Exploring Biomedical Research Seminar: Spring 2013
While searching for Honors Experience opportunities, I was ecstatic to find a seminar offered that perfectly aligned with my educational and career interests. The course description suggested the course would introduce students to a variety of laboratory settings and opportunities within the realm of Biomedical Research. Due to the fact my intentions are to perform research as a part of my career, this course was perfect for my first experience.
This course met once a week for three hours on the Medical Campus. First, a Primary Investigator or a few members from a lab would give a presentation about the projects and research being conducted in their lab. After the presentations, we would then procede to the actual lab to see their actual environments. After visiting the first few labs, the rest all seemed rather redundant settings. However, some labs would go beyond giving us a simple tour. Some gave demonstrations or showed the processes they utilize in their work. For example, when we visited Dr. Jim Eliassen, whose research involves the use of Function Magnetic Resonance Imaging, rather than merely showing us the machine, he and his tech assistant actually performed a scan on a volunteer student. This was really neat and interesting to see the procedure occur in person. Also, for one meeting, we took a trip to the Metabolic Diseases Institute where we had the opportunity to see a variety of research projects and settings. This included cancer drug research as well as several types of animal-based studies.
In all, the course met my expectations. A few occassions the presentors seemed rather uninterested in sharing their work with us, which made it difficult to be engaged and interested during their presentations, but for the majority, it was very easy to get captivated and interested in hearing what exciting research and projects they were undertaking. This course made me more excited to get involved in research myself. Furthermore, it sparked my thoughts about what the course of actions I will pursure following receiving my undergraduate degree. Mainly this involves whether or not I will attend graduate school. Prior to this course, I had not considered specifically what I will do after graduating, since I had five years to figure that out. However, almost every week the graduate students we spoke with in the labs recounted their experiences in their undergraduate years and thus far in their graduate careers. Thus, this caused me to begin exploring my options to the potential paths I could choose in my future. First and foremost, though, I would like to get involved in a lab and research to find out for sure if research is something I enjoy and can see myself doing.
This course met once a week for three hours on the Medical Campus. First, a Primary Investigator or a few members from a lab would give a presentation about the projects and research being conducted in their lab. After the presentations, we would then procede to the actual lab to see their actual environments. After visiting the first few labs, the rest all seemed rather redundant settings. However, some labs would go beyond giving us a simple tour. Some gave demonstrations or showed the processes they utilize in their work. For example, when we visited Dr. Jim Eliassen, whose research involves the use of Function Magnetic Resonance Imaging, rather than merely showing us the machine, he and his tech assistant actually performed a scan on a volunteer student. This was really neat and interesting to see the procedure occur in person. Also, for one meeting, we took a trip to the Metabolic Diseases Institute where we had the opportunity to see a variety of research projects and settings. This included cancer drug research as well as several types of animal-based studies.
In all, the course met my expectations. A few occassions the presentors seemed rather uninterested in sharing their work with us, which made it difficult to be engaged and interested during their presentations, but for the majority, it was very easy to get captivated and interested in hearing what exciting research and projects they were undertaking. This course made me more excited to get involved in research myself. Furthermore, it sparked my thoughts about what the course of actions I will pursure following receiving my undergraduate degree. Mainly this involves whether or not I will attend graduate school. Prior to this course, I had not considered specifically what I will do after graduating, since I had five years to figure that out. However, almost every week the graduate students we spoke with in the labs recounted their experiences in their undergraduate years and thus far in their graduate careers. Thus, this caused me to begin exploring my options to the potential paths I could choose in my future. First and foremost, though, I would like to get involved in a lab and research to find out for sure if research is something I enjoy and can see myself doing.