The University of Toronto's Department of Medical Biophysics (MBP) has been running a summer student program since the 1960's. Every summer they select 50 undergrad students for this program. There are many labs throughout Toronto that are part of the MBP department and one lab will look through the applicants and select one student to work in their lab. The lab that Chris and I ended working in is that of Dr. Medin. Dr. Medin graduated from the University Chris and I go to, UW Parkside. Due to this connection Dr. Medin wanted to open up the MBP summer program to Parkside students. Dr. Medin and one of my Parkside professors set up an initial application to select two Parkside students who would be allowed to apply to the MBP program. Chris and I were selected and we both then applied to the MBP program. After waiting for a while and not being selected by any other lab Dr. Medin said he would take us in.
Me and Mathilde at work
Dr. Medin's lab has several projects: some people are working on developing a prostate cancer vaccine, some are working on Fabry's disease, and some are working on Farber's disease. Chris and I were assigned to work with a PhD student, Shaalee, who is working on Farber's disease. I have done lots of different experiments, I've cultured cells, I was trained to use a laser scanning confocal microscope, I've done PCRs, Western blots, protein assays, mouse dissections, isolated primary cells, molecular subcloning, I even made viruses that will be used for gene therapy!
So, to sum it all up, I completed my 13 weeks of work, I did a presentation of the work I had done during our weekly lab meeting, Chris and I did a presentation of a journal article for our weekly lab meeting, and then lastly I made and presented a poster along with 30 other MBP summer students. I was even selected as a finalist, which meant I was in the top five!
Me and my PI, Dr. Medin
So, now I'm done! I have some free time and then on Thursday I will be home! :)
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