SURF: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to perform research in the SURF program at UC College of Medicine through their Office of Graduate Education. I, among seven other highly-qualified undergraduates, was accepted into the nationally-competitive program in the middle of the year. I remained in the same research lab that I have been in since the beginning of my sophomore year- the Seegar Lab in the department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. I've been lucky enough to operate under the amazing mentorship styles of Drs. Tom Seegar and Joe Maciag, and have noticed a lot of personal and professional growth while working with them.

Our lab is largely focused on solving the structures of different membrane proteins within a family of proteins called ADAMs; they are a group of 21 proteins coded into our genomes, and 13 of them are catalytically active. The specific protein I work with most frequently is the ADAM17, a catalytically active enzyme. My job was to isolate, purify, and visualize this enzyme both on its own and in complex with another protein it is known to associate with, the iRhom2. We made huge progress, and are currently rounding out the end of the initial visualization of the zymogen (precursor/inactive) form of the ADAM17. I'm looking forward to troubleshooting and finishing up the purification and visualization of the complex.

I have learned so much through this experience. Obviously, I have learned about protein biochemistry, the operation behind a lab, and different procedures and protocols essential to our experiments. However, I think the most valuable things I learned coming out of SURF are about myself and my career. I learned of a renewed, more mature passion for science and scientific discovery. I learned that I want research to be a part of my future career and that I love being in a lab. I learned that I can be more independent in the lab than I ever thought I could be, and that I can apply previous knowledge to real-world experiments. It's been the most rewarding summer yet, and seeing all of my hard work pay off after countless hard days in the lab is what keeps me coming back to research.