Many students perceive research as an interesting yet frustrating task that has little relevance to their life in the future. Although very frustrating at times, research in any scenario teaches valuable skills that are useful in one’s future aspirations regardless of the chosen career path. I had experience with some wet lab research in high school, but I wanted to get more research experience before deciding whether or not research was a path I wanted to pursue. While many students take large introductory lab courses their first year of college, I was able to delve into research at the DIY Diagnostics lab as a part of the Freshman Research Initiative.
When picking streams, DIY Diagnostics appealed the most to me. This lab is at the forefront of the do-it-yourself health and environmental diagnostics revolution. Before this stream, I never really thought about non-treatment targeted research. However, I really enjoyed learning about the diagnostic side of science and the variety of options it opens up. I also appreciated the variety of projects and the independence that DIY Diagnostics allowed: there are projects ranging from identifying the contaminant species in Waller Creek and creating Zika diagnostics to creating electronic wearables to detect UV and air quality. With this variety, I figured there was something for everyone and I was not disappointed.
I thoroughly enjoyed my spring semester in this lab as I learned not only many wet lab techniques such as extracting DNA, counting bacterial colonies, performing a qPCR and a pH-LAMP procedure just to name a few, but also other skills like basic programming, how to think like a researcher, and communicating scientific ideas effectively. Going in, I thought I would not like the coding aspect of the lab very much but it ended up peaking my interest the most. As part of the FRI summer fellowship, I worked on creating a UV sentinel device that tracks UV exposure amount as one goes about their daily activities not only to prevent exposure to excessive UV radiation and the associated effects such as sunburns, melanomas, and cataracts, but also to provide a way of measurement so individuals do not risk vitamin D insufficiency from not enough sunlight. Throughout this process, I was able to make meaningful connections both with professionals in the field and within the DIY community, learn invaluable wet lab technical skills and programming skills, and gained important critical thinking and presentation skills. I am so glad that I took a leap of faith and tried something completely different from the career path I saw myself on because it allowed me to develop skills that I never would have otherwise.