Student Research Experiences

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1. Biology major, 4th year

   Research at U.Va. did not begin as something I was interested in as a first year undergraduate. To be absolutely honest, it wasn't even on my radar. I liked biological sciences, but that was pretty much all I had to go on. By the spring of my second year, however, I realized how much research would play in what I thought would be my future career: infectious disease. I had taken two classes that semester, one in conservation and one in virology, with the hopes of narrowing down which aspect of biology I preferred. Though the conservation course was interesting, I fell in love with virology, and so decided to run with it. I contacted a few professors and found the one undergraduate professor who worked with disease. I was (and still am) shocked about how little of a focus disease is at the undergraduate level, but I latched on as soon as I found him. Although the medical school had an entire wing devoted to infectious disease, the idea of working with a number of graduate students at such an upper level was little intimidating, so, I opted for the closer relationship I would develop at the undergraduate level. I began to study a sexually transmitted infection of a flower my mentor's lab had a particular interest in. The work was not overbearing, but time-consuming, and I found myself constantly asking questions when I wasn't sure where my next step would land. In the end, I was proud of my project, which developed into a research design I planned and implemented on my own, if guided by the hands of my mentor. Research at U.Va. was not impossible to complete or hard to implement, but a time for me to work independently and show my capabilities as a disease scientist.

2. Environmental Science and Biology double major, 3rd year

   My goal for after I graduate is to go to graduate school, so I wanted to get as much research experience as possible. I have worked in three labs so far and each was a unique experience. My first lab position was through a Department of Energy Internship, where I went to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. I was there for 10 weeks the summer after my first year. At the lab I had a project on studying the possible causes of multiple sclerosis (MS). By stacking lipids bilayers and seeing how different concentrations of proteins affected the assembly's movement and characteristics I was able to get a sense on what caused motility of the membranes to stop, leading to more questions on if it is a possible cause of MS. It was cool to put the knowledge I had just learned in my Molecular biology class into use. Also, New Mexico had some of the best outdoors activities and it was one of the best summers to join learning in a lab with the excitement of the wilderness. My second research experience was here at UVa. I took a different approach, and decided to do research in the biomedical engineering (BME) department, under Professor Guilford. Here I worked on, and am still currently working on, studying a uni-cellular alga, Chlamydomonas, and how their flagella function in response to light. I'm currently researching the motor proteins in the flagella and trying to determine specific characteristics of the motors, which has never been done before. This is done by working with a laser trap, which can trap a cell or bead and measure the force they exert. It is definitely a different experience to work in the engineering department, but I have been able to acquire unique skills. My third experience was the summer after my second year, where I did another internship but this time at Cornell University in New York. In this 11 week internship I did cancer detection research. I worked on purifying a bioluminescent protein which would be used to attach to a quantum dot, a man-made nanocrystal, which had a specific antibody attached which could detect cancer cells in-vivo. I really enjoyed working on this project due to the atmosphere of my lab. There were 40 people in it, so there as never a dull moment. All my research experiences have been worth while and I have learned so much from doing hands on experience. I'm hopefully going to be working in one more lab when I go to Australia in the Spring of '08 semester. I also hope to do a distinguished majors project here a UVa while I continue on with my project in the BME department.

3. Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics double major, 3rd year

   During my first year at the University of Virginia, I was not certain that I would enjoy conducting research in a lab, but since I have always been interested in science, I e-mailed dozens of professors, asking them to allow me to experience what research is all about. Todd Stukenberg welcomed me into his lab and started me on a project concerning the cellular phenomenon called glutamylation, which is not well understood by scientists. At first I was excited doing research, but after a couple weeks, I began to dislike it because my project was beginning to be tedious, constantly documenting the numerous pictures of cells I took. However, after organizing the pictures, Todd and I discovered peculiar characteristics of glutamylation, and I began to experience the excitement and thrill of discovering something no one else has seen. Now, I conduct experiments and do tedious documentation and quantification of data with the anticipation of discovery. By having a primary role in this project, I have watched its development literally from its inception, and I am now convinced that the thrill of scientific research outweighs any temporary monotony.
   
   The chemistry department at U.Va. has also been helpful in notifying me of summer research opportunities out-of-state and even abroad. During the past summer, I participated in a research program at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City. I had the most amazing summer, doing research and exploring the city, and I would not have had this experience if it had not been for the support provided by U.Va. Due to my research experiences at U.Va. and Sloan Kettering, I am certain scientific research is a career I want to pursue.

4. Neuroscience major, 4th year

   My history with research started in my senior year of high school. Though it began as an academic endeavor, it has since expanded past the school year and my last two summers have been spent at the National Institutes of Health. But the research that has been most important to me and has taken up the majority of my time and effort has been with the Brunjes lab at the University of Virginia. My investigation into how olfactory stimuli are represented in the mammalian piriform cortex started in my second year and will continue until my graduation as part of my Distinguished Majors Thesis.
   
   Generating viable data with fluorescent in situ hybridization has proven difficult. Time constraints and equipment/supply problems have slowed our progress. Numerous times we have had to revise our protocol and question the veracity of our previously-acquired data. We are just now perfecting the techniques with control subjects and are on the verge of collecting usable data. While we have no publishable results at this time, my experiences here have taught me an immeasurable amount about both science and myself.
   
   Researching at the University of Virginia has afforded me a level of freedom, responsibility, and involvement unknown to me at the National Institutes of Health. I have matured as a researcher and as a member of the scientific and medical community. I have become inextricably linked to the research I perform, no longer someone who works in a lab on olfaction, but an olfactory researcher myself. I find myself personally exhilarated every time we discover something new and profound; I feel disappointment every time we look under the confocal microscope and find damaged tissue or extensive background staining. My time in the lab is no longer a matter of working until the ten weeks are over, but working until my data is sufficiently conclusive and the research is thoroughly complete. As such, dedication to the project is integral to success and I must push myself when problems arise and results are slow to come. I have had to spend significantly more time in lab than I at first expected and as a result have formed important, lasting relationships with the other lab members. Research as a whole has illuminated more about myself than any other single experience in college.

5. Psychology and Economics double major, 4th year

   My experience with research at the University began as soon as I entered my first year. Despite the minor deterrent of having no concept of my major let alone the specific research field of most interest to me, I began searching online at UVA departmental websites in order to find professors whose research domains sounded interesting. I reached out to several through email, and began working soon after in a large psychology research lab. As a research assistant, the work was cumbersome and administrative-heavy. However when the graduate students for whom I worked told me about their data findings and the conceptual theories behind the studies, my curiosity in the work was inexorably whetted.
   
   At the end of my first year, I began contacting and speaking with professors again in the Psychology department to find a spot in which I could have more freedom and independence as a researcher. I wanted to have the experience of designing my own study from start to finish - a study with a literature review, data analysis, and tangible findings at the end. I entered the Jefferson Psychometric lab under Professor Karen Schmidt and have worked there for the past 2 and a half years. I have been afforded an incredible amount of research independence due to the trust and guidance of my faculty mentor there.
   
   Our studies have a wide range of subject matter, but a prevailing interest is in the measurement components of psychological assessments for individuals with chronic pain. After designing a questionnaire to capture physiological and psychological aspects of pain, I collected data from over 900 participants and analyzed the implications of many of the scales. Last semester I presented my work at several conferences and this semester I intend to publish it. I received several grants, totaling about $8,000 in order to further examine effects of culture on pain experiences. I went to south India this past summer and hope to return in the winter to finish the study. My Distinguished Majors project will be a twist on similar work, examining pain and emotional affect through a social psychological lens.

6. Political and Social Thought major, 4th year

   The Harrison Research Award funded my project on "Gender and Power in the American South," a three month program of research that provided the basis for my thesis in the Political and Social Thought major. My research goal was to shed insight on the significant number (relative to the rest of the nation) of women elected to the U.S. Senate from the South, despite the influence of the region's traditionalism. Many of the assumptions fundamental to this research question required substantiation, and I spent the months of June and July 2006 in Charlottesville, using the University's resources for a thorough background review in the areas of Southern politics, Southern women's history, and gender and political representation.
   
   Once the more academic area of my research was completed, I traveled to three of the four Southern states represented by women Senators--North Carolina, Arkansas, and Louisiana--to interview dozens of individuals who had been involved in the campaigns, either as staff for the Senator or her opponent, as members of the press, as a constituent, or as an academic observer. These conversations provided invaluable perspective in understanding the broader societal phenomena, such as Southern standards of chivalry and traditional familial archetypes, underlying the election of these women. Beyond a doubt, this first-person research enriched my thesis arguments and, perhaps more importantly, challenged me to be a more resourceful and critically-minded student.