For my practicum project, I worked in a bioengineering lab on UMD’s campus. The project I assisted with aimed to encapsulate cancer stem cells (CSCs) to be able to differentiate between the stem and non-stem cells within a sample. I worked with Ingrid Dukundane, a PhD student that is primarily conducting this research.
Every week, I would spend at least 6 hours in the lab. On Mondays I would go in for two hours, while on Wednesdays I spent 4 hours running experiments. Mondays are when I would learn new procedures or make the solutions required to run the experiments on wednesday. A normal Monday could be making PDMS devices and syringes, or purifying the hyaluronic acid and alginate. Some of the solutions would expire after a month so the weeks dictated my tasks. It was more of a preparation day so I would have everything I need to run the microfluidics encapsulation on Wednesday. Then, on Wednesdays I would actually conduct the encapsulation experiment. The experiment normally uses up all four hours and oftentimes goes over. First I have to sterilize all the syringes and devices we are going to use that day. Then, I prepare the cells by detaching and centrifuging them, and putting them in the cell counter to be able to estimate how concentrated the core solution has to be. Once this is done, I would put the cells in an already prepared core solution and prepare one of the syringes. The shell of the capsule is made from only purified alginate, so I would then prepare the next syringe for just the shell. There is also an oil component of this experiment that is run through the device to keep the fluids moving through the channels. This solution must be made the same day of the experiment, so I would make that as well. Once I put the oil in the third syringe, the experiment is ready to start. The syringes get put in a machine so that there is a steady flow of solution moving through the device. Once you attach the syringes to the device, the capsules will be the output. One run of this experiment usually lasts about 30 minutes (with the device sitting in CSC media). Once the 30 minutes is up, the capsules in the media are washed and extracted. I then leave them in the incubator and culture them until the clones grow.
I would say, by doing the hands-on work conducted in the lab, I had to use a lot of principles from my biology for engineers class and lab primarily. It was a very analytical, math-heavy course and the lab definitely helped me get a basic understanding of how different machines in the lab operated. As for SGC, the main reason I wanted to get involved in cancer research is because of the disparities in cancer diagnoses being directly related to environmental conditions and air quality in different areas. We learned a lot about air and water pollution especially in high populated areas and the negative effects it has on our personal health.
I have grown a lot personally and professionally throughout my experiences in the lab. It was really interesting to be surrounded by so many professionals that went down the bioengineering research path in their post grad. Before this, I had no idea how any kind of PhD program operated. Now I feel like I was able to grasp the entire picture by interacting with principal investigators, post-docs, and PhD students. In terms of next steps, I would like to continue exploring the fields of bioengineering, like instrumentation or tissue engineering through volunteering and internships. I am also planning on staying in the same research lab during the school semesters until graduation because of the opportunity to work on multiple projects. Next semester, I will switch my focus to building a 3D vascularized tumor model to observe how CSCs behave outside the body.
During my practicum project, I worked and collaborated with others. Some of the projects within the lab and other PhD students overlapped with one another. I was definitely in a new role as I had never been in a research lab before and knew I had the least amount of background and experience on anything related to lab work. This was different for me as I am more used to taking on leadership roles within a team.
I would definitely recommend this opportunity to future SGC students. On campus research is widely available at UMD and there’s a multitude of projects to be working on. It is also really great for experience in something you would actually like to do and could see yourself pursuing. It gave me great hands-on experience and it was very convenient to go to.