I attended the Rosetta Institute of Biomedical Research at the University of California, Berkeley, this past summer, and I had loads of fun! Specifically, I attended the cancer research workshop, and it was extremely informative, being a college-level course in only 2 weeks. There were many different labs, and I learned so much about cancer that I had no clue about beforehand. I highly recommend that you check out the Rosetta Institute of Biomedical Research to learn more about different topics, such as neuroscience, cancer, aging, and more!
Like every first-day laboratory scientist, I learned how to pipette, and we got a little background on cancer. We learned about apoptosis, and shortly after, we did a lab on flow cytometry, which detects apoptotic (dead) cells from a solution of cells. We also did a lab on the Western Blot, which detects a specific protein from a solution after learning more about proteins, their structure, and their translation. I also learned about metastasis, which is Stage 4 cancer when the tumor becomes malignant and spreads throughout the body.
I did so much during these 2 weeks that I cannot even begin to explain everything we did because, frankly, we would be here a while. I had over 30 pages of notes from these 2 weeks, and at the end, we used all of our vast knowledge to create a slideshow presentation on a specific gene or protein on a molecular level. I chose BRCA2, a human tumor suppressor gene whose protein is also named BRCA2. You can find my presentation linked here if you would like to read more! I chose to focus on the mutations in BRCA2, which can significantly increase a woman’s chance of breast cancer.
I enjoyed my time at Rosetta at UC, Berkeley, and I hope that I can go again and research another intriguing topic, and I hope to see you there! Until, then!
- AnthroManTalks
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