Saturday, July 15, 2006
How did I hear of Reed?
Reed is a tiny little liberal arts school with about 1350 students, and so naturally it would make sense that not a whole lot of people have heard of it. I've been asked the question many times: how did I hear of Reed?
Well, ever since I was little, I thought I was going to go to Berkeley. My mother went there for grad school, and since my dad went to Stanford, there was always a joking Stanford vs. Berkeley rivalry in the house. When I was a kid, those were the first schools I was exposed to by name (before Harvard or Yale, even), and I liked the sound of Berkeley better. I had a sweatshirt (in my favorite color at the time--lavender) with Cal's seal. By the time I got to early/mid high school I was well aware that I wasn't enough of a superstar academic to get into Stanford, but Berkeley was still an option, perhaps. Plus, in early high school, I thought I wanted to study biology (and guess what? I've changed my mind three or four times, and now I've come a full circle), and Berkeley seemed like a good place for that (although I suppose in reality I could study biology at a lot of different places). Plus, I always knew I wanted to go back to the West Coast because I had this notion that culturally the people were different, and it was something I would mesh with.
In high school I changed my self-conception and idea of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life more times worth recording (this still changes constantly, but I've learned to accept it; life's exciting that way). By mid sophomore, early junior year, Berkeley looked less appealing for a number of reasons. First of all, it was huge. I used to think I wanted to go to a large school with lots of opportunities, but I began to think it might be nice to go somewhere very small--smaller than New Trier, even--where I could get more individualized attention and interaction with my professors. Also, at the time, I didn't feel like I could get into Berkeley either.
I began looking at schools, primary small liberal arts schools and West Coast schools. My dad mentioned Reed, because one of his friends from high school went there. I read the description of the school, and suddenly I found a school that sounded perfect. A visit to the campus confirmed this conviction.
The fact that it was in the part of the country I wanted to be in was really just an added bonus; what really drew me in was its social and intellectual atmosphere (which was a little different from anywhere else I visited). I could go on and on about this for ages; I actually wrote a rather long essay about it for my application. After I visited Reed, I became much less geographically focused, and much more atmosphere focused, trying to find other schools more like Reed academically. Throughout the rest of the college process I knew exactly where I wanted to be, and the thought that I might have to go anywhere else was very distressing.
I can be very decisive when I have a hunch that something feels like the right choice.
Well, ever since I was little, I thought I was going to go to Berkeley. My mother went there for grad school, and since my dad went to Stanford, there was always a joking Stanford vs. Berkeley rivalry in the house. When I was a kid, those were the first schools I was exposed to by name (before Harvard or Yale, even), and I liked the sound of Berkeley better. I had a sweatshirt (in my favorite color at the time--lavender) with Cal's seal. By the time I got to early/mid high school I was well aware that I wasn't enough of a superstar academic to get into Stanford, but Berkeley was still an option, perhaps. Plus, in early high school, I thought I wanted to study biology (and guess what? I've changed my mind three or four times, and now I've come a full circle), and Berkeley seemed like a good place for that (although I suppose in reality I could study biology at a lot of different places). Plus, I always knew I wanted to go back to the West Coast because I had this notion that culturally the people were different, and it was something I would mesh with.
In high school I changed my self-conception and idea of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life more times worth recording (this still changes constantly, but I've learned to accept it; life's exciting that way). By mid sophomore, early junior year, Berkeley looked less appealing for a number of reasons. First of all, it was huge. I used to think I wanted to go to a large school with lots of opportunities, but I began to think it might be nice to go somewhere very small--smaller than New Trier, even--where I could get more individualized attention and interaction with my professors. Also, at the time, I didn't feel like I could get into Berkeley either.
I began looking at schools, primary small liberal arts schools and West Coast schools. My dad mentioned Reed, because one of his friends from high school went there. I read the description of the school, and suddenly I found a school that sounded perfect. A visit to the campus confirmed this conviction.
The fact that it was in the part of the country I wanted to be in was really just an added bonus; what really drew me in was its social and intellectual atmosphere (which was a little different from anywhere else I visited). I could go on and on about this for ages; I actually wrote a rather long essay about it for my application. After I visited Reed, I became much less geographically focused, and much more atmosphere focused, trying to find other schools more like Reed academically. Throughout the rest of the college process I knew exactly where I wanted to be, and the thought that I might have to go anywhere else was very distressing.
I can be very decisive when I have a hunch that something feels like the right choice.
My summer internship
This summer I've been working at a diabetes research lab at UIC medical center. The director of the project is a Swiss transplant surgeon named Jose Oberholzer, and it's really been a great experience so far.
The lab specializes in isloating islets of Langerhans (the part that scretes insulin and glucagon) from the pancreas from donor tissue through a process of ezymatic digestion with a collaginase (it basically eats the connective tissue around the islets and distroys it) and mechanical digestion through shaking the tissue with marbles. Then it goes through a series of centrifuging and other methods that seperate the tissue by density. After the cells are seperated, they are purified and tested and injected into a patient's liver where they embed themselves and function as they would in a pancreas. By seperating the necessary tissue, the doctors can create a much less invasive procedue, which is good for the diabetic patient because there is less tissue trauma and therefore less recovery time.
There are many problems with this entire procedure that could be improved, though. One is that the patient needs to be put on immunosuppressive drugs so that he or she does not reject these islet cells, as with any transplant surgery. The hope is in the future we will be able to encapsulate the cells with a material that will have pores big transfer nutrients and insulin, but small enough so the immune system cannot attack it. Currently researchers are making capsules in Norway, and they ship us encapsulated islets for research.
Barbara Barbaro, the researcher I'm teamed up with is working on an experiment related to apoptosis of cells, or programmed cell death. In the islets, the cells that release insulin also release a number of other proteins, including this one protein called pander, which appears to induce apoptosis. This could further explain diabetes, because once the cells have a greater demand for insulin (as in type II diabetes) they could die at a faster rate. She is testing pander levels compared to levels a protein that is known to cause apoptosis caspase under varying conditions.
But anyway, enough technical biological jargon. Besides the neat research that's being done, I love the team and I the other interns are great kids that are also very self-motivated and fun. There are people from all over the world, and they are used to having students around the lab, and are very friendly (one of the other interns and one of the researchers decided to play tennis after work yesterday, and Barbara tried to teach me some Italian). In addition, I occasionally get to observe surgery. Earlier this summer I got to observe a kidney transplant, which was facinating.
After this experience and after how much I loved my AP biology class my senior year of high school, I've decided that when I get to Reed, I am going to major in either biology or biochemistry, and leave medical school as an option afterwards. I think I might want to go into surgery, but that's a long time from now.
Reed has very good biology program, and they require all their students to do a senior thesis. If you are a science major, you have the option of doing a lab-based thesis and essentially design your own experiment. This seems like it could potentially be another great experience, although again, there is quite some time between then and now.
Overall, I can't wait for school to start and to get to Portland!
The lab specializes in isloating islets of Langerhans (the part that scretes insulin and glucagon) from the pancreas from donor tissue through a process of ezymatic digestion with a collaginase (it basically eats the connective tissue around the islets and distroys it) and mechanical digestion through shaking the tissue with marbles. Then it goes through a series of centrifuging and other methods that seperate the tissue by density. After the cells are seperated, they are purified and tested and injected into a patient's liver where they embed themselves and function as they would in a pancreas. By seperating the necessary tissue, the doctors can create a much less invasive procedue, which is good for the diabetic patient because there is less tissue trauma and therefore less recovery time.
There are many problems with this entire procedure that could be improved, though. One is that the patient needs to be put on immunosuppressive drugs so that he or she does not reject these islet cells, as with any transplant surgery. The hope is in the future we will be able to encapsulate the cells with a material that will have pores big transfer nutrients and insulin, but small enough so the immune system cannot attack it. Currently researchers are making capsules in Norway, and they ship us encapsulated islets for research.
Barbara Barbaro, the researcher I'm teamed up with is working on an experiment related to apoptosis of cells, or programmed cell death. In the islets, the cells that release insulin also release a number of other proteins, including this one protein called pander, which appears to induce apoptosis. This could further explain diabetes, because once the cells have a greater demand for insulin (as in type II diabetes) they could die at a faster rate. She is testing pander levels compared to levels a protein that is known to cause apoptosis caspase under varying conditions.
But anyway, enough technical biological jargon. Besides the neat research that's being done, I love the team and I the other interns are great kids that are also very self-motivated and fun. There are people from all over the world, and they are used to having students around the lab, and are very friendly (one of the other interns and one of the researchers decided to play tennis after work yesterday, and Barbara tried to teach me some Italian). In addition, I occasionally get to observe surgery. Earlier this summer I got to observe a kidney transplant, which was facinating.
After this experience and after how much I loved my AP biology class my senior year of high school, I've decided that when I get to Reed, I am going to major in either biology or biochemistry, and leave medical school as an option afterwards. I think I might want to go into surgery, but that's a long time from now.
Reed has very good biology program, and they require all their students to do a senior thesis. If you are a science major, you have the option of doing a lab-based thesis and essentially design your own experiment. This seems like it could potentially be another great experience, although again, there is quite some time between then and now.
Overall, I can't wait for school to start and to get to Portland!
