(Another) 1st year done

During my studies heretofore, I have learnt to use a multitude of study tools, from note-taking and highlighting to flashcards but sometimes, that still may not be enough for medical school. Trying to memorize bacteria, I used a study aid called “SketchyMicro” – a website that helps one commit to memory even the most obscure medical facts by using various (and variously humorous) visual mnemonics. For example, the image attached to this article represents salmonella (the salmon on the plate in the middle), whose properties include motility (moving tail), sensitivity to acidity (the lemon), a capsule (the glass lid), or the ability to cause osteomyelitis (fish bones) in patients with sickle cell anemia (the sickle) and many others, summarized in this one simple, easily memorizable picture. Each bacterium is depicted in a similar manner in a series of pictures, which make it at all possible to learn all of those required details about more than 50 different bacteria for us with visually contextual memory. Also thanks to SketchyMicro, therefore, I was able to successfully pass all of my classes this term.

After my last exam, I could then start my summer laboratory research. This time, I decided to join the team of Dr. Bryan Luikart, who’s looking into molecular and cellular causes of autism. It is my first two-month rotation in one of the biomedical laboratories at Dartmouth – the second one will take place during the summer after the second year of medical school. Based on these two experiences, I will decide which team I will end up joining for my PhD thesis. I have just started, but I was already assigned my own research project that I will be working on this summer. It is very exciting to be in the position of a PhD student for once – not a volunteer or a technician – and thus to have an opportunity to focus on what I really enjoy doing. Moreover, I am working on a currently very hot topic: researching the accessible literature, it is my goal to synthesize a protocol, according to which our lab will be able to produce mutant mice using an injection of the CRISPR/Cas9 system into a zygote – and then also to try it out physically. As this is a very new and cutting-edge technology in genetic engineering, I am happy that I can devote my time to something so useful for my future career of a scientist. To my surprise, moreover, I have had a couple of opportunities to use several of my very specific skills from the undergrad, which I had thought I would never come back to again (tracing neuron arborization using the Neurolucida software, Sholl analysis, etc.). It is great to see my knowledge growing and coming to fruition at the same time.

And of course – in the summer, I finally have much more free time after work: once a week, we go for a Trivia Night with my friends, sometimes I bike down the biking paths around here (I bike to lab every day as well), with classmates who stayed here for the summer, we play tennis, soccer, or basketball, and I also finally started using the well-equipped gym that we have here on our campus. Summer in New England is really beautiful and so I want to enjoy every bit of it before the school starts again, as well as another year in my academic life.