Felicitas Tananibe, COL ’26, Philadelphia, PA
During my spring semester of last year, I knew I had to work in a research lab. For the longest time, I had the dreamt of being surrounded by microscopes, algar plates, and pipettes. I had the opportunity to do so when I became a member of the FERBS community. I was given the chance to work with Dr. Pohlschroder and Yirui Hong, my mentor. This summer was the time for me to enrich myself with the basics of being a researcher. I enjoyed every moment of being in the lab. From sharing blueberries with my lab to giving a few high schoolers a tour of my work in the lab.
For my project, I was working on identifying the proteins, specifically, the lipoproteins
surrounding the cell surface of archaea. I was intrigued by the fact that I could use different kinds of software to find these lipoproteins. This project gave me the chance to learn coding. My summer consisted of me learning how to code using Python, SignalP 6.0 etc. It was exciting. I couldn’t wait to tell my mentor about my discoveries.
Working with archaea was almost like working with another world. Shockingly enough, I
learned that archaea, one of the domains of the world, is more closely related to eukaryotes (us!) than bacteria. This explained how their DNA (DNA replication, transcription, translation) was similar to humans but resembled that of bacteria. I also discovered that these proteins prefer to be secreted in two different ways, Sec and Tat pathways. My job was to work with 11 archaea including one in which my lab mainly focused on, Haloferax volcanii. Although this project seems almost impossible, with the help of my mentor and lab, I was able to complete it. This school year, I will be working on making a knockout strain of a gene, hvo_0285.
As a double major in fine art and biology, it was astonishing to be given this summer to further explore my love for the sciences. I hope to continue working in Mecky’s lab. Not only did I gain the chance to become a researcher, I gained many friendships in which I can not wait to work with.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
