My SGC Scholars practicum site was MilliporeSigma in Rockville. MilliporeSigma is a biotechnology company and the team I worked with used different assays and scientific machinery to determine/verify the properties of samples sent by customers. As I was looking for internships, I found the posting online for the specific role. After seeing this and applying, I found out that a family friend of mine worked there so I reached out to them to ask about the opportunity. Through this connection, she put me in contact with the hiring manager, which eventually, led to me getting the internship. From my personal experience, I would tell future SGC students to not be afraid to talk to personal connections about possible opportunities they could use for their practicum. Many of the people I know in Scholars had an experience somewhat similar to mine in which they found their practicum site with the help of an adult in their life who had connections to a certain company or business. This just showcases the importance of having a strong network and being able to use it in ways that can benefit you and your future.
As an intern in the Product Characterization department, my role was to transfer assays from the UK site that characterized adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) system. This was because the UK site was closing so it was important to transfer protocols so that the company would still be able to sell the assays to customers. My main task was to perform the standard operating procedure (SOP) for intact mass and peptide mapping assays on AAV samples. I would then analyze the data and compare it to the standard results of the UK site. If the data did not match, I would have to go about changing the procedure so that the results would match the UK sites. After successfully optimizing the procedure, I would create a new SOP that resembled the UK SOP but in the Rockville site's format and with the changes I made during the protocol. Finally, I would make a slideshow to present the results I attained during the weekly team meeting. As a result of this work, I learned a lot about the science behind AAV and LC-MS. During my internship, I did a lot of research about the current uses of AAV. It is currently being used in gene editing therapies such as Zolgensma. The AAV capsid is used as a delivery device for gene editing machinery such as CRISPR, which can cut out gene sequences that cause illnesses such as spinal muscular atrophy. I also learned how exactly an LC-MS machine works and the different ways proteins can be separated such as based on size or polarity.
This internship allowed me to make many connections about the practical side of science. One example was when I was researching gene editing therapies. Gene editing therapies are an extremely valuable area of research and developing medicine because they can save the lives of people with only one dose. Zolgensma, the medicine I previously mentioned, targets the SMN gene which when mutated, causes spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that causes the shrinking and weakening of muscles. This disease can lead to respiratory issues, difficulty moving, and in severe cases, death. Although Zolgensma will not fully cure the disease, in severe cases, it can greatly improve a child's life expectancy. What came to be such a shock to me was that a therapy that could benefit the lives of so many children costs about 2 million dollars for a single dose. As a bioengineer, it was an important lesson for me to learn that even though the goal of a lot of the work I'll do will be to help the lives of people through medicine, accessibility in healthcare is a massive roadblock in many people's way. This somewhat unrelated aspect of my practicum has made me question the way I see medicine research: what is the purpose of developing a medicine that is inaccessible to the general public?
This internship also had a big impact on my future career and plans right after receiving my bachelor's degree. After observing the different kinds of work people do within the company, I found myself more interested in the work done by scientists who had a graduate degree. I think this was because I enjoyed the critical thinking skills that came with their expertise in the field and their ability to apply them to the assays they ran. With this, I started considering pursuing graduate school after graduation. Something that stood out to me was when a manager said to me, "Why pay for a Master's when you can get paid to do a Ph.D.?". Although yes, the time commitment for each is very different, he did teach me that Ph.D. students get paid, something I was not aware of before. Now, due to my internship and the research I'm currently a part of in a bioengineering lab, I am planning to apply to Ph.D. programs upon graduation.