Charles McCombs Reflective Essay Biomedical Research Mentoring Program 4/29/2013 The Cincinnati Childrens Hospital/UC College of Medicine

(UCCOM) Biomedical Research Mentoring Program for University Honors Students is a program designed to give first and second year undergraduate students an introduction to the research process by matching them with a mentor at UC College of Medicine or Cincinnati Childrens Hospital and Medical Center. This semester I worked with Mindy Engevik at the UC College of Medicine. Between January 16th and April 25th, I went to help out in the lab twice a week for three to four hours at a time. Outside of the lab before my research began I read a few related research articles to prepare for my first experience in the lab. Mindy provided me with these articles to help me understand the purpose of my project as well as some of the published information concerning it. The first article, Basolateral ion transporters involved in colonic epithelial electrolyte absorption, anion secretion and cellular homeostasis, by O. Bachmann, M. Juric, U. Seidler, M.P. Manns and H. Yu, provides basic information about ion channels. It discusses the function and regulation of many of the transporters found in native tissue. The other two articles I read are specifically concerned with original group of knockout mice that I was supposed to study, the Colonic H+-K+-ATPase deficient mice. These articles helped me begin to understand what I would studying this spring semester. Prior to this experience I had no experience in research, the only labs I had been in were for classes like chemistry, anatomy and physics. I chose to enter this program and perform research

because as a pre-medicine student, I need to have some research background to be competitive when applying to medical school. I also wanted to gain some experience in research to see whether or not I am interested in applying for an MD/PhD program when I enter medical school or if I simply want to apply for an MD or DO program. At the beginning of this experience, my mentor and I were under the impression that I needed my own specific project to be working on when I came into the lab. After some small issues with samples we picked a second project out, still pertaining to knockout mice but not Colonic Hydrogen-Potassium ATPase knockouts. A week or two later we decided that I would just help Mindy with her projects so that I could experience a variety of techniques in the lab instead of focusing on only a couple of techniques for my project. This worked out very well and by the end of the semester there were several experiments that I felt very comfortable doing by myself. However, because I ceased to have my own project, my hope to disseminate my research in a poster competition or presentation and my hope to be part of a published paper will go unrealized for now. Because I am unable to disseminate my research as I hoped to, it is my goal to find a research experience in a different field that I can get involved in so that I get the experience of presenting my own research. This experience has helped me to realize that I am not overly excited about laboratory research. I think that my interests may lie in other clinically relevant areas such as behavioral research, research in exercise science or even nutrition. I am not ruling out entering into a MD/PhD program yet until I try one of those types of research, however, it appears more likely that I will not be heavily involved in laboratory research as part of my career. When this project began in January, I was heavily dependent on Mindy for instruction for almost every technique. I was nervous to be in the lab and was unsure of my abilities because I

wanted to do well and not embarrass myself too much. Slowly throughout the semester I grew more independent as I gained experience. By a month into the lab work, Mindy began to tell me what she needed done and I would go through my experiments while she performed her own as well. It became a lot easier to work together to accomplish things because she did not have to go slow for me as often, except when she taught me new techniques. As part of the Biomedical Research Mentorship Program, each student had to give a oral presentation in front of the other students and research mentors. Much of the growth I experienced in this program came right at the end when I was planning my presentation as well as listening to other students presentations. Each presentation was only supposed to last around five minutes and each student was supposed to talk about what he or she did this semester and where he plans to go from here. I threw together a short power point that basically just outlined my thoughts on the semester. As I put together my poster I was surprised to realize that I did not get very much out of my research this semester. I still am not sure which lab tests are the most important or why certain tests are even performed sometimes. I could not help thinking to myself that after six to eight hours a week over fifteen weeks, this is fairly sad. This feeling was added to when I listened to the other students presentations, I could tell that they were interested in their projects, they learned as much as they could and they really enjoyed being a member of the lab they were in. Again, in planning my presentation I realized that I was not all that interested in my research and I often did not look forward to going to the lab. What did I get from this experience then? Like I already said, I did not become all that proficient in lab techniques, I was not too terribly interested in my work and I did not enjoy going into the lab all that much. Before I explain why, I would first like to say that my mentor this semester was great, she made sure to vary what we did throughout the semester so that I

could try many things, she explained all sorts of things to me and she was very fun and easy to work with. The problem this semester was actually my own doing. I did not put as much time or effort into this project as I should have. I do not want to use this part of the essay to make excuses, but to explain why what I learned from this experience may not exactly follow the research competencies. I had a busy semester this spring and I tried to split up my time between too many activities, mainly school, research, clubs, and work. Because of this I found that I could not really enjoy any of them. I simply did not have the time to. As soon as one activity ended I would go home to get homework started before I had to be at the next meeting or practice. After each activity I would again go home and do more homework. It seemed like I was busy from dusk until dawn every day of every week. This brings me to what I actually learned this semester, which happens to demonstrate my proficiency in one of the research competencies. The lesson I have learned from this experience demonstrates my ability to think beyond the just completed research and articulate how [my] world view has been impacted by the experience. This lesson became evident to me as I finished up my research for the semester. I learned that if you do not put your heart in to what you do, you will not get anything out of what you are doing. I split my time one too many ways and took the enjoyment out of almost everything that I did this semester. I even managed to prevent myself from fully taking advantage of this great program! Going forward I intend to get involved in research again, maybe not in a lab, but this time I would like to do it during a time when I am not as busy so that I can learn more and really delve into the research project that I find! I wholeheartedly believe that I did not enjoy the research I was involved in this semester because I overtaxed myself. My advice to peers of mine who are just entering college or trying out new programs, such as

research, is to take your time and put your whole self in to what you do so that you do not cheat yourself out of opportunities. I did not do this with the research I was involved in this spring, because of this I did not get as much out of the program as I could have. My peers need to be aware that just like the quality of friends that you surround yourself with is more important than the quantity, it is easy to get involved in many different activities, but the number of activities you are involved in is not what is important. What is important, however, is how you spend your time involved in those activities. This is probably the most important piece of advice that I think I am able to pass on from this experience, it can easily be restated as put all of yourself into what you do. If you do this, not only will you succeed in your goals, but at the end of the day no one can take away the fact that you gave your all and took full advantage of what was available to you.