High school students

How one student overcame uncertainty in CIRM’s high school internship program

/ Esteban Cortez / Leave a comment

This summer—as well as year round—the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) will highlight blog submissions, photos, and other fun content from our SPARK Program.

SPARK—also known as the Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge—gives high school students a chance to spend their summer working in a world class stem cell research facility here in California. At the end of their internship, they write about their experiences and what they learned. 

As always, we received many wonderful submissions from the students, so choosing a winner was particularly tough. In the end we chose two winners. The first blog—which you can read below—was submitted by Saranya Anandakumar, who interned at Sanford Burnham Prebys in La Jolla.  

The second winning submission was authored by John Casilao, who interned at UCSF. The blog will also be shared on The Stem Cellar this week.  

Check out Saranya’s winning blog submission below and be sure to follow the blog for more updates from CIRM’s SPARK Program.

Saranya in the lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys

Certainty?

Submitted by Saranya Anandakumar 
2022 SPARK Program Intern at Sanford Burnham Prebys 

My whole life I’ve been indecisive, which I think is fair. I mean, think about it. If the multiverse theory is coupled with the butterfly effect then the difference between a vanilla and strawberry ice cream could mean the difference between my continued life or my sudden death.  

So if I can’t even choose which cereal to eat in the morning, what in the world makes my counselor think I can decide what career I want to pursue in the future? What’s worse is while an ice cream cone only lasts about ten or fifteen minutes in the beaming hot summer Sun before wasting away, my occupational choice, my major, and my degree, they’ll stay with me forever if not for at least ten or so years. So why not give a six-week free trial a shot? That way of thinking, dear reader, is precisely how I ended up in CIRM’s SPARK Program.  

Hi, my name is Saranya Anandakumar. I love oceanography and glaciology as much as I love law and psychiatry, but the medical field has always had a special place in my heart. That’s how I took the first step of applying for this internship.  

Saranya poses with her research poster at the SPARK conference in Oakland

To give a brief summary, my grandma had a stroke and pneumonia and has been bedridden since because a doctor gave her the incorrect dose of medication (according to medical staff she should have been dead). My mom has struggled with chronic pain, migraines, memory issues, and high blood pressure for years, and my entire family struggles with severe anxiety and depression (plus the occasional eating disorder).  

Of course, I have a breathing disorder and struggle with migraines. I also have an extremely weak immune system to the point where I’m ill eight months of the year. Needless to say, emergency room and ICU visits have become the norm, so much that the nurses and I are on a first-name basis. 

But, enough about my glamorous history, and more about my experience with the internship. As I established earlier, I am certain about nothing in my life, which is why it should speak volumes to you when I say I now know that I want to major in immunology and minor in neuroscience.  

Saranya (right) at the campus Intern Celebration. Photo courtesy of Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Still, a little voice inside my head cries, “Oh, what if this is the best lab you’ll ever be in?! What if you think the field is better than it really will be?!” A valid concern. I’m sure Dr. Blaho is the only former Trombone player and drum major I will ever work under, and she’s certainly the funniest. I doubt anyone will have the dad jokes Josh does or the endearing laugh and interesting input Yosiris does.  

It felt like falling in love and the best part was it didn’t matter what it was as long as I was learning something new.  

Saranya Anandakumar

However, my time at Sanford Burnham Prebys still left me with more than that. I loved walking in every day. Every lecture on oligodendrocytes and microglia had me entranced. Every western blot or stem cell experiment left me all giddy inside. Don’t even get me started on looking at human blood under a microscope! It felt like falling in love and the best part was it didn’t matter what it was as long as I was learning something new.  

I was always scared of life after college, but I thought it was because I was scared of committing to one career for the rest of my life. And though that was certainly part of it, I think I was afraid of living my life without learning anymore. So bio research is perfect for me because it’s impossible to not learn even if you try. 

To see photos of this year’s SPARK conference in Oakland, click here. To learn more about CIRM’s education programs, visit our website.  

Inspiring the next generation of stem cell scientists

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

SPARK2017-267_brighten

SPARK students at the 2017 Annual Meeting at the City of Hope.

“The technological breakthroughs that will be happening over the next few years – it’s your generation of scientists that will make this happen.”

zaia-john-300x300

John Zaia

Dr. John Zaia, the Director of City of Hope’s Center for Gene Therapy, directed these words to a group of 55 talented high school students attending the 2017 CIRM SPARK meeting.

SPARK stands for Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge. Students in the program spend their summer tackling difficult stem cell research projects in the lab, attending scientific workshops and lectures, and participated in patient engagement activities.

At the end of the summer, SPARK students from seven different programs at institutions and universities across California attend the annual SPARK meeting. At this gathering, students present their research to researchers and their families. They also hear about the progress in developing stem cell therapies from scientists and doctors and about exciting career paths in science and STEM fields from SPARK alumni.

The program is an excellent way for high school students to get their “research feet” wet. They are trained in basic lab and stem cell techniques and are assigned to a mentor who guides them through their research project.

Many of the students who participate in our SPARK programs go on to prestigious colleges to pursue degrees in science, medicine, and engineering. You can read some of these stories on our blog here and here.

At CIRM, we are invested in educating the next generation of stem cell scientists. Our Vice-Chair of the CIRM Board, Sen. Art Torres, said it perfectly at this year’s SPARK meeting:

“I just want to thank you for being part of this program. We are very proud of each and every one of you and we expect great things in the future.”

Check out this short video, produced by City of Hope, which features highlights from our 2017 SPARK meeting at the City of Hope. As you will see, this program is not only fun, but is a one-in-a-lifetime experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about our SPARK program or applying to be a SPARK intern, visit our website for more information. SPARK programs typically accept applications in December or early in the year. Each program has its own eligibility requirements and application process and you can find out that information on the individual SPARK program websites listed on our CIRM SPARK webpage.

School is out which means SPARK is in for the summer!

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

It’s mid-June, which means that school’s out for the summer! While most students are cheering about their newfound freedom from the classroom, a special group of high school students are cheering about the start of the CIRM SPARK internship program.

SPARK is CIRM’s high school educational program that gives students from underrepresented communities the opportunity to conduct stem cell research at top-notch universities in California. Students will spend the summer working in stem cell labs under the guidance and mentorship of scientists, PhDs, master’s students and postdocs. They will learn basic lab techniques like how to do PCR and how to grow stem cells.

Each student will have their own research project that answers an important question in the stem cell field. Students will also attend scientific lectures at their host university, participate in patient-centered activities and write blogs and social media posts about their experiences in the lab. At the end of the summer, they will show off their hard work through posters and talks at the annual SPARK conference.

SPARK gives students early exposure to research and proves to them that science is not only fun but is also a promising career option within their reach. We’ve offered a high school internship summer program for the past few years, and many students who’ve previously participated have told us that they are excited to pursue an education in science or medicine in college.

Ranya taking care of her stem cells!

I’ve featured some of these exciting success stories previously on our blog. One of these stellar students is Ranya Odeh. She was a student in the UC Davis SPARK program and recently told us that she will attend Stanford University to pursue bioengineering after receiving the prestigious QuestBridge scholarship. Another student we featured recently is Shannon Larsuel who participated in the Stanford SPARK program. Shannon was inspired after she worked at the Stanford bone marrow registry as part of her SPARK experience and now plans to be a pediatric oncologist.

Now that the 2017 SPARK program is in session, we can look forward to another exciting summer of talented and motivated students. Our SPARK students are encouraged to document their summer experiences on social media, so you’ll be able to follow their journeys on Instagram. Make sure to check out @CIRM_stemcells Instagram account and the #CIRMSPARKlab hashtag on both Instagram and Twitter.

If you’re a student or teacher who wants to learn more about the CIRM SPARK program, visit our website for more details. And with that, I’ll leave you with a few of the most recent Instagram posts from our new cohort of SPARK students!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVTKN8kFwaC/?tagged=cirmsparklab

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVVm1b1lyki/?tagged=cirmsparklab

View this post on Instagram

Happy #workwednesday! I'm so excited that the @cirm_stemcells #cirmsparklab high school stem cell program has begun! It's a summer internship program where students from underrepresented communities do research in stem cell labs at universities in California. . These smiling students are part of the @uc_davis_stem_cells SPARK program led by Dr. Gerhard Bauer (left). To get into SPARK, they had to win the UC Davis #teenbiotechchallenge by creating a website about a specific science topic. . These students will spend two months doing stem cell research in a lab at UC Davis with grad student and postdoc mentors. At the end of the summer they will present their work at the CIRM spark conference. . I'm so excited for this year's new batch of students. They are posting pictures of their lab work on Instagram (see #cirmsparklab) and their enthusiasm for communicating their science is contagious. I'll be sharing more pictures from this program this summer! 👍🔬 . PS thanks to Dr. Jan Nolta from UC Davis for this photo and for her dedication to the SPARK program as a mentor and teacher!

A post shared by Dr. Karen Ring (@drkarenring) on

Don’t Be Afraid: High school stem cell researcher on inspiring girls to pursue STEM careers

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

As part of our CIRM scholar blog series, we’re featuring the research and career accomplishments of CIRM funded students.

Shannon Larsuel

Shannon Larsuel is a high school senior at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena California. Last summer, she participated in Stanford’s CIRM SPARK high school internship program and did stem cell research in a lab that studies leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Shannon is passionate about helping people through research and medicine and wants to become a pediatric oncologist. She is also dedicated to inspiring young girls to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers through a group called the Stem Sisterhood.

I spoke with Shannon to learn more about her involvement in the Stem Sisterhood and her experience in the CIRM SPARK program. Her interview is below.

Q: What is the Stem Sisterhood and how did you get involved?

SL: The Stem Sisterhood is a blog. But for me, it’s more than a blog. It’s a collective of women and scientists that are working to inspire other young scientists who are girls to get involved in the STEM field. I think it’s a wonderful idea because girls are underrepresented in STEM fields, and I think that this needs to change.

I got involved in the Stem Sisterhood because my friend Bridget Garrity is the founder. This past summer when I was at Stanford, I saw that she was doing research at Caltech. I reconnected with her and we started talking about our summer experiences working in labs. Then she asked me if I wanted to be involved in the Stem Sisterhood and be one of the faces on her website. She took an archival photo of Albert Einstein with a group of other scientists that’s on display at Caltech and recreated it with a bunch of young women who were involved in the STEM field. So I said yes to being in the photo, and I’m also in the midst of writing a blog post about my experience at Stanford in the SPARK program.

Members of The Stem Sisterhood

Q: What does the Stem Sisterhood do?

SL: Members of the team go to elementary schools and girl scout troop events and speak about science and STEM to the young girls. The goal is to inspire them to become interested in science and to teach them about different aspects of science that maybe are not that well known.

The Stem Sisterhood is based in Los Angeles. The founder Bridget wants to expand the group, but so far, she has only done local events because she is a senior in high school. The Stem Sisterhood has an Instagram account in addition to their blog. The blog is really interesting and features interviews with women who are in science and STEM careers.

Q: How has the Stem Sisterhood impacted your life?

SL: It has inspired me to reach out to younger girls more about science. It’s something that I am passionate about, and I’d like to pursue a career in the medical field. This group has given me an outlet to share that passion with others and to hopefully change the face of the STEM world.

Q: How did you find out about the CIRM SPARK program?

SL: I knew I wanted to do a science program over the summer, but I wasn’t sure what type. I didn’t know if I wanted to do research or be in a hospital. I googled science programs for high school seniors, and I saw the one at Stanford University. It looked interesting and Stanford is obviously a great institution. Coming from LA, I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get in because the program had said it was mostly directed towards students living in the Bay Area. But I got in and I was thrilled. So that’s basically how I heard about it, because I googled and found it.

Q: What was your SPARK experience like?

SL: My program was incredible. I was a little bit nervous and scared going into it because I was the only high school student in my lab. As a high school junior going into senior year, I was worried about being the youngest, and I knew the least about the material that everyone in the lab was researching. But my fears were quickly put aside when I got to the lab. Everyone was kind and helpful, and they were always willing to answer my questions. Overall it was really amazing to have my first lab experience be at Stanford doing research that’s going to potentially change the world.

Shannon working in the lab at Stanford.

I was in a lab that was using stem cells to characterize a type of leukemia. The lab is hoping to study leukemia in vitro and in vivo and potentially create different treatments and cures from this research. It was so cool knowing that I was doing research that was potentially helping to save lives. I also learned how to work with stem cells which was really exciting. Stem cells are a new advancement in the science world, so being able to work with them was incredible to me. So many students will never have that opportunity, and being only 17 at the time, it was amazing that I was working with actual stem cells.

I also liked that the Stanford SPARK program allowed me to see other aspects of the medical world. We did outreach programs in the Stanford community and helped out at the blood drive where we recruited people for the bone marrow registry. I never really knew anything about the registry, but after learning about it, it really interested me. I actually signed up for it when I turned 18. We also met with patients and their families and heard their stories about how stem cell transplants changed their lives. That was so inspiring to me.

Going into the program, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a pediatric oncologist, but after the program, I knew for sure that’s what I wanted to do. I never thought about the research side of pediatric oncology, I only thought about the treatment of patients. So the SPARK program showed me what laboratory research is like, and now that’s something I want to incorporate into my career as a pediatric oncologist.

I learned so much in such a short time period. Through SPARK, I was also able to connect with so many incredible, inspired young people. The students in my program and I still have a group chat, and we text each other about college and what’s new with our lives. It’s nice knowing that there are so many great people out there who share my interests and who are going to change the world.

Stanford SPARK students.

Q: What was your favorite part of the SPARK program?

SL: Being in the lab every day was really incredible to me. It was my first research experience and I was in charge of a semi-independent project where I would do bacterial transformations on my own and run the gels. It was cool that I could do these experiments on my own. I also really loved the end of the summer poster session where all the students from the different SPARK programs came together to present their research. Being in the Stanford program, I only knew the Stanford students, but there were so many other awesome projects that the other SPARK students were doing. I really enjoyed being able to connect with those students as well and learn about their projects.

Q: Why do you want to pursue pediatric oncology?

SL: I’ve always been interested in the medical field but I’ve had a couple of experiences that really inspired me to become a doctor. My friend has a charity that raises money for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Every year, we deliver toys to the hospital. The first year I participated, we went to the hospital’s oncology unit and something about it stuck with me. There was one little boy who was getting his chemotherapy treatment. He was probably two years old and he really inspired to create more effective treatments for him and other children.

I also participated in the STEAM Inquiry program at my high school, where I spent two years reading tons of peer reviewed research on immunotherapy for pediatric cancer. Immunotherapy is something that really interests me. It makes sense that since cancer is usually caused by your body’s own mutations, we should be able to use the body’s immune system that normally regulates this to try and cure cancer. This program really inspired me to go into this field to learn more about how we can really tailor the immune system to fight cancer.

Q: What advice do you have for young girls interested in STEM.

SL: My advice is don’t be afraid. I think that sometimes girls are expected to be interested in less intellectual careers. This perception can strike fear into girls and make them think “I won’t be good enough. I’m not smart enough for this.” This kind of thinking is not good at all. So I would say don’t be afraid and be willing to put yourself out there. I know for me, sometimes it’s scary to try something and know you could fail. But that’s the best way to learn. Girls need to know that they are capable of doing anything and if they just try, they will be surprised with what they can do.

Life after SPARK: CIRM high school intern gets prestigious scholarship to Stanford

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

As part of our CIRM scholar blog series, we’re featuring the research and career accomplishments of CIRM funded students.

Ranya Odeh

Ranya Odeh

Meet Ranya Odeh. She is a senior at Sheldon high school in Elk Grove, California, and a 2016 CIRM SPARK intern. The SPARK program provides stem cell research internships to underprivileged high school students at leading research institutes in California.

This past summer, Ranya worked in Dr. Jan Nolta’s lab at UC Davis improving methods that turn mesenchymal stem cells into bone and fat cells. During her internship, Ranya did an excellent job of documenting her journey in the lab on Instagram and received a social media prize for her efforts.

Ranya is now a senior in high school and was recently accepted into Stanford University through the prestigious QuestBridge scholarship program. She credits the CIRM SPARK internship as one of the main reasons why she was awarded this scholarship, which will pay for all four years of her college.

I reached out to Ranya after I heard about her exciting news and asked her to share her story so that other high school students could learn from her experience and be inspired by her efforts.

How did you learn about the CIRM SPARK program?

At my high school, one of our assignments is to build a website for the Teen Biotech Challenge (TBC) program at UC Davis. I was a sophomore my first year in the program, and I didn’t feel passionate about my project and website. The year after, I saw that some of my friends had done the CIRM SPARK internship after they participated in the TBC program. They posted pictures about their internship on Instagram, and it looked like a really fun and interesting thing to do. So I decided to build another website (one that I was more excited about) in my junior year on synthetic biology. Then I entered my website in the TBC and got first prize in the Nanobiotechnology field. Because I was one of the winners, I got the SPARK internship.

What did you enjoy most about your SPARK experience?

For me, it was seeing that researchers aren’t just scientists in white lab coats. The Nolta lab (where I did my SPARK internship) had a lot of personality that I wasn’t really expecting. Working with stem cells was so cool but it was also nice to see at the same time that people in the lab would joke around and pull pranks on each other. It made me feel that if I wanted to have a future in research, which I do, it wouldn’t be doing all work all the time.

What was it like to do research for the first time?

Ranya taking care of her stem cells!

Ranya taking care of her stem cells!

The SPARK internship was my first introduction to research. During my first experiment, I remember I was changing media and I thought that I was throwing my cells away by mistake. So I freaked out, but then my mentor told me that I hadn’t and everything was ok. That was still a big deal and I learned a lesson to ask more questions and pay more attention to what I was doing.

Did the SPARK program help you when you applied to college?

Yes, I definitely feel like it did. I came into the internship wanting to be a pharmacist. But my research experience working with stem cells made me want to change my career path. Now I’m looking into a bioengineering degree, which has a research aspect to it and I’m excited for that. Having the SPARK internship on my college application definitely helped me out. I also got to have a letter of recommendation from Dr. Nolta, which I think played a big part as well.

Tell us about the scholarship you received!

I got the QuestBridge scholarship, which is a college match scholarship for low income, high achieving students. I found out about this program because my career counselor gave me a brochure. It’s actually a two-part scholarship. The first part was during my junior year of high school and that one didn’t involve a college acceptance. It was an award that included essay coaching and a conference that told you about the next step of the scholarship.

The second part during my senior year was called the national college match scholarship. It’s an application on its own that is basically like a college application. I submitted it and got selected as a finalist. After I was selected, they have partner colleges that offer full scholarships. You rank your choice of colleges and apply to them separately with a common application. If any of those colleges want to match you and agree to pay for all four years of your college, then you will get matched to your top choice. There’s a possibility that more than one college would want to match you, but you will only get matched with the one that you rank the highest. That was Stanford for me, and I am very happy about that.

Why did you pick Stanford as your top choice?

It’s the closest university to where I grew up that is very prestigious. It was also one of the only colleges I’ve visited. When I was walking around on campus, I felt I could see myself there as a student and with the Stanford community. Also, it will be really nice to be close to my family.

What do you do in your free time?

I don’t have a lot of free time because I’m in Academic Decathalon and I spend most of my time doing that. When I do have free time, I like to watch Netflix, blogs on YouTube, and I try to go to the gym [laughs].

Did you enjoy posting about your SPARK internship on Instagram?

I had a lot of fun posting pictures of me in the lab on Instagram. It was also nice during the summer to see other SPARK students in different programs talk about the same things. We shared jokes about micropipettes and culturing stem cells. It was really cool to see that you’re not the only one posting nerdy science pictures. I also felt a part of a larger community outside of the SPARK program. Even people at my school were seeing and commenting on what I was doing.

UC Davis CIRM SPARK program 2016

UC Davis CIRM SPARK program 2016

I also liked that I got feedback about what I was doing in the lab from other SPARK students. When I posted pictures during my internship, I talked about working with mesenchymal stem cells. Because we all post to the same #CIRMSPARKlab hashtag, I saw students from CalTech commenting that they worked with those stem cells too. That motivated me to work harder and accomplish more in my project. Instagram also helped me with my college application process. I saw that there were other students in the same position as me that were feeling stressed out. We also gave each other feedback on college essays and having advice about what I was doing really helped me out.

Do you think it’s important for students to be on social media?

Yes, I think it’s important with boundaries of course. There are probably some people who are on social media too often, and you should have a balance. But it’s nice to see what other students are doing to prepare for college and to let loose and catch up with your friends.

What advice would you give to younger high school students about pursuing science?

I feel like students can’t expect things to be brought to them. If they are interested in science, they need to take the initiative to find something that they are going to want to do. The CIRM internship was brought to my attention. But I have friends that were interested in medicine and they found their own internships and ways to learn more about what they wanted to do. So my advice is to take initiative and not be scared of rejection, because if you’re scared of rejection you’re not going to do anything.

To hear more about Ranya’s SPARK internship experience, read her blog “Here’s what you missed this summer on the show coats.” You can also follow her on Instagram and Twitter. For more information about the CIRM SPARK internship program, please visit the CIRM website.

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Young Minds Shine Bright at the CIRM SPARK Conference

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

SPARK students take a group photo with CIRM SPARK director Karen Ring.

SPARK students take a group photo with CIRM SPARK director Karen Ring.

Yesterday was one of the most exciting and inspiring days I’ve had at CIRM since I joined the agency one year ago. We hosted the CIRM SPARK conference which brought together fifty-five high school students from across California to present their stem cell research from their summer internships.

The day was a celebration of their accomplishments. But it was also a chance for the students to hear from scientists, patient advocates, and clinicians about the big picture of stem cell research: to develop stem cell treatments and cures for patients with unmet medical needs.

Since taking on the role of the CIRM SPARK director, I’ve been blown away by the passion, dedication, and intelligence that our SPARK interns have shown during their short time in the lab. They’ve mastered techniques and concepts that I only became familiar with during my PhD and postdoctoral research. And even more impressive, they eloquently communicated their research through poster presentations and talks at the level of professional scientists.

During their internships, SPARK students were tasked with documenting their research experiences through blogs and social media. They embraced this challenge with gusto, and we held an awards ceremony to recognize the students who went above and beyond with these challenges.

I’d like to share the winning blogs with our readers. I hope you find them as inspiring and motivating as I do. These students are our future, and I look forward to the day when one of them develops a stem cell treatment that changes the lives of patients. 

Andrew Choi

Andrew Choi

Andrew Choi, Cedars-Sinai SPARK student

Am I crying or is my face uncontrollably sweating right now? I think I am doing both as I write about my unforgettable experiences over the course of the past 6 weeks and finalize my poster.

As I think back, I am very grateful for the takeaways of the research field, acquiring them through scientific journals, lab experiments with my mentor, and both formal and informal discourses. It seems impossible to describe all the episodes and occurrences during the program in this one blog post, but all I can say is that they were all unique and phenomenal in their own respective ways.

Gaining new perspectives and insights and being acquainted with many of the techniques, such as stereology, immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry my peers have utilized throughout their careers, proved to me the great impact this program can make on many individuals of the younger generation.

CIRM SPARK not only taught me the goings on behind the bench-to-bedside translational research process, but also morals, work ethics, and effective collaboration with my peers and mentors. My mentor, Gen, reiterated the importance of general ethics. In the process of making my own poster for the program, her words resonate even greater in me. Research, education, and other career paths are driven by proper ethics and will never continue to progress if not made the basic standard.

I am thankful for such amazing institutions: California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for enabling me to venture out into the research career field and network. Working alongside with my fellow seven very brilliant friends, motivated me and made this journey very enjoyable. I am especially thankful my mentor, Gen, for taking the time to provide me with the best possible resources, even with her busy ongoing projects. She encouraged me to be the best that I am.

I believe, actually, I should say, I KNOW Cedars-Sinai’s CIRM SPARK program does a SUPERB and astounding job of cultivating life-long learners and setting exceptional models for the younger generation. I am hoping that many others will partake in this remarkable educational program.

I am overall very blessed to be part of a successful summer program. The end of this program does not mark the end of my passions, but sparks them to even greater heights.

Jamey Guzman

Jamey Guzman

Jamey Guzman, UC Davis SPARK student

When I found out about this opportunity, all I knew was that I had a fiery passion for learning, for that simple rush that comes when the lightbulb sputters on after an unending moment of confusion. I did not know if this passion would translate into the work setting; I sometimes wondered if passion alone would be enough to allow me to understand the advanced concepts at play here. I started at the lab nervous, tentative – was this the place for someone so unsure exactly what she wanted to be ‘when she grew up,’ a date now all too close on the horizon? Was I going to fit in at this lab, with these people who were so smart, so busy, people fighting for their careers and who had no reason to let a 16-year-old anywhere near experiments worth thousands of dollars in cost and time spent?

I could talk for hours about the experiments that I worked to master; about the rush of success upon realizing that the tasks now completed with confidence were ones that I had once thought only to belong to the lofty position of Scientist. I could fill pages and pages with the knowledge I gained, a deep and personal connection to stem cells and cell biology that I will always remember, even if the roads of Fate pull me elsewhere on my journey to a career.

The interns called the experience #CIRMSparkLab in our social media posts, and I find this hashtag so fitting to describe these last few months. While there was, of course, the lab, where we donned our coats and sleeves and gloves and went to work with pipets and flasks…There was also the Lab. #CIRMSparkLab is so much more than an internship; #CIRMSparkLab is an invitation into the worldwide community of learned people, a community that I found to be caring and vibrant, creative and funny – one which for the first time I can fully imagine myself joining “when I grow up.”

#CIRMSparkLab is having mentors who taught me cell culture with unerring patience and kindness. It is our team’s lighthearted banter across the biosafety cabinet; it is the stories shared of career paths, of goals for the present and the future. It is having mentors in the best sense of the word, trusting me, striving to teach and not just explain, giving up hours and hours of time to draw up diagrams that ensured that the concepts made so much sense to me.

#CIRMSparkLab is the sweetest ‘good-morning’ from scientists not even on your team, but who care enough about you to say hi, to ask about your projects, to share a smile. It is the spontaneity and freedom with which knowledge is dispensed: learning random tidbits about the living patterns of beta fish from our lab manager, getting an impromptu lecture about Time and the Planck Constant from our beloved professor as he passes us at lunch. It is getting into a passionate, fully evidence-backed argument about the merits of pouring milk before cereal that pitted our Stem Cell team against our Exosome team: #CIRMSparkLab is finding a community of people with whom my “nerdy” passion for learning does not leave me an oddball, but instead causes me to connect instantly and deeply with people at all ages and walks of life. And it is a community that, following the lead of our magnificent lab director, welcomed ten interns into their lab with open arms at the beginning of this summer, fully cognizant of the fact that we will break beakers, overfill pipet guns, drop gels, bubble up protein concentration assays, and all the while never stop asking, “Why? Why? Why? Is this right? Like this? WHY?”

I cannot make some sweeping statement that I now know at age 16 exactly what I want to do when I grow up. Conversely, to say I learned so much – or I am so grateful – or you have changed my life is simply not enough; words cannot do justice to those sentiments which I hope that all of you know already. But I can say this: I will never forget how I felt when I was at the lab, in the community of scientists. I will take everything I learned here with me as I explore the world of knowledge yet to be obtained, and I will hold in my heart everyone who has helped me this summer. I am truly a better person for having known all of you.

Thank you, #CIRMSparkLab. 

Adriana Millan

Adriana Millan

Adriana Millan, CalTech SPARK student

As children, we all grew up with the companionship of our favorite television shows. We enjoyed sitcoms and other animations throughout our childhood and even as adults, there’s no shame. The goofy and spontaneous skits we enjoyed a laugh over, yet we did not pay much attention to the lessons they attempted to teach us. As a child, these shows play crucial roles in our educational endeavors. We are immediately hooked and tune in for every episode. They spark curiosity, as they allow our imaginations to run wild. For me, that is exactly where my curiosity stemmed and grew for science over the years. A delusional young girl, who had no idea what the reality of science was like.

You expect to enter a lab and run a full day of experimentations. Accidentally mix the wrong chemicals and discover the cure for cancer. Okay, maybe not mix the incorrect chemicals together, I learned that in my safety training class. The reality is that working in a lab was far from what I expected — eye opening. Working alongside my mentor Sarah Frail was one of the best ways I have spent a summer. It was not my ideal summer of sleeping in until noon, but it was worthwhile.

My experience is something that is a part of me now. I talk about it every chance I get, “Mom, can you believe I passaged cells today!” It changed the way I viewed the principles of science. Science is one of the most valuable concepts on this planet, it’s responsible for everything and that’s what I have taken and construed from my mentor. She shared her passion for science with me and that completed my experience. Before when I looked at cells, I did not know exactly what I was supposed to observe. What am I looking at? What is that pink stuff you are adding to the plate?

However, now I feel accomplished. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride, with complications along the way, but I can say that I’m leaving this experience with a new passion. I am not just saying this to please the audience, but to express my gratitude. I would have never even looked into Huntington’s Disease. When I first arrived I was discombobulated. Huntington’s Disease? Now I can proudly say I have a grasp on the complexity of the disease and not embarrass my mentor my calling human cells bacteria – quite embarrassing in fact.  I’m a professional pipette handler, I work well in the hood, I can operate a microscope – not so impressive, I have made possibly hundreds of gels, I have run PCRs, and my cells love me, what else can I ask for.

If you are questioning what career path you are to take and even if it is the slightest chance it may be a course in science, I suggest volunteering in a lab. You will leave with your questioned answered. Is science for me? This is what I am leaving my experience with. Science is for me.

Other SPARK 2016 Awards

Student Speakers: Jingyi (Shelly) Deng (CHORI), Thomas Thach (Stanford)

Poster Presentations: Jerusalem Nerayo (Stanford), Jared Pollard (City of Hope), Alina Shahin (City of Hope), Shuling Zhang (UCSF)

Instagram Photos: Roxanne Ohayon (Stanford), Anna Victoria Serbin (CHORI), Diana Ly (UC Davis)

If you want to see more photos from the CIRM SPARK conference, check out our Instagram page @CIRM_Stemcells or follow the hashtag #CIRMSPARKLab on Instagram and Twitter.

California high schoolers SPARK interest in stem cell research through social media

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

I have a job for you today and it’s a fun one. Open your Instagram app on your phone. If you’re not an Instagrammer, don’t worry, you can access the website on your computer.

Do you have it open? OK now type in the hashtag #CIRMSparkLab and click on it.

What you’ll find is around 200 posts of the most inspiring and motivating pictures of stem cell research that I’ve seen. These pictures are from high school students currently participating in the CIRM summer SPARK program, one of our educational programs, which has the goal to train the next generation of stem cell scientists.

The SPARK program offers California high school students an invaluable opportunity to gain hands-on training in regenerative medicine at some of the finest stem cell research institutes in the state. And while they gain valuable research skills, we are challenging them to share their experiences with the general public through blogging and social media.

Communicating science to the public is an important mission of CIRM, and the SPARK students are excelling at this task by posting descriptive photos on Instagram that document their internships. Some of them are fun lab photos, while others are impressive images of data with detailed explanations about their research projects.

Below are a few of my favorite posts so far this summer. I’ve been so inspired by the creativity of these posts that we are now featuring some of them on the @CIRM_Stemcells account. (Yes this is a shameless plug for you to follow us on Instagram!).

City of Hope SPARK program.

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I encourage you all to follow our talented SPARK students this summer as they continue to document their exciting journeys on Instagram. These students are our future and supporting their training and education in stem cell research is an honor for CIRM and a vital step towards achieving our mission of accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.

Stay tuned for more blog coverage about SPARK and our other educational program, the Bridges to Stem Cell Research program for undergraduate and master-level students. The annual Bridges conference that brings all the students together to present their research will be held next week, and the SPARK conference is on August 8th both in Berkeley.

Students use a 3D printer to sink their teeth into stem cell research

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

Student winners

L-R Alan Tan, Sid Bommakanti, Daniel Chae – prize winning science students

A 3D printer, some old teeth, and some terrific science were enough to help three high school students develop a new way of growing bone and win a $30,000 prize in a national competition.

The three teamed up for the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, which bills itself as “the nation’s premier research competition for high school students”.

The trio includes two from the San Francisco Bay area, where we are based; Sid Bommakanti from Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, and Alan Tan, from Irvington High School in Fremont. The third member of the team, Daniel Chae, goes to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia.

The three used mesenchymal stem cells – which are capable of being turned into muscle, cartilage or bone – which they got from the dental pulp found in wisdom teeth that had been extracted.

In a story posted on the KQED website Tan says they thought it would be cool to take something that is normally thrown away, and recycle it:

“When we learned we could take stem cells from teeth—it’s actually part of medical waste—we realized could turn this into bone cells,”

The students used a 3D printer to create a kind of scaffold out of a substance called polylatctic acid – it’s an ingredient found in corn starch or sugar cane. The scaffold had a rough surface, something they hoped would help stimulate the dental pulp to grow on it and become bone.

That’s what happened. The students were able to show that their work produced small clusters of cells that were growing on the scaffold, cells that were capable of maturing into bone. This could be used to create dental implants to replace damaged teeth, and, according to Alan Tan, to repair other injuries:

“We used dental pulp stem cells so that we could regenerate bones in various parts of our body so for example we could fix bones in your jaw and tibia and other places.”

The beauty of this approach is that the scaffold and bone could be implanted in, say, the mouth and then as the scaffold disintegrates the new bone would be left in place.

While they didn’t take the top prize (a $100,000 scholarship) they did have to see off some serious competition from nearly 1,800 other student project submissions to win a Team scholarship award.

The students say they learned a lot working together, and encouraged other high school students who are interested in science to take part in competitions like this one.

Sid Bommakanti “Both me, Alan and our other partner are interested in medicine as a whole and we wanted to make an impact on other people’s lives.”

Alan Tan: “I would say get into science early. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and talk to professors, talk to people, competitions like this are beneficial because they encourage students to get out there and interact with the real world.”

CIRM is helping students like these through its Stem Cell Education Portal,  which includes the materials and resources that teachers need to teach high school students about stem cells. All the materials meet both state and federal guidelines.

 

 

Creativity sparks a bright future for science

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

When some people want to see the future they use a crystal ball. Others use tarot cards or runes. But when anyone at CIRM wants to see the future all we have to do is look into the faces of the students in our Creativity program.

Creativity students 2015 with program director Dr. Mani Vessal (front & center with tie)

Creativity students 2015 with program director Dr. Mani Vessal (front & center with tie)

Over the past three years the Creativity program has given some 220 California high school students a chance to spend the summer working in a world-class stem cell research facility. And when I say work, I mean work. They are required to attend lectures, grow their own stem cells, and do experiments. In short, they are expected to do what all the other scientists in the lab do. In return they get a great experience, and a modest stipend for their effort. At the end they produce papers on their work with titles like:

  • Notch Signaling as a Possible Regulator of Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Differentiation in the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche
  • RNA Splicing Factor ZRSR2 in Human Erythroleukemia and Stem Cells

We also ask the students to either write a blog or create a video about their experiences over the summer. Many do both. We’ll come back to the video portion later this week. The blogs make for a great read because they chart the students as they progress from knowing little if anything about stem cells, to being quite proficient at working with them. And all in just 8 weeks. One of the hardest parts of our job is choosing the best blog. For example Alice Lin, part of the City of Hope program, got an honorable mention for her blog that was a “diary” written by an embryonic stem cell. Here’s a small sample of her approach:

‘Also, this is NOT YOUR TYPICAL LAB JOURNAL ENTRY. It’s an autobiography chronicling my life. That way, when the stem cell controversy cools down, the general public can get a FIRST HAND ACCOUNT of what we do. This blog is going to rack up some serious views someday. Until then, I’m attached to my colony and the plate.’

Ryan Hale, part of the Scripps team, wrote about how the experience taught him to think like a scientist:

‘One day, after performing an experiment, our mentor asked us the reason behind our experiment. He wasn’t asking us about the experimental procedure or quizzing us on the pre-reading packet, he wanted us to understand the thought process a researcher would go through to actually think up such an experiment… Our mentor stressed how important it is to be creative, inquisitive, and critical if one wants to become a successful researcher.’

Selena Zhang

Selena Zhang

The winner was Selena Zhang, also part of the City of Hope team. She writes about her experiences in the lab, learning the ropes, getting to understand the technology and language of science. But it’s her closing paragraph that sealed the deal for us. In a few short sentences she manages to capture the romance, the mystery and the magic of science. And we’re also happy to say that this program is coming back next year, and the year after that, for five more years. Our Board has just approved renewed funding. The name of the program is changing, it will be called SPARK, but the essence will remain the same. Giving young students a glimpse at a future in science. You don’t need a crystal ball to know that with these students the future is bright. Here’s Selena’s winning blog:

My very own lab coat. It was a lot to live up to, my freshly laundered lab coat with the City of Hope logo. Looking around the lab, I was nervous and excited to start my very first day. There were papers to read and meetings with my mentor to hear about my project. I was starstruck, as I learned that I would be working with induced pluripotent stem cells, Alzheimer’s disease, and CRISPR. Terms that seemed to only exist in textbooks and science magazines that I lovingly read at the library were suddenly alive to me. Although, embarrassingly enough, the only thing that came to mind when my mentor mentioned CRISPR was a salad crisper. Fairly certain that she was a) speaking about something else and b) that I needed to eat more for breakfast, I asked her what that was. It turned out that CRISPR was a new genome editing tool we could use to create isogenic lines to study the independent effects of each allele of the APOE gene that is the most significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s. We would do this by converting a patient and wild-type fibroblast into induced pluripotent stem cells. From this, we would edit a normal allele into the patient’s cell for rescue and the mutated allele in the wild-type cell for insertion, respectively. We would eventually differentiate these cells into neurons and astrocytes to study how the change of this allele can impact neural interaction. This was real science in progress, not enshrined in a textbook, but free, fluid, and vibrant. I slowly grew into my own independence around the lab. I found myself more confident and emotionally invested with each experiment, every immunostaining and PCR. Science, for all of its realism, had always seemed like the unimaginable fantasy to me. Through this opportunity, science has become more tangible, grounded in unglamorous details: hard work and deadlines, mistakes and mishaps, long lab meetings and missed lunches. Yet, that has only made me more confident that I want to pursue science. Now, I’m embracing a reality, one that gives me something worth striving for. In fact, I am very fortunate that my project has encountered numerous obstacles. My initial response to these problems was and still is a lot less Zen and a lot more panic-driven. But I’ve slowly come to realize the beauty of the troubleshooting process for progress. My project has been an emotional rollercoaster, as our rescue cell line met success, but couldn’t advance to the next stage. Our insertion cell line appeared to have incorporated the mutation, but it turned out it only incorporated one allele. It’s been a process of finding the balance between defending our ideas and accepting new ones, the border between defending and defensiveness. My curiosity and drive to improve, to understand, to conquer the unknown is learning to coexist with the need for patience and flexibility No matter how solid our theory should have been, reality is fickle and all the more interesting for it. I thought science was all about doubt and skepticism, questioning everything. Through this internship, I’ve learned that there’s also a surprising amount of faith, the faith to accept any setbacks as part of the discovery process. I thought I loved science before because I loved how enough facts could help me make sense of things. But through this internship in the lab, I’m learning to love a larger part of science, which is not only loving knowledge, but also loving not knowing, loving discovery for all of its uncertainty and perfect imperfections. I’m learning to grow into my lab coat, and hopefully, to find my place in the field of science.