Emerging Pathogens Experience Essay

8/3/2019 Emerging Pathogens Experience Essay

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Emerging Pathogens

DNA Study at the Field

Museum of Natural History

Adrienne ChungWhitney Young Magnet High School

Mentor: Zifeng Jiang


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The Project

This summer was filled with learning, and the work demanded much skill. My project was called

the Emerging Pathogens project and I spent the summer working at the Pritzker Laboratory at the Field

Museum. For this project, we were working with viruses and bacteria, trying to detect the kinds of viruses

and bacteria in the bodies of birds and mammals from Africa. Thus, avoiding contamination and sterility

was of key importance due to the nature of the research itself.

The samples that I worked with over the summer were from Malawi, though during my

internship, there was a team that was sent out into the field to Mozambique to gather more samples. The

entire Emerging Pathogens project had many people working on it, and each person was working on a

different topic in the project. For example, one of Zifengs coworkers, Holly, was working on looking for

malaria in the birds, while we were working on identifying viruses and bacteria.

My Work

My summer began with a training through the Field Museum, through which I learned how to

perform a PureGene DNA extraction, run a sample PCR, run a gel, gelase, and sequence the samples from

each week. Since training ended so early everyday, I was helping the Zifeng and another intern, Huiting,

label the sample tubes to be prepared for work at Argonne National Lab. Afterwards, we were pouring

Dulbeccos Phosphate-Buffered Saline into swab and blood samples. Finally, we began pipetting them

into the 96-well plates.

When the plates were finished, we began working on the GI tracts of the birds. The GI tracts were

a little bit more work, as we had to split the gizzards from the intestines, then cut them open and empty

the contents of the intestines and the gizzards into a tube. Then we had to pour DPBS buffer into the tubes

and shake them. After this process was over, we also pipetted the liquid into the 96-well plates. We then

began a new filtering process where we poured the liquid into a .22 um Millipore vacuum filter. We then

poured the filtered liquid into a centrifugal filter tube to filter it one last time. After pipetting the final

filtered liquid into a 2 mL tube, we could begin doing the viral RNA and DNA extractions.

The viral RNA extractions that we performed were from the Qiagen RNeasy Mini Kits. We

followed this protocol for the extractions, but we also put RNase and Proteinase K into the sample to

begin with. This was so that the RNase could degrade the free-roaming host RNA, leaving the viral RNA

for extraction. There were some failures, but there were also samples that turned out quite well in this

process.

In addition to RNA extractions, we also did DNA extractions. These took a lot longer because

they took a lot of incubation time. The extractions we did for DNA were not Qiagen or PureGene. These

were phenol/chloroform extractions, and Zifeng had tested his protocol before the summer interns arrived.

As for any DNA extraction, we had to let the samples incubate overnight before working with them.


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During this process, we did a lot of work underneath the hood for safety reasons as well as contamination

reasons. Before working on the RNA and DNA extractions, Zifeng made sure that we knew how

dangerous the phenol/chloroform was, as well as the RNase.

The DNA extraction included running 2 PCRs in the process of the extraction. One was done at

the beginning to make sure the sample was prepared correctly, and another was done at the end to make

sure that we only extracted the viral DNA, and also to make sure that we only had DNA in the sample.

Sadly, my summer did not include the end of the project or receiving any significant results, though I did

learn a lot about the processes I used during my time working for Zifeng.

My Mentor

Zifeng was a very good mentor, teaching me everything I needed to know, and making sure that I

knew what I was doing. However, Zifeng valued my independence, and after I knew the protocol and

watched him once, he would tell me to do the work by myself.

Also, every time I had a question, Zifeng would not directly answer it. He would tell me to look it

up because I would learn more that way. Even if I did not have a question, he would ask my coworkers

and I different questions to help us better understand molecular biology. Sometimes, his questions were

not only about understanding the molecular biology behind the research we were doing, but also they

were to prompt us to think further outside of the box about the applications of this work. I really

appreciated this because now I have learned to think about every subject this way. How is Biology

connected to English? Then, how is English connected to Economics? These are questions that I began to

rack my brain for after Zifeng would ask his bizarre questions. But, after this summer, I realized that these

were not bizarre questions, but rather, they were problem solving questions. How would I use this

knowledge to help me in an unrelated situation?

My Co-Interns

When I first began working with Zifeng, my only co-intern was an undergraduate student at the

University of Chicago named Huiting. At the beginning, she helped Zifeng to train me, and I worked

under her supervision. When new interns began coming in to work with Zifeng as well, Huiting and I

were in charge of training them, just as she had trained me. When neither Zifeng nor Huiting were there, I

supervised the other interns and worked alongside them if they needed help, just like Huiting did for me.

The dynamic of the group was phenomenal. We all communicated exceptionally well, and we

were able to communicate so that we were working as efficiently as we could. This was a considerable

feat because there were so many people working together. Though the size of our group was big, it felt

small because of how well we all got to know each other.

In a way, I suppose that I didnt expect to be working with the kinds of people I did. Truthfully, I

expected to be working with extreme biology nerds. I expected to be working with a lot of students who


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were much older than me and wouldnt talk to me because I was not as knowledgeable. However, what I

found was that we were able to talk about almost anything from protocols to pop culture music. I really

appreciated that they taught me so much, including giving me tips on how to optimize my college

applications. In addition, I am glad that I learned so much in regards to lab work skills as well as concepts

in molecular biology. These experiences were phenomenal leadership skill building exercises, and

overall, I am very grateful for my experiences in working at the Field Museum this summer.

Thanks!

Overall, I want to thank the University of Chicago for the opportunity to work with such a

brilliant mentor and for the opportunity to join this program. Also, I would like to thank the Field

Museum of Natural History for providing lab space as well as for their hospitality. Thanks to Professor

Aprison, Dr. White, Zifeng Jiang, Huiting Xu, Kevin Feldheim, Shannon Hackett, and the Field Museum

team!

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Emerging Pathogens Experience Essay