When I was a first semester freshman, I immediately noticed DIY Diagnostics as a stream completely different than the rest. While reading about the stream on the FRI website I was intrigued by how open-ended and applicable it was—two characteristics that are still true to this day—so I decided to go to the FRI Open House to meet the RE. This might seem trivial, but the most valuable piece of advice that an upperclassman gave me about choosing an FRI stream was to choose one with an approachable and personable RE. FRI students can spend many hours of lab a week and having an RE who actively tries to make lab a positive and fun environment makes the FRI experience a lot more enjoyable. Additionally, because this stream is only about a year old, there are new frontiers and new experiences that we haven’t even begun to explore yet. Some people consider FRI as a stepping stone to other undergraduate or graduate labs, but I see a huge potential in DIY Diagnostics to be more than that. The students in this lab are already working on projects that have never been done before and most of us are just turning 20. DIY Diagnostics is primed for discoveries, publications, and one of the best research learning experiences.
The ultimate goal of DIY Diagnostics is to develop at-home diagnostics tests to promote health and facilitate the medical process. I’m currently working on a project called FRIome. We are in the process of correlating the concentrations of different kinds of bacteria in saliva samples to health habits of our participants. For example, certain types of bacteria that are found to be major determinants or contributors to heart disease may be found in the saliva of participants with a family history of heart disease. These correlations can help us determine how our everyday health choices can affect our susceptibility to non-communicable diseases. In the future, hopefully we can detect these diseases purely through a simple saliva test and provide the necessary treatment even before the diseases progress. Although we are still in the research phase of this project, I am extremely excited to see where the FRIome may lead us!
Because of FRI, I feel as if I’ve developed a more research-oriented mind. So much has been done in the last century in the field of science, and we have made great strides in the research community in terms of discovery and invention. However, there are still diseases to eradicate, cancers to cure, and healthy lifestyles to promote. With this growing research background, I feel more empowered to approach and solve these issues in our community today, and now that I have the tools and skills needed to do so, there is nothing in my way.