REU in Metals, Macroalgae, and More!

I came into this program as a first year pursuing engineering major with ample attraction to the biological and chemical sciences. I departed this program with a greater sense of direction in possibly pursuing interests in molecular engineering and developing phytomining methodologies. This was due to their direct involvement in learning how to sustainably utilize naturally occurring mechanisms at the molecular level to bring about rehabilitation and changes to modern day issues. 

By researching, we are able to understand and create tools that help us further develop studies on a more profound level. To learn more, we have to be able to create new methods that allow us to make new mediums between known knowledge and unknown knowledge. Visual comprehension of the real world can only show us so much, so we have to rely on what can’t be seen, unknown possibilities, to further help us in understanding the natural world even more. This relationship between the engineering of machines and tools with the natural world is what intrigues me the most. The California coastline is home to several unique organisms, but we are responsible for supporting their futures. To make this a reality, we can adapt our knowledge about the ocean and society’s impacts on it using sustainable implements and machines to develop a healthier relationship. 

Extracurricular Activities

As a program, we had the opportunity to take a trip to the Natural History Museum where we got a behind the scenes experience with the Marine Biodiversity Center taking a look at the sample collections and learning a bit more about the work they get to do on project DIGLA (digitizing marine invertebrate collections). We also took a trip out to Catalina Island for a weekend prior to the last week of the program for a cohort building trip where we got to engage more with the island REU members, scientifically active groups, and have some fun learning about the ecology and geography of the island! I also got to take trips out to AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles where I learned how to collect samples using trace metal clean procedures and how to identify certain species of macroalgae. I was able to meet some of the individuals working there and take a personal tour of the warehouse and look at all the interesting companies and startups! Along with these scattered excursions throughout the program, there were many opportunities to explore the LA area for the cohort located on UPC. 

Researching in a Nutshell: 

I was introduced to the lab setting and environment where I got to meet the current graduate students working the lab, and learn a little bit more about their individual projects. Justin Gaffney, one of the graduate students I was working closely with this summer, began teaching me the procedures and how to start the digestion process for the kelp which would allow us to get rid of all the unwanted biomaterial and just leave behind the elements we want to analyze later on. This included learning how to conduct work in a trace metal clean lab and how to conduct trace metal clean work safely since we’d be working with various concentrations of different types of acids and want to minimize as much contamination as possible. An example of this was getting into the habit of removing shoes before entering the lab and putting on a set of fitting crocs that haven’t interfered with ground outside the lab in order to prevent further contamination. 

I learned how to prep the samples to send them off to the ICP-QQQ (a specific inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer) which would be further analyzed by the trained technician since it is a very sensitive and valuable piece of machinery. I was also introduced to another piece of machinery called a SeaFast which allows us to separate elements from seawater to properly analyze it through further dilutions when sending it off to the ICP-QQQ to increase accuracy in results. Learning proper research organizational skills was essential because of the amount of samples we had been prepping for digestion and the current ones running, so I created a digital lab book to correctly denote what samples were running, where they were from, who collected them, etc. to make sure we could trace any irregularities that may arise later on. 

I learned how to prepare specific percentage based reagents we were going to use because we want to make sure that we don’t waste or mess up any of the acid to acid or acid to Milli-Q solutions, following green lab procedures. Learning how to cautiously trace metal clean and prepare an entirely new set of teflon to work with got me practicing the cleaning procedures even more. These are important to learn because of the effects they may carry out in our results if we aren’t careful, so each teflon vial is carefully cleaned and treated with acid beforehand through a separate cleaning process which goes through a series of baths and soaks for periods of time. I also was given the opportunity to shadow the preparation of samples for the SeaFast by working with Alexis Floback and Mary Kate Dinneen, current graduate students in the lab, who showed me the process of filtering, acidifying (to control growth of undesirable microorganisms in sample), and setting up the seawater samples that were going to be run. 

I was taught how to effectively normalize our data for further analysis and present to larger audiences through our research posters and for other existing lab groups, such as the Nuzhdin Lab group. Once we received all the element concentrations, we investigated them to determine if there were any interesting outliers that caught our attention. We came to agreements that the results were viable and worth pursuing by investigating similar values encountered in several pieces of literature. This helps us understand if our results are consistent with other procedures to identify any irregularities in the uptake from the kelp.