They always say time flies when you’re having fun, and this summer has absolutely flown by! It’s hard to believe that my summer as a Health Science Research Fellow is almost complete! Since it has been a while, my name is Allie Redhair, and I am a rising senior majoring in chemistry. My summer research has been under the direction of Dr. Morgan DiLeo in the Department of Ophthalmology. I have been designing, fabricating, and testing various hydrogels to be used in glaucoma shunts. Most of my summer has been spent in the wet lab making hydrogels and using instruments to characterize their properties. My favorite instrument is the scanning electron microscope, which has allowed me to visualize my hydrogels at the nanoscale!
This summer was my first true independent research experience. While I had previously worked on projects with graduate students, taking the reins and overseeing a project was a whole different world. One of the biggest shifts in my understanding of research was how much time goes into planning experiments and diving into literature. Prior to this experience, I thought that data collection was the most important part of the research process. But now that I was the one deciding where to take my project, I realized that there’s a lot of thought that goes into writing up the protocol you bring into the lab with you. I learned to look for different experimental approaches in current papers, and how to think critically about how I could apply previous researcher’s methods to my work. As silly as it sounds, I have a much better idea of what research really entails, from the background work to the experiments.
The most valuable part of this experience was learning to embrace failure in the scientific process. I’ve heard many people say that “you learn more from the experiments that don’t work”, and I didn’t really believe them until I experienced it myself. My project was very exploratory, and there were many gels I made that did not exhibit any of the properties I was looking for. While this was frustrating at the benchtop, looking in the rearview mirror, I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to discover so many ways to make hydrogels. Not only did I expand my expertise in my field, I learned how to pivot and adapt. I learned how to think critically about my results and make informed changes to my formulations to move closer to finding a hydrogel with desirable properties. This summer has helped me become a more resilient researcher, who sees an experiment gone awry as an open door for learning and discovery.
Looking forward, I am still planning on applying to PhD programs in the fall to continue my work in drug delivery and biomaterials. Thanks to the Health Science Fellowship, I am also applying for the NSF GRFP, which I would have never considered before this opportunity. I am excited for the chance to write a research proposal and potentially have my graduate studies funded. I also hope to present my research from the summer at conferences and prepare a manuscript for publication. I’m very excited to continue my work with hydrogels and polymeric biomaterials, both at Pitt and beyond!
