How Can We Help Protect Cancer Patients?

That was the question that first inspired my mentor, Dr.Driscoll to begin her research which she gave me the opportunity to participate in. Our goal was to investigate previous studies that had identified Captopril as a method of preventing lung damage (Pulmonary Fibrosis) in cancer patients being treated with radiation therapy by using rat lung cells that we grew ourselves.

This experience was amazing despite all of the issues that occurred throughout the experimentation from simple (yet frustrating) cell density issues to Dr.Driscoll having to step out from the study and having to learn alongside a new mentor. I learned so much such as how to keep myself accountable when the only person verifying if I was keeping the schedule on track was myself and my the cells that I was working with. I also learned so many new lab techniques such as how to grow (passage) cells, how to irradiate things, how to write research proposals and papers, and how to present my results to peers and experts in the field. While it was really fun at first, I did come to the realization that pursuing research and lab work was not really something I was interested in as it kind of became unhealthy with how unable I was to walk away from it until I had everything written and completed, once even spending twelve hours in the lab without much to eat. It was still really rewarding and cool to watch my results show up (despite having insignificant data) and being an expert on a topic full while in a room full of professional scientists, and the experience reaffirmed that I love science and how much good our work can do even if we think our study is insignificant. I’m sure there was once a lab assistance or college researcher like me who helped run studies on the cells I used thinking that their work on figuring out how to grow rat lung fibroblasts was insignificant without realizing that their work was the foundation that I was able to use in order to investigate a possibly life saving treatment option for patients.