From my spring semester freshman year (Spring 2016) until the summer after my sophomore year (Summer 2017), I worked in Dr. Brett Kaufman’s lab and assisted with various post-doctorate research projects. I began working in the lab through First Experiences in Research (FER), during which I was trained on lab protocols for DNA extraction, DNA quantification, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), quantitative PCR (qPCR), gel electrophoresis, cell culture, and basic mice handling. This lab’s work focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). While the term DNA typically refers to nuclear DNA (nDNA) which is present in the nuclei of all cells and is inherited from both parents, mtDNA is only present in the mitochondria and is maternally inherited.
Projects that I assisted on included a project looking at the role of the gene PIF1 in metabolic disease. This specific project looked at the impact of PIF1 deletions on mice blood glucose levels, motor/respiratory activity, and exercise tolerance. For this project, I assisted with managing colonies of mice with and without functional PIF1 genes, and subsequently extracted and analyzed DNA from mice tails to determine the genotypes of offspring. My FER poster presentation focused on this project. The Kaufman lab is a high-throughput genetics lab that often collaborates with other labs. As a result, I also performed many qPCR experiments for other research groups, most of which compared nDNA and mtDNA levels in various cells under various experimental conditions.
Though the vast majority of my work in the lab was not driven by my own hypotheses, I was able to perform one experiment of my own. This experiment tested a hypothesis if human cells infected with bacteria could release factors that induce other cells to release their mtDNA. Though this hypothesis was proven to be false in the context of my experiment, it was a valuable experience that taught me about experimental design (i.e. the necessity of negative and positive controls). My experience in the lab as a whole showed me the value of teamwork and multidisciplinary collaboration in research, as well as group communication via weekly lab meetings and one-on-one meetings with Dr. Kaufman, the principal investigator of the lab.