Through the HSRF, I hope to learn all about other students’ research within their respective fields. I work in a psychiatry lab which focuses primarily on behavioral tests in mice and their applications with OCD. Thus, I hope to gain more insight not only in other labs who study mice, but also to learn from those who conduct clinical studies as well as others whose labs who specifically analyze cell cultures. Through learning about these different labs, I can understand more about specific techniques used within them and potentially interesting applications of their studies. Additionally, I hope to learn about other’s goals and ideas for applying to and navigating through their graduate studies. Learning about ways to get more involved within my lab through those who may have taken extra steps that I have yet to discover is an exciting prospect. Last but not least, learning about other students’ interests outside of school and research will help us grow closer and foster friendlier interactions outside of the usual Tuesday meetings.

I notice many similarities between my research and others, especially those working with mice. Between psychiatry and many of the other labs, I noticed that my lab is one of the few to perform direct behavioral testing whereas others may measure the amount or size tumors while others may analyze the effects of certain compounds on cells. I also have yet to hear of another lab performing optogenetics, which is a fairly common practice for altering the activity of neurons in my lab. However, there are other students who analyze neurons and performed data analysis on them, which I am learning to do for my project.

I found a couple projects interesting so far, such as the ones in the gamma knife lab and the pain research lab. To measure the effectiveness of gamma knife radiology in removing tumors from patients sounds like a very interesting and eye-opening study that we can benefit much from learning about. Also, the knowledge that pain has both emotional and physical components interested me a lot, and I am excited to see where that project stands by the end of summer.

Working with people across disciplines is beneficial in that it provides outside perspectives on my own project. Those who focus on different aspects of cells and look for different kinds of results in their own projects will have unique interpretations of my own research that can help drive it forward or open new windows for observations altogether. On potential obstacle is the difficulty of effectively communicating the intricacies of our respective studies with those who may not know the specific terminology used by scholars in the field. However, with more practice and exposure, this obstacle will be easy to overcome.