Semester Abroad Program at Harvard Medical School was a splendid experience for me. I landed Boston, a city known for its education and oldest universities (also known as Spirit of America) on 25th August 2011.
Talking informally, form the day I started watching Hollywood movies, I always had a thought if such a beautiful country ever exists or they might have decorated the streets for movie. But fortunately I was wrong. I had never seen such a managed state, the state of Massachusetts. I also had a little experience of hostel life there as I had to stay in a hostel- Boston Hostelling International (actually a coed hostel) before I could find a permanent place to live in. The experience was amazing.
27th August 2011, I met my project guide Dr. Venkata S Sabbisetti, Instructor in Medicine and he introduced me to all his fellow researchers in the lab. I also met the Head and Principal Investigator of Renal Division, Dr. Joseph V Bonventre who is currently the President of American Society of Nephrology. Even after being a great personality he was approachable to everyone.
I started my project titled “Studying the expression of
Kidney Injury Molecule-1(KIM-1) in human ovarian clear cell carcinoma
TOV21G-cell line.” on 1st
September 2011. For first few weeks I had worked on the techniques applicable
in my project work like molecular cloning techniques, Western Blotting, Cell
culturing, Lentiviral Transfection, Antibody purification etc. I never had
confidence of working independently but after availing this opportunity, at the
end of this semester abroad program I have gained some self-belief. It was a
place where we all SAP students learnt practically and everyone of us worked
really hard. I also attended many Lab meetings and Seminars where Nobel laureates
shared their journey to the Nobel Prize. It is worth mentioning that at the end
of Seminars complimentary lunch was served.
In the Lab, all the lab members were very friendly and were
always ready to help. Every Friday there was a lab meeting where lab members
shared their research and discussed the issues. According to me HMS is the best
place for students to learn and understand the actual research.
For me having this wonderful experience, credit goes to
Department of Genetic Engineering, SRM University. I sincerely thank Dr. M.
Parani for giving this opportunity to learn at the world’s best Labs at HMS. I
am thankful to Dr. Venkata S Sabbisetti for guiding me for my thesis work. I
also thank Dr. Joseph V Bonventre for giving me this opportunity to work in his
Lab.
Sahil Sharma
M.Tech Genetic Engineering