I am Krithika Ramachandran, B.Tech final year student of the department of Genetic Engineering and am currently doing my final year project at the Harvard Institute of Medicine (HIM). Our project work here is for a period of 5 months from the 1st of September till the mid of February.
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I am glad to have been given an opportunity to share my 1st months experience working in the lab at HIM.
My project work is on understanding kidney injury and repair at cellular and molecular level. As part of my project work from the very first day I have been told to get hands on experience of the various techniques that are very frequently used here. These involve the basic things like RNA isolation, real time PCR, protein purification, western blotting and genotyping.
Since our lab uses experimental models of mice, I am getting to observe and learn animal handling, how to perform surgery and sacrifice.
Apart from wet lab work we are also encouraged to read a lot of papers to know the recent developments with the kidney injury and repair in the world of science. There are weekly lab meeting, journal clubs and talks to discuss in detail as to how our work is coming along.
I work along side 2 postdoctoral fellows and a research trainee in my lab. They are all very helpful and have made me very comfortable in working with them.
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the International Office, SRM University for giving us this exposure. I also thank our HOD for having faith in my ability and selecting me for this program and all my professors for their invaluable support and encouragement.
My project work is on understanding kidney injury and repair at cellular and molecular level. As part of my project work from the very first day I have been told to get hands on experience of the various techniques that are very frequently used here. These involve the basic things like RNA isolation, real time PCR, protein purification, western blotting and genotyping.
Since our lab uses experimental models of mice, I am getting to observe and learn animal handling, how to perform surgery and sacrifice.
Apart from wet lab work we are also encouraged to read a lot of papers to know the recent developments with the kidney injury and repair in the world of science. There are weekly lab meeting, journal clubs and talks to discuss in detail as to how our work is coming along.
I work along side 2 postdoctoral fellows and a research trainee in my lab. They are all very helpful and have made me very comfortable in working with them.
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the International Office, SRM University for giving us this exposure. I also thank our HOD for having faith in my ability and selecting me for this program and all my professors for their invaluable support and encouragement.
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I would also like to thank to all the other students who are here for the same program. Because of them, inspite of being thousands of miles away from home, I am still able to feel at home!