Mahdi Bouchekouk, COL ’24, East Stroudsburg, PA
This summer in New York, I returned to the Stewart Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine where I worked last year. Although this was my second time working at the lab, my work was very different from what I had done previously and thus offered me a greater learning experience than I had expected.
At the lab, I assisted in research and development efforts for advances in type 1 and 2 diabetes treatment. Similar to last summer, I continued to culture, stain, and image immunolabeled cells and tissue do determine the presence of a variety of antibodies. This relates to the growth factors that drive mammal pancreatic beta cell regeneration in response to various drug therapies. This included maintaining growth of human liver cancer cells and human embryonic kidney cells in culture, and treating and conducting antibody stains on cell lines and donor islets with different drugs to further understand drug efficacy in diabetes treatment. The stained cells and tissue were imaged using a fluorescent microscope.
Different from last year, I was able to witness and participate in the conduction of human trials for the drugs developed in the lab during my start. This taught me a lot about how research is conducted in more advanced stages of development which is a rare opportunity I am immensely grateful for. I was also tasked more this year with isolating RNA strands, lab upkeep, conducting PCRs and western blots, and helping to fix the fluorescent microscope to prevent delays while waiting for maintenance.
I was also able to learn a lot more about the administrative and political side of conducting research. A few members of the lab were in the process of submitting papers with substantial discoveries for review. As such, the PI for the lab took the time to explain how this process can be difficult and the many factors that must be considered, such as the impact factor, the number of trials, the effect different papers may have on someone’s career trajectory, and how limited funding can prevent enough trials to determine significance.
After this summer, I feel much more prepared to participate in the world of research and more aware of the many factors that can contribute to making one successful in the field. I would like to thank Career Services for the wonderful opportunity they provided by supporting me through this experience!
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
