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Student Stories

MCIBS+ Graduate Research Retreat Recap

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The Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences (MCIBS) program is the newest of the Huck graduate programs without being new at all. It was officially organized in 2014 by combining five of our previous graduate programs together — Cell and Developmental Biology, Genetics, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Molecular Medicine, and Molecular Toxicology.

When the MCIBS program was first started, graduate students who were already part of one of the older programs were given the option to stay in their original graduate program or change to MCIBS. Now, we affectionately refer to everyone as being part of MCIBS+. However, with such a “Brady Bunch” group, it’s a bit harder to have that close bond that some of our other graduate programs have. So what’s the best way to get everyone together? Have a retreat!

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Tussey Mountain Resort – location of 2015 MCIBS+ Graduate Research Retreat

Last week, I attended the MCIBS+ Graduate Research Retreat, which is an annual retreat held the week before the Fall semester that is designed to promote scientific and social interactions among the graduate students and faculty as well as to welcome the new students. Faculty and students from the MCIBS program, as well as from the five older graduate programs and the Pathobiology graduate program were all invited to attend, which was held at the Tussey Mountain Resort (just ~10 minutes from campus). I haven’t been able to attend this retreat in the past due to prior obligations, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was definitely impressed! Here are the top four things I wanted to highlight:

1. We have some really cool science going on in MCIBS+.

The scientific presentations at the retreat were broken down into five sections: four blocks of four 15-20 minute talks and a poster session at the end of the day. In the first block of talks, Dr. Melissa Rolls, Dr. Graham Thomas, Dr. Gong Chen, and Dr. Patrick Drew discussed the work that their labs do which was all centered around neurobiology. The second block of talks was more immunology focused, with presentations from Dr. Robert Paulson, Ashley Shay (Prabhu Lab), Beng San Yeoh (Kumar Lab), and Stephanie Bora (Cantorna Lab). After lunch, the third block of talks was presented by Dr. Scott Lindner, Avni Upadhyay (Hanna-Rose Lab), Amy Chen (Wang Lab), and Dr. Phil Reno. This block was especially interesting because it also included a presentation from Melissa Long, the Technology Licensing Officer in the Eberly College of Science, who talked about understanding intellectual property and technology transfer. The fourth and final block of talks were given by Dr. Tim Jegla, Dr. William Hancock, Dr. Xin Zhang, and Dr. Frank Pugh.

Dr. Gong Chen presenting his lab’s research.

If you know anything about any of the presenters mentioned above, you can understand the depth of different topics covered at the retreat, which for me, kept it interesting. We got to hear about everything from studying axon regeneration in Drosophila to microbiota to malaria to studying gene regulation on a genomics scale. No one dove too much into the nitty-gritty of their science (which, you can’t really do in 15-20 minutes) but rather gave an overview, which I really appreciated. “It was great to learn about the research going on in different departments other than my own,” added Dr. Adam Glick, MCIBS Program Associate Chair, Molecular Medicine emphasis area representative, and lead organizer of the retreat. “Each year we have had a different group of faculty presenting, so there is usually something new for everyone. I think there is great potential for stimulating cross departmental and cross-discipline collaborations.”

With over 100 participating faculty in the MCIBS program, it’s no surprise that there’s so much exciting and different science happening just in our graduate program, but this was the first opportunity I had to sit down and hear about so much of it at once! Pretty cool stuff. “One other thing I liked was being able to introduce a new faculty member (Dr. Xin Zhang) to everyone in addition to the new students. I am hoping we can continue to do this in the future!” said Dr. Melissa Rolls, MCIBS Program Chair.

2. This retreat was a great opportunity for first-year students to learn more about the research going on in different labs to help them better decide who they want to do their lab rotations with.

As mentioned in the previous point, the MCIBS program has over 100 participating faculty, so deciding what labs to rotate in can be a pretty daunting experience for first-year students. However, I’m sure the overview of research from sixteen different labs in the oral presentation blocks helped to ease some of that stress! Additionally, this gave the first-year students the opportunity to hear about all kinds of research that they might not have known even existed just by word-of-mouth or reading about various faculty online. Hillary Figler, second-year IID student and President of the MCIBS GSA, attended the retreat this year and said going last year as a first-year student helped her to find her current lab home. “I met my PI, Dr. Edward Dudley, at the MCIBS retreat my first year. I ended up rotating in his lab and then eventually joining it, and that may not have happened without the retreat!” said Hillary.

First-year MCIBS students with MCIBS program chair, Dr. Melissa Rolls

L to R: Cheng Xu, Justine Alexander, Dr. Melissa Rolls, Alex Weiner, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Xiaoheng Cheng, and Jacob Brittingham

3. The graduate students who presented for their labs did a phenomenal job.

As mentioned in the first point, the blocks of oral presentations were given by both faculty and graduate students. Typically when graduate students give seminars, it’s all about his/her individual research. However, at the retreat, the graduate student presenters were speaking for their entire lab, so while they may have spent a couple of minutes talking about what they do personally, the majority of their talks were about the various projects going on in the lab, types of models used, etc. I thought this was pretty great. Graduate students should know about all the research going on in their lab, but that isn’t always the case, and I thought the graduate students that presented did an amazing job.

Stephanie Bora (Immunology and Infectious Disease), Ashley Shay (Molecular Medicine), and Beng San Yeoh (Immunology and Infectious Disease) each presenting their lab’s research

Graduate student presenters included: Ashley Shay (Prabhu Lab), Beng San Yeoh (Kumar Lab), Stephanie Bora (Cantorna Lab), Avni Upadhyay (Hanna-Rose Lab), and Amy Chen (Wang Lab)

4. There was plenty of time for socializing.

Carrie Lewis (MCIBS) and Drew Fister (Genetics) at the poster session

Sixteen 15-20 minute oral presentations and a poster session is A LOT of science talk for one day, but the day was broken up well with two 30-minute snack/coffee breaks and an hour-long lunch. This gave graduate students and faculty plenty of time to get up, stretch their legs, and just talk to each other. At each break, I felt like I talked to a different group of people. I also thought that the venue choice for the retreat made this a little easier, too — we weren’t in some classroom or auditorium, so it felt a bit more relaxed.

The day ended with a poster session with about 10-15 posters set up from various graduate students. I presented a poster, and for the entire hour, I don’t think I stopped talking! I’ve presented posters at conferences before, but it was even cooler to present to my fellow graduate students and faculty. I got some great insight into my experiments from faculty that I normally wouldn’t discuss my data with.

 

Special thanks to Dr. Adam Glick, MCIBS Program Associate Chair and Molecular Medicine emphasis area representative, and Dr. Melissa Rolls, MCIBS Program Chair, for organizing this retreat!

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Student Stories

Fun With Science: MCIBS GSA does outreach event with Higher Achievement Program

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As graduate students, the daily hardships of troubleshooting experiments can sometimes cause us to forget that spark we felt about science when we were younger. For some, that spark came during their childhood when they were romping around in the backyard looking at bugs. For others, it came later in life, perhaps in a high school biology or chemistry class.

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Me and a friend presenting an elementary school science fair project… I’m guessing ~1998?

I have loved science, especially biology, for as long as I can remember. In elementary school, I entered a project at the science fair every year, and then in high school, I took every science class that was offered. However, a career as a scientist never really crossed my mind — I just did science because I liked it. But then, I had to start thinking about college. I wanted to be a veterinarian, and although veterinarians are definitely scientists in my mind now, I didn’t really think of it that way back then.

Despite my long-lasting love for science, I would say that it wasn’t until my junior year of college that my true “spark” happened through my undergraduate research experience when I learned to appreciate the moment of clarity and satisfaction after getting an assay to work that I had spent weeks on. From that point on, I was hooked.

So what’s the point of my somewhat lengthy background story of how I am a nerd who loves biology?

As a soon-to-be fifth year PhD student (seriously, where did the last few years go!?), I know all too well the trials and tribulations that we as graduate students face, and that sometimes, the process of banging your head trying to solve what should be a simple problem can be a bit overwhelming and make us think, “Why am I even doing this!?” However, just a few days ago, I was reminded of that “spark” for science thanks to 30 middle school students from the D.C. area.

The Higher Achievement program is a year-round, research-intensive program for middle school youths to provide a rigorous learning environment, caring role models, and a culture of high expectations to mold college-bound scholars. As part of the program’s Summer Academy element, the students take an overnight trip to a college to better help the young scholars really picture themselves as college students. Penn State began its partnership with the Higher Achievement program back in 2008, but this was the first year that I personally became involved.

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I, along with MCIBS students Mike Walker and Alex Campbell, had the opportunity to volunteer with 30 of the High Achievement program scholars by hosting a workshop organized by the MCIBS GSA to learn a little bit more about one of the most famous Penn State staples: ice cream.

The students began their workshop with a tour of the Penn State creamery, getting to learn more about the process of making ice cream. That can be cool and all, but the best way to make science exciting, especially for middle school kids, is to let them experience the science. That’s why, in an activity designed by MCIBS GSA President Hillary Figler, these young scholars got to actually make their own ice cream!

The students were given two bags: Bag A contained three cups of ice and about two tablespoons of salt while Bag B contained 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, and one tablespoon of sugar. All they had to do was drop Bag B into Bag A, and shake that bag as hard as they could for ~10 minutes — wah-lah! ICE CREAM. (Special props to Mike for assembling all these ingredients the night before to make our lives easier!!)

The ingredients!

We then had some chocolate and caramel syrup along with sprinkles that students could add to their homemade snack. Of course we talked about how this whole process worked —  the lower temperature of the salt and ice mixture, which is surrounding the milk/vanilla/sugar, is cold enough to then change the state of the milk/vanilla/sugar mixture into a solid AKA ice cream. Although getting ice cream isn’t usually that much of a workout, it was pretty cool to see the satisfying looks on the kids’ faces when they got to experience the science behind making ice cream!

Mike Walker (MCIBS) helping student make ice cream!

Participating in outreach events like this is always something I thoroughly enjoy because it helps me to remember what it was like to be a kid when I was fascinated by science. “It’s really great to be a part of the kids’ experiences,” added Alex Campbell. “Sometimes it’s hard to see how science at the bench can impact lives, and being able to work with these students is very rewarding because you get to communicate science directly.”

If you’re looking for a little inspiration these days, or just want to help out with an outreach event, keep your ears open for opportunities within student organizations you’re part of or look into how you can work with offices like the ECoS Outreach and Science Engagement Office to get more involved! Additionally, there’s a new 1-credit course being offered this Fall semester (BIOL 497F: Science Outreach and Communication) to help you work on your skills for science outreach and communication specifically!