architecture with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells. My research focus, specifically, was on the treatment of acquired corneal damage in wild type mice, and over the course of the summer, I was able to perform surgical keratectomies on mice, treat their newly damaged eyes with mesenchymal stem cells, and then monitor their performance and recovery. At the conclusion of my project in the summer, I was able to present my findings at the 2015 SURF Symposium, and in 2016, I look forward to being listed as an author on a publication that will feature some of my findings.
My initial interest in pursuing a spot within the selective Neuro-SURF fellowship stemmed from a desire to build upon my previous research experience. In the spring semester of my first year at UC -- right before I was a Neuro-SURF student -- I was involved with research in Cincinnati Children's Hospital's Developmental Disabilities Translational Research Center. I really enjoyed the experience that I had working with neurological and psychological research there, especially given that this was my first prolonged experience with bench, as opposed to clinical, research. Thus, I decided to apply for the Neuroscience Undergraduate Research Fellowship, with the intention to continue my involvement in neuroscience bench research in a paid position for the duration of the summer. While the ophthalmological research in which the Kao Lab engages was not necessarily what I had envisioned when first applying, I could not be more happy with the placement that I received when I was accepted into the program. The mentorship of Dr. Call has allowed me to grow tremendously as a researcher, and the engaging projects to which I have been fortunate to contribute have constantly stimulated my interests while triggering me to ask deeper and more probing research questions. In many ways, the experience that I had during the summer of 2015 was transformative. I learned new technical skills (including my first experience with animal surgery), practiced and refined old techniques, and developed promising and significant results. I was mentored by a wonderful faculty member who taught me a great deal and provided me with many novel insights into life as a researcher. More than anything, though, my experience in the Neuro-SURF Program allowed me to answer many of the questions with which I was left at the conclusion of my experience in the Biomedical RaMP Program earlier in the year. While I had at one point wondered whether my future career would include research activities, by the end of the summer, I was so enthralled by the prospect that I was able to envision a possible future career comprised solely of research. I believe that because of the intensive and full-time nature of the Neuro-SURF fellowship, I was able to connect more wholly to the research that I was performing over the summer. In addition, after just a few weeks, I was able to develop a strong level of independent or semi-autonomous experimentation, which allowed me to become really invested in and passionate about the work that I was doing. Together, these two developments reawakened me to the awe and excitement that I felt when first introduced to academic medical research through the ExSEL Program a few years ago. In this way, my experience this summer has motivated me to continue with my pursuit of research in a very inspiring way, and has transformed medical research from something that I am interested in into something for which I have a true passion.
I would like to extend a special thank you to Dr. Mindy Call for being a wonderful mentor this summer, for her exceptional teaching, and for giving me so many fantastic opportunities to make meaningful contributions to her research. I would also like to thank Angela Lee and Mary Kunesh, fellow students in the lab, for making it one of my best so far, and to Dr. Winston Kao and the other members of the lab, for being so helpful and for facilitating a transformative fellowship experience.