I wanted to use this post to highlight and thank the undergraduate and high school research assistants who work in our laboratory. They presented our project recently and won awards!

Ishtiak and I after the science fair awards ceremony.

Our high school student, Ishtiak Aziz, earned 1st place in the Bravo Medical Magnet School science fair in the pharmacology category. Unfortunately, due to the LA county science fair regulations on animals and cell lines, he isn’t eligible to compete at the county level, although I’m sure he’ll still be busy with AP classes and graduation. Ishtiak comes in to lab every day of the week, for 4 hours each day, and balances extra-curricular activities, research, and classes.

Aleks, Megan, and Ed presenting during the research symposium.

Me, Megan, Aleks, and Dr. Davies (our PI) at the USC research symposium banquet.

Our undergraduate students Megan Ryu, Edward Jeon , and Aleksandra Konovnitsyna received honorable mention in the 21st Annual Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work at USC, which had over 200 participants this year. Our laboratory is located 30 minutes away from the University Park campus, where the overwhelming majority of USC undergrads study, so students who work in our lab must constantly keep an eye on the clock so that they catch the right shuttle and make it to their classes on time. Megan, Ed, and Aleks contacted Dr. Daryl Davies, the principal investigator of our laboratory, last year, asking for the opportunity to work in on a research project. It has been a pleasure having them in the lab, and we’re excited to see their next steps: Ed will be graduating this May with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology and plans to apply to medical schools next year; Aleks is a Human Biology major, and plans to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience next year; Megan is a Health & Human Sciences and Spanish double major, plans to apply to Medical school next year, and was award the Provost undergraduate research fellowship for Fall 2018, and Spring and Summer of 2019.

Alan, the first high school student I mentored. Also pictured is Wilson, the stuffed frog egg we use to teach students techniques like electrophysiology/injections and our lab mascot.

Science is a team effort, and without our students, the project would come to a screeching halt. I go out of my way to make sure students in our lab are learning and stay busy; not because we are hard-pressed for data (even though we are) but because I respect their time and commitment to the project.

Tahmina, Jesse, Wilson, and I in lab on Jesse’s last day in lab.

I want to also thank previous lab members: Alan Guan (HS researcher 2016-2017), Tahmina Hasan (HS researcher 2017-2018) and Jesse Chen ( undergraduate researcher 2017-2018). Alan joined during the very beginning of the project, when I first started in Dr. Davies’ lab. Together, we optimized experiments, and thanks to Alan and our undergraduate Jesse’s hard work, the project had finally taken off. Jesse helped me troubleshoot and repair a broken electrophysiology rig in lab, which doubled our productivity. Alan went on to study Mechanical Engineering at UCLA, and Jesse graduated from USC last May with a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences, and is planning on going to pharmacy school next year. Tahmina joined lab when we had a lot of questions/experiments, and was responsible for generating an insane amount of data. Tahmina was an amazing student in lab; so much that I trusted her to teach our new (at the time) students (Ed, Aleks, and Megan) how to perform electrophysiology experiments. Tahmina went on to attend Dartmouth, and is interested in attending medical school. Brandon Reyes is a student at Santa Monica College (SMC), and joined lab around the same time as Ed, Aleks, and Megan. Brandon makes a long commute each week from home/school, and often stays in lab as late as me. We trust Brandon with our oocyte (frog egg) injections, which can make or break (rarely thanks to him) our experiments each week. Brandon is a Biochemistry major at SMC, plans on transferring to a 4-year school next year.

Brandon running an electrophysiology experiment (and smiling!).

Brandon doing injections (as always). Thank you Brandon!

I want to recognize/highlight everyone’s perseverance. Science is frustrating because experiments sometimes don’t work out, and it’s not always clear why. Our students have spent dozens of hours in lab working on experiments that ultimately fail to give any results, yet they still come to lab ready to try again. I can see that they get frustrated sometimes, but they’ve never quit, and for that we’re thankful!

Research is tough regardless of who is doing it; you’re working on a problem that no one has ever done before. I’m proud of Ishtiak, Brandon, Aleks, Megan, Ed, Tahmina, Jesse, and Alan for all their accomplishments and their development as young scientists!