Beginning my internship at the VA Hospital on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus has been an experience to say the least. I began week one by becoming more acquainted with our Principal Investigators (PIs), Dr. Nate Wlodarchak and Dr. Amy Keller. Both work in the same lab space, but have vastly different areas of expertise.
After going through important safety procedures within the lab, the two PI’s gave us a brief overview of their research. Dr. Wlodarchak works in the fields of microbiology and drug research. His primary work focuses on Tuberculosis (TB) and the enzymes it relies on for metabolic function. Dr. Keller's research centers around cardiovascular health, specifically for individuals with Type 2 Diabetes.
What came next was what the PI’s like to call whiteboarding. I like to call it hammering my brain with so much content that it makes the block plan look puny. As you can see from the picture of Dr. Wlodarchak’s whiteboarding session with us, it can be a little difficult to follow if you’ve not taken microbiology yet (I haven’t). I say all of this to note that both Dr. Nate and Dr. Amy fully assured us it did not all have to make sense, as we would have more than enough time to learn and apply all of it.
The rest of week 1 was spent shadowing in the lab. Often, we would say, "What's that?” upon seeing a procedure or, “that looks really expensive” like when we saw Dr. Nate’s robot that can be coded to pipette hundreds of wells at the same time. When it's your first time being in a real lab focused solely on research and learning more about our world, you’d wish that you could simply walk around a lab like that forever.
The last thing from our first week was traveling to one of the research buildings on the CU side of the campus with Melissa. We had cut a piece of a rat’s aorta and looked at it under a microscope. Not just any basic microscope, but one that could see as far as 6-8 times farther into the tissue. I thought it was so cool how you could see even the difference between two pieces of tissue that sat right next to each other.
We also have the opportunity to run our own projects and research. To help get us going, the PI’s have given us numerous resources and tips to develop hypotheses. Slowly but surely, the ideas are coming together, and I am so excited to conduct my own research.
Beginning week two, we made our decision of which PI we would work with. I chose to work with Dr. Nate because I want to do drug research when pursuing my own Ph.D. We began the week by making cultures for our bacteria to use throughout the week. These bacteria take varying times to divide, so it's often the first thing to do starting the week. The rest of week 2 was spent learning more procedures so that I can become more comfortable working in the lab. This included assays testing inhibition rates for enzymes, protein purification, and analysis of the data taken from the procedures. We ended our second week with a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, and it was nothing short of amazing.
Outside of the lab, it has been challenging. Being alone in a completely new city was daunting, but I have found it to be a very fun city. I was surprised to learn just how big tennis is here. Groups on social media are absolutely crawling with people trying to play at any time of day. I’m not complaining as I've had nothing but great experiences getting to train and work towards a great sophomore season playing for the Rams. I look forward to the rest of the internship, and I just know it's going to get better from here.
