As the semester comes to an end (only one more month left!), I wanted to take the time and reflect on my time in CURF with Dr. Du’s lab. For every semester I’ve been in her lab, I’ve learned more and more about the research process and what it means to be a student researcher. I think that conducting research can be intimidating for both new and established researchers. Research can sometimes be frustrating and it’s easy to become discouraged when you’re not getting the results that you want when you’re putting so much time into the experiment. I’ve definitely felt this way before because sometimes I’ll spend a week or two culturing cells only to find that the cells are not in good condition. Another case I’ve had before was when I was staining cells, the concentration ended up being too high, and the images ended up cluttered and unreadable. However, there were other times where my experiments turned out the way I wanted them and I felt proud to get the results that I wanted. Essentially, I’ve learned that what you read in papers are the best results accumulated by countless hours of research. The research process is all about learning from your mistakes and being able to understand that you might not get the data that you want right away. Being able to critically think and adapt is crucial to being successful in the lab. 

Your best resources are the other members within your lab. Oftentimes, they will be postdocs or fellows in the lab that are experts within the field. I would always ask for help from my postdocs when I was confused or stuck on what went wrong in my experiments. They’ve done the techniques so many times that small things that you might not know or catch, they’ll be able to notice. My overall advice is that being proactive and asking questions will get you far. Showing effort in trying to fix your mistakes and understand the research that you’re doing will demonstrate that you want to improve and learn. Therefore, this could help you get opportunities in getting your own project or more responsibilities in the lab! 

With CURF coming to an end, I plan to continue research within my lab throughout the summer and throughout my senior year! The work I personally do within the lab is slow but steady, but I’m extremely proud to be making personal developments as a student researcher. Once my results are more established, I hope to present my research at a fair or conference. Even if this doesn’t happen, I know I’ve gained many lifelong skills useful towards my future endeavors to being a physician!