This summer, I spent 9 weeks at the Duke-NUS Medical School doing what I love most: research. I am extremely grateful to Dr David Virshup, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at Duke and Director of the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme at Duke-NUS, for providing me with the opportunity to learn from and contribute to his lab.

The Virshup Lab focuses primarily on the Wnt signaling pathway, which is a critical cell signaling pathway present in all animals and regulates cell metabolism and proliferation. Mutations in this pathway can affect stem cell control and therefore lead to unwanted cell growth; in other words, cancer.

Over my 9 weeks at the Virshup Lab, I assisted Dr Yu Jia, Research Fellow in the Virshup Lab, on her project that explored a number of different mutations in RNF43. The gene RNF43 plays an important path in downregulating the Wnt pathway. My task was to investigate a number of mutants of this gene and determine whether they upregulated or downregulated Wnt. In doing so, I was trained in several different cell culture and wet lab techniques, such as transfection, transformation, and luciferase, mCherry and LDH assays that helped me determine the effect of the different mutants on the cells. I also learnt how to separate and purify DNA from bacterial cultures using mini- or midi-preps. Cloning and PCR were also a significant part of the project, and I learnt specific techniques for these processes. I had some basic knowledge of molecular biology as I had just completed Bio 201 here at Duke in the 2019 spring semester, but seeing these concepts in action in the real world undoubtedly fascinated me.

Furthermore, I had the chance to learn how to use novel sequencing analysis tools and interpret my data through the eye of a scientist, making sure I tried my best to eliminate experimental bias. These skills are of vital importance to any aspiring researcher, and I am grateful that I was exposed to them so early in my undergraduate career.

The weekly research seminars at Duke-NUS were another highlight of my summer internship. Once a week, I had the opportunity to attend talks given by various members of Singapore’s scientific community who presented their ongoing cutting-edge research. Two of the talks that stuck out most in my head were on the low incidence of cancer in bats, and metastatic cancers. The seminars certainly brought to my attention the importance of peer reviewing, discussion, and eloquent project proposition. The seminars also helped me expand my network and connect with other professors at Duke-NUS.

As I begin my sophomore year here at Duke University with plans to conduct research in a BME lab on-campus, I know that both the technical and soft skills that I picked up at Duke-NUS will be of immense advantage to me.