- 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 project, I spent my summer working as a research intern at the Wyss Institute, an interdisciplinary research institute focused on the translation of scientific discoveries into health and environmental technology. Through Dr. William Shih’s Lab, I worked with the Crisscross Nanoconstruction team, where my role was to support the advancement of downstream applications of DNA nanotechnology using the crisscross technique. Throughout my experience, I gained tangible scientific research experience with both molecular biology techniques and software development, as well as design and organization skills through creating my own experiments and developing algorithms to optimize my device.
- 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.
Even before I stepped foot into the Wyss, I had always been intensely curious about how to leverage nature’s machinery (from DNA to proteins to bacteria) to build more biologically-based technologies. Working with the lab opened my eyes to the many applications and possibilities that can emerge from one single type of biomolecule. Crisscross nanoconstruction, the technique my lab developed which uses DNA as a building block for multi-micron structures, appealed to me as a unique way of engineering without hindrance from design and physical constrains present in other types of biological manufacturing and material engineering, With a design space built on DNA origami “slats” which glue together through complementary base pairing, the only significant hindrance to building a 2D structure was your own creativity (though this was evidently more difficult for structures with higher dimensions and complexity). Therefore, the experience transformed my perspective on research not only as inquiry, but also as creativity – where we leveraged inspiration from art to gain a deeper understanding of the molecular interactions that facilitated the growth of our nanoscale constructions. Through being mentored by a postdoctoral researcher and continuously brainstorming and discussing problems with the Crisscross team, this experience heightened my ability to take ownership over my own scientific and creative endeavors. Working among the team of researchers, each with their dedicated role in advancing crisscross technology, underscored that research is not an isolated pursuit. Research is a collaborative pipeline, with multiple parts working together to break down the results of an experiment and obsess over building our platform for the utmost optimization and performance. Overall, the persistence and innovative practice I gained built my confidence as a researcher and cultivated my joy in sharing science with others.
- 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.
One of my aims while working at a research institute was to reflect on what it means to be a scientist and identify if this was a mold that aligned with my inclinations and strengths. In addition, professionally, I was intent on understanding if research would be a suitable career path for me. This endeavor was split between finding areas at the intersection of biology, engineering, and math that piqued my interest and being attentive to the traits and qualities that made the researchers I worked with successful and perpetually passionate about their work. Then, I reflected on recognizing (or building) these characteristics in my own personality. During my first day working with my mentor in the lab, we drudged through a weekend’s worth of preparation to test a pipetting robot. Despite being an exciting start, the experiment inevitably failed and foreshadowed the months of repetitive failures that would come ahead of me. Yet during the preparation, we fell into a fascinating conversation on math and biology, where I was introduced to the periodic waves linked to the spatiotemporal activation of Hox genes and projects in DNA origami that leveraged algorithms and nature as a computing tool. I was immediately hooked by the breadth of the field that had been unearthed for me, and over the course of my internship, the excitement of reading literature would give me the forward momentum when my experiments showed little progress, allowing me to realize the joy I experienced while being around science.
The close relationships that I developed with my mentor, PI, and other members of the team also allowed me to define what it means to be a scientist: to ideate, be inquisitive, and not to fear failure but to embrace possibilities. On top of the diligence and attention to detail everyone showed in their work, I was constantly inspired by the creative and playful drive they all had in many facets of their life. Outside of the “tinkering around” that my mentor would do in the lab, she was an experimental cook, dabbled in perfumery, and even synthesized her own music. Furthermore, the scientists and science-adjacent individuals I met through my social circles in Boston shared this love for exploration – from stop-motion animation to excelling in niche forms of surfing. Even my roommate, an MIT graduate, shaped my recipe-following ways to become a more dedicated scientist in the kitchen, where we spent each night working on a single dessert, manipulating a new variable each iteration to perfect the final bake. Taking part in these moments of play reminded me that the scientific method doesn’t always take place in the lab, and the constant exploration I observed people doing with their experiments and hobbies allowed me to remove some of the perfectionism I felt around my career endeavors.
As someone passionate about many subjects, I struggled with knowing what career path and degree were best suited for me, an internal conflict that made the past two years of college especially challenging. During a one-on-one meeting with my PI, I expressed how my interest in designing with biological materials was shaped by my experience in his lab and sought his advice on how I should focus my studies. It was only a simple response – “study physics and chemistry with a life science application” that he gave, yet the phrasing and context made those words resonate deeply with my own interests. He underscored the importance of how a mechanistic understanding of molecular interactions is important for harnessing nature’s mechanisms – heeding to both my curiosity and desire to create – and it felt as if a new sense of excitement had been lit inside of me. Taking this sense of direction forward with my other experiences, I came to see science not just as a career path but as a way of thinking, and I left with a deeper excitement for the possibilities ahead.
- 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 transformative experience was crucial to connecting with my personal and professional interests. Returning to school after completing my internship, I’ve returned with a new excitement about exploring classes to gain a better understanding of fundamentals in engineering, from thermodynamics to process design, and more fields of research in biotechnology beyond the molecular level. Prior to this summer, I had experienced burnout from studying pure physics and science, and believed I wasn’t interested or capable of pursuing it. However, through my conversations with researchers and getting to understand how mechanics and energy shape our abilities to manipulate the nanoscale world, I’ve become increasingly passionate about taking more classes in these areas to build a solid, interdisciplinary foundation for graduate school and further research endeavors.
