Tag Archives: mentorship

Summer Study: A Journey from Heart to Kidney
Yuliia Kashyrina
Sophomore
Pre-allied health major
Howard Community College, (Columbia, MD), class of 2020

My Research Project

When asked about the most vital organ in the body, most people would point out the heart without hesitation. It is indeed an essential pump that helps deliver oxygen and other nutrients from food to the body’s cells. The heart also helps fight infection and creates blood clots after injury. The principal function of the heart is maintaining solute circulation. When it comes to removing these solutes, the kidney kicks in. Without the kidney, the blood would accumulate metabolic waste made by the body as a result of your activities, drastically increasing the pressure in your blood vessels due to a large amount of solutes being added.

On a large scale, my project investigated a possible mechanism by which the body can function to lower your blood pressure. On a smaller scale, I investigated the effect that a hormone released by your heart can have on certain types of kidney cells.

Realities of Research

Working in a research lab was fun. Fresh out of school, I rejoiced in this great feeling of assuming responsibility (finally) for every part of the project from the experimental design and hypothesis, to implementation, statistical analysis and drawing conclusions. I learned how to passage cells into various flasks, petri dishes and transwell inserts, how and when to feed them andhow to freeze them. I also learned different techniques of fluorescent imaging which uses fluorescent dyes to label molecules of interest, protein concentration measuring techniques, measuring current/resistance of cells in transwells and measuring cellular oxygen consumption rate, which was essentially how certain cells “breathe.”

Even with a very insightful mentorship from senior personnel in the lab, it took some time to tailor every protocol so that my experiments would produce clear results. In some cases, an experiment was great in theory but challenging to reproduce. For example, when we attempted to track changes in the mitochondrial calcium in response to acute application of the drug using a fluorescent dye, the drug delivery technique would greatly affect the results. It is no doubt that this particular experiment required a little bit more work, but within the 10-week time frame of my fellowship that experiment did not make the priority list.

Life as a Scientist

The best—and probably the worst— part about doing research was sometimes having to come to the lab at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. At the same time, I was able to have proper time off work so I could start a new week fresh and well-rested. Sometimes, however, my curiosity led me back to the lab again and again. In the end, there were two main things that I got most out of this summer:

  1. I cannot expect immediate results in science; and
  2. no science would be possible without collaboration within and outside of lab.

I did a lot this summer, from reading articles so that I stayed on track with discoveries, watching others do procedures, attending meetings and journal clubs, making presentations—you name it! Working in basic research is definitely a lot more than making hypotheses and carrying out experiments.

Yuliia Kashyrina is a sophomore majoring in pre-allied health at Howard Community College in Columbia, Md. She completed the Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship (UGSRF) through the American Physiological Society during summer 2019 and worked under Dr. Daria Ilatovskaya at the Medical University of South Carolina, Division of Nephrology, in Charleston, SC. The UGSRF program was funded by the American Physiological Society. Yuliia is planning to transfer into biology/biological sciences to a four-year university in the fall of 2020 and seek an advanced degree in physiology upon completion of her bachelor’s degree.

2018 Summer of Science – High blood pressure and your kidneys: A look at how we can limit hypertensive kidney injury

Research Project

It is estimated by the American Heart Association that over 103 million American’s have hypertension, more commonly known as high blood pressure, which can have many adverse effects on the health of an individual. The kidneys are the filtering system of our bodies and work to remove waste and excess products every single day. When an individual has high blood pressure the vessels carrying blood within the kidney can become damaged and cause an inflammatory response that can lead to impaired kidney function and injury. My project looks at how we can block inflammation caused by high blood pressure and preserve kidney function. We do this by administering an antibody, a protein that can bind to specific targets to block their function, thereby reducing the inflammatory signals in rats that are hypertensive. Over a two-week period, we monitor blood pressure, food intake, water intake, body weight, and urinary output to provide an index of kidney function. At the end of the two-week period, we harvest the kidneys and utilize microscopy and video imaging to directly determine kidney blood vessel function.  Using this approach, we can determine if the antibody treatment is protecting the kidney from hypertensive injury.  This information allows us to understand how inflammatory signals influence organ function and develop new targets for medications for individuals with high blood pressure.

Realities of Research

My experience in my research lab this summer has been pretty different from my past research experiences. My research in the past has focused mainly on cell culture and use of a mouse model for my work. This summer I utilized a rat model and equipment I was not accustomed to working with, such as, machines that measure rat blood pressures. With my experience, there was a bit of learning curve and presenting my project progress weekly at lab meetings was very intimidating at the beginning.  Shifting my focus to physiological research this summer also posed some challenges. When utilizing an animal model in physiological research there are many variables you have to account for. Most of these variables are out of your control so variation between experiments was common. Overall, this experience has helped shape who I am as a scientist and taught me how to successfully overcome obstacles. My project has produced promising data that suggests that inhibiting inflammation in kidneys that have been exposed to high blood pressure helps to preserve kidney function.

Life of a Scientist

A good day in lab usually consists of me coming into lab around 8AM and leaving around 5PM, but most days I find myself coming in early or leaving much later. I usually will take some work home with me but I always make sure I designate at least an hour every night to myself where I relax, catch up with friends, or catch up on my favorite shows. Although I tend to always be stressed about school work or a deadline, it’s made easier by the fact that I enjoy my work and what I study. I think the most rewarding part of any research undertaking is when you finish a project or find some promising data that help contribute to new scientific discoveries. Having an amazing lab team working alongside me also helps. I received some excellent guidance from many of the mentors in lab and especially from my PI who taught me the importance of oral and written scientific skills. I think it’s great having a close-knit group of individuals in lab that are always willing to help you succeed and help you troubleshoot an experiment when it does not work.

 

Brian Freeman is a senior at the University of California, Merced majoring in Biology with an emphasis in Microbiology and Immunology. He is a 2018 Short-Term Research Education Program to Increase Diversity in Health-Related Research (STRIDE) Fellow working with Dr. Edward Inscho at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His fellowship is funded by the APS and a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institution (Grant #1 R25 HL115473-01). Upon graduating, Brian plans to enter a Biomedical PhD program and pursue a career in academia.