Assata Dawson, COL ’27, New Haven, CT
This summer, I had the opportunity to be an undergraduate researcher in the Mullins Lab. I spent ten weeks studying the early developmental stages of zebrafish, conducting my own research project under the tutelage of Dr. Jeet Patel.
There is a strict limit as to what I can undertake during the semester as a full-time student. This summer position supplied me with the time to do a lot, fulfilling both academic and wet lab goals I had. I was able to put my knowledge from classes as a biology major into practice and had hands-on experience with specialized subjects in biology, enhancing my knowledge beyond my schooling.
In addition to the sheer educational advantages of this position, I also acquired various skills like zebrafish husbandry, micro-injections, and PCR. I spent the first week learning the basics of the zebrafish world: determining whether a fish was male or female and practicing clipping their fins to genotype them. The following three weeks were spent mastering micro-injections. The lab was an unfamiliar environment, one that came with an intense learning curve in the form of micro-injections. Each step took multiple attempts to figure out but, due to the amount of effort I exerted to grasp the skill, micro-injecting became one of my favorite things to do in the lab over the second half of the summer.
Outside of wet lab work, I spent most of my time practicing good lab habits: reading papers on zebrafish development and taking advantage of the combined knowledge of the lab, receiving feedback and mentorship from the talented scientists that make up the Mullins Lab. I attended lab meetings, gaining insight into other projects in the lab as well as research conduct and research being conducted outside our lab, in the zebrafish field. I got to have meetings with Dr. Mullins herself, a very prominent scientist, especially in the world of zebrafish. I was honored to learn and get feedback from someone as accomplished and knowledgeable as her. Being in that environment and gaining knowledge about the actual content as well as the professional dynamics of higher academia was invaluable.
Overall, this summer experience awarded me the opportunity to grow as a student and researcher and undergo various exploits in a lab. I learned so much about failure as well as the gratification of learning new skills. Without this opportunity, partially due to the summer funding I received, I would not have known that this field fascinated me or the fact that I can conduct my own research, even as a rising sophomore. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and hope to continue research in my academic pursuits.
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
