Makayla Clark, COL ’25, Burlington, NJ
This summer, I worked in the Laboratory for Structural, Physiological and Functional Imaging under Dr. Chamith Rajapakse. Growing up doing sports, I have encountered various types of bone issues. I, myself, have experienced fractures which prompted my interest in orthopedics. In addition to this, I became fascinated in radiology. The process of making conclusions via imaging techniques such as MRI, X-Rays, and CT scans intrigued me. During the summer, I focused on two projects: imaging technique enhancements and an HCV study. For the former, the goal of the project was to create a model that accurately images bone in a shorter amount of time compared to a standard MRI machine. The purpose of the HCV study was to assess the impact of Hepatitis C treatment on bone health and metabolic factors utilizing advanced MRI techniques and quantitative bone analyses.
As for my personal contributions to the enhanced imaging technique project, I helped register multiple femoral MRI scans by creating masks using the ChainLink software. Afterwards, I used the FIJI software to segment every slice in the images. Using these segmentations of the femur, the research coordinator can test the accuracy of the model created. I had the privilege of being the project lead for the HCV study. My duties included training other students in segmentations, segmenting the periosteum and endosteum of femurs, using software to calculate cortical bone thickness, and more. This led to being able to create fat fraction maps that compared fat content in healthy patients vs patients with HCV, or HIV/HCV coinfection. Upon finding a statistical difference, I am now working on comparing subregional fat fraction values to further my analysis.
This summer taught me the tedious nature of research, particularly through the segmentation work I carried out. To go along with this, adaptability is crucial in research, and I’m grateful for the experience. Looking ahead, I’m excited to continue these projects during the school year, with the hope that they will develop into abstracts and, potentially, a published paper. I’ve been awarded the opportunity to start an independent project focused on bone health in patients with scoliosis, a topic that has long intrigued me. Overall, I want to express my gratitude to my PI, coworkers, and Career Services Summer Funding for making this opportunity possible.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 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
