Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
For my STEP Signature Project, I conducted research on Invasive Lobular Cancer (ILC), which is a subtype of breast cancer that comes with a poor prognosis. I worked on a project looking to understand the mechanisms by which ILC is able to resist standard endocrine therapies given to breast cancer patients. In addition to understanding therapy resistance, we are working to identify additional novel therapeutic strategies to target ILC. During my STEP experience, I worked with a set of 5 cell lines and ran a series of different experiments with them, including drug response assays, western blotting, and quantitative PCR. The STEP experience has been an excellent continuation of the research that I began as a first-year student and a great opportunity to make concrete progress on my research project.
What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
While working on my STEP Signature Project, I learned lessons about patience and the slow-moving nature of science. Throughout the course of my research project, there have been many setbacks and I have had to persevere and find ways to innovate around any problems. I learned about the slow and meticulous process of research, and these important lessons will be critical and stick with me for the rest of my life. When an experiment does not go right, or when we get results that make absolutely no sense, it is important to troubleshoot and really think through every step in the process. Throughout the course of my experience, I learned how to effectively troubleshoot and problem solve, which are extremely important skills that I will need to have with me in the future. Taking everything into consideration is extremely important and critical for forward progress, and I sometimes learned this the hard way during my STEP experience.
What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
My STEP project focused on the undergraduate research project that I have been working on for the last three years. As a member of Dr. Ramaswamy’s research group, I am working to understand endocrine therapy resistance in Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC), which is a form of breast cancer. As a part of this experience, I have had the opportunity to meet some of Dr. Ramaswamy’s patients, many of whom are struggling with the same problems that we are working to solve in the lab. Seeing these patients makes our work so much more tangible, seeing the potential that we have to impact someone’s life, making my work all the more serious. Thus, when faced with setbacks in the lab, it can be easy to get frustrated, knowing that so much is on the line. These moments afforded the opportunity for tremendous growth, as I was able to push through and really learn under fire.
During my research project, I have waged war on the cancer cells that are critical for my project. Initially, I struggled immensely with their growth, not being able to get them to grow quickly enough to conduct experiments. The cancer I work with generally does grow slower, but these cells were growing abnormally slow. We needed to take a step back and analyze potential reasons for the slow growth. We experimented with the composition of the media, parsing through all of the individual variables until we found something that positively impacted the growth. It was also extremely important to take a dive into the available literature, to analyze and find important information that could point us in the right direction. This critical lesson on the scientific process was important, and it provided a real-time opportunity to put the process into practice.
During my STEP experience, I have also seen myself becoming more patient. Research, especially bench research, tends to be very slow-moving. Add in the fact that the cancer that I am working with naturally progresses slowly, this meant I had to be very patient. There were many times where I have been frustrated with the presumptive lack of progress that I have made, however, I was reassured by my mentors and by looking at the bigger picture. In the course of the last three years that I have been working on this project, I have been able to advance my knowledge of basic science principles, my understanding of cancer, while also uncovering some cool data as well. The many times in the lab where I have had to wait will be extremely valuable for me in the future. My experience working on research with STEP has truly been an opportunity to transform myself and become a better person. While I might not have uncovered as much data as I had hoped, I have learned lessons that will last a lifetime.
Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
My ultimate goal is to become a physician-scientist, and working in the lab and becoming more patient, and learning how to troubleshoot will be essential in the future. Next year, I will be moving along to medical school, where the stakes will be raised again, and I will have to tackle increasingly difficult problems in stressful situations. In these times, the patience and problem-solving skills that I have learned in the lab will be crucial and extremely beneficial. The basic science skills and research mentality will also help me tremendously, as I hope to be heavily involved with research in medical school. I will also need that patience, because I still have a long way to go with my training, and ultimately, I will be embarking on a lifetime of learning. From my experiences shadowing physicians in the clinic, I have seen how important problem solving and teamwork are for solving difficult patient cases. These important skills that I have picked up as an undergraduate in the lab will prove to be essential in these times as well. Ultimately, I know that I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, and I am motivated to keep pushing myself towards my final goal.