Summer Interns Gain Experience at Harvard-Affiliated Research Lab

PA students spent the summer learning outside of the classroom.

August 11, 2008 — Thanks to six weeks of hands-on laboratory experience at the Harvard Medical School–Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics (HPCGG) and the Lipper Center for Computational Genetics—both affiliated with Harvard Medical School and located in Boston—three Phillips Academy rising seniors and one recent graduate have fine-tuned their laboratory skills, managed assorted projects, and learned some of the pros and cons of working in a research lab.

“PA biology instructors Jerry Hagler and Kristen Johnson were terrific in identifying wonderfully talented students who were extraordinarily quick learners and demonstrated in just a few days that they were capable of taking on real tasks that were directly applicable to the work of their respective areas of focus,” says Alfred Blum Jr. ’62, HPCGG chief development officer and Andover alumni trustee. This was the second summer of HPCGG’s high school internship program; two Andover students participated in 2007.

"Our very positive experience with PA students last summer continued this summer,” says T. Vance Morgan, PhD, director of laboratory operations. “They seamlessly settled into a daily routine working with our Genotyping, BioSample Services, and Proteomics groups and contributed significantly to the progress of our projects.”

Funding for the three PA students who interned at HPCGG was provided by Alumni Trustee Michael Schmertzler ’70 and his wife, Kuni. “We are very grateful to the Schmertzlers,” says Johnson. “They have been interested in the success of our science program at PA for years and have generously supported it in many ways—through funding teacher fellowships and student research programs and more.”

Christine Choi ’09 interned at HPCGG’s Proteomics Facility, where she helped with the analysis of protein and peptide samples by running protein gel electrophoresis (used for the separation of molecules using an electric current applied to a gel), separating the peptides based on their charge using what is called an HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) machine, and determining the specific contents of each sample using a mass spectrometer (used to identify the chemical composition of a compound on the basis of its mass and charge).

“In the proteomics lab certain procedures must take place in order to prepare a given sample for computer analysis, and these procedures take several days,” explains Choi. “Although some procedures were repeated, there was something new to be learned from each project because of differences in the organism in question, specific source of the sample, and content of each sample.

“I learned not just the procedure itself, but why and how it worked,” she says. “Should I conduct independent research in the future, this experience will prove especially important.”

Charlie Dong ’09 interned at HPCGG’s Genotyping Facility, where he worked on a Sequenom project. Sequenom uses polymerase chain reaction or PCR (used to amplify a piece of DNA by replication), probes, and dideoxynucleotides to genotype DNA; it can run tests for 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs (small variations in DNA sequence) for each sample. He then used a mass spectrometer to decipher the DNA sequence, since each nucleotide (A, T, C, and G) has a different mass.

“My first week I did all of my experiments by hand,” says Dong. “During my second week, I was overjoyed when introduced to the Biomek—a big machine that pipettes liquids for you. I just pushed a couple of buttons on the computer, and it quickly performed what had been exhaustingly tedious work.”

“Charlie was very quick to pick things up, and he asked the right questions,” says Alison Brown, genotyping lab manager. “I expected to have to watch his every move, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He listened well to instruction and carried out successful PCR from the very start. He was a better quality tech than some I have employed!”

Dong is considering a career in the field of biomedical engineering, with the goal of designing reagents and machines that allow lab technicians to do their work faster.

Alicia Keyes ’09 interned at HPCGG’s Biosample Services Facility, where she accessioned incoming blood samples into a database, ran the AutoPure robot for DNA extractions, prepared dilutions of the DNA, ran the spectrophotometer to determine DNA purity and concentration, and set up a daughter-tube machine.

“For the first few days I shadowed the technicians and simply observed,” says Keyes. “After that, they let me perform procedures myself with their guidance. In a short time, I began to do things on my own. It took longer than I expected to become comfortable with what I was doing, and especially to understand why I was doing certain things.”

“Biology 560 with Dr. Hagler definitely inspired me to look into science-focused internships for the summer,” says Keyes. “I don’t yet know if I’m a humanities or a math/science person, but the internship was a valuable opportunity to explore the field of laboratory science and genetics. I am still considering science as a career possibility.”

Rebecca Rehm, HPCGG’s educational coordinator, explains the two-way value of these internships: “For the students, the internships expose them to cutting-edge technology and equipment that is not available in their classrooms, gives them laboratory skills that they can apply to high school and college lab work, gives them a realistic view of what working in a research lab truly entails, and teaches them how to think through a project and execute a procedure in the most effective way. For the Center, we are able to excite strong students about the field of genetics and increase their chance of entering it while working toward our mission of education.”

Sebastian Caliri ’08, who was one of the two inaugural interns at HPCGG last summer, used Blum as a reference to obtain an internship this summer with internationally renowned genetics expert Dr. George M. Church ’72. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Lipper Center for Computational Genetics, which focuses on new technologies for genomic and proteomic measurement, synthesis, and modeling of biomedical and ecological systems—in particular, personal genomics and biofuels.

In the most general terms, Caliri studied diverse bacterial populations through the lens of metagenomics. Essentially, traditional culturing and genomic extraction techniques only yield between 0.1 percent and 1 percent of the true genetic diversity in a given sample—a gram of soil, for example.

“Emerging metagenomic techniques allowed my group to examine an incredible spectrum of genetic diversity previously unknown,” explains Caliri. “Without traveling deep into a rainforest or beneath the ocean’s surface, we can learn so much more and discover so many more useful genes simply by studying, quite literally, the stuff that’s right in front of us. I believe that building on soil metagenomics could not only advance our understanding of nature, but lead to the development of novel drugs and medical technologies.”

Caliri spent every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday plating, inoculating, stamping, pouring, pipetting, and calculating—sometimes well into the night. “It could be tedious,” he admits, “but on Thursdays and Fridays, when I finally read my results, it all seemed worth it.”

“Thanks to the excellent instruction of Patricia Russell, Kristen Johnson, and Jerry Hagler and my time spent on independent work, I definitely had the technical skills and scientific background to understand what I was doing and why,” he says.

The short- and long-term benefits of internships such as these are many: they strengthen bonds between students and alumni, help students determine career possibilities, provide valuable mentoring opportunities, and create lifelong personal and professional connections.