Since early April, I have been conducting voluntary research in the Moore Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Throughout fall quarter, I worked on my own research project for class credit, and will continue my research next quarter as a Triton Research and Experiential Learning Scholar (TRELS). I would like to share more about the project I have been working on, how I got involved, and the possibilities I am looking forward to as I continue to dedicate time to this amazing lab!
I am very interested in studying the interface between biology and chemistry at the cellular level (i.e. biochemistry), especially of marine organisms. However, I never considered myself "smart enough" to work in a lab because I found my college lab classes confusing and difficult to understand, and I assumed working in a lab as an undergraduate would give me the same feeling. It wasn't until one of my Scripps professors encouraged me to try volunteering in a lab that I even thought about the possibility. He was kind enough to connect me with five professors in my field of interest. I emailed all of them, simply asking to learn more about their research (because I had no lab experience at the time), and was surprised to receive replies from four of the five of them.
Each professor was looking for something a little different, but each of them were so kind and willing to share their experience with me. After a few weeks of deliberation, I decided to begin working with a post-doctoral mentor at the Moore Lab. The Moore Lab is a marine natural products lab focused on discovering the structures and biochemical pathways of how certain natural products are made in marine bacteria. This research is important for drug discovery and other applications.
I started out extremely unsure of myself. It was a true learning curve to try to apply my knowledge from the classroom to a real-life setting. I felt like I could no longer do the basic math we learned in general chemistry class once my mentor started asking me to compute things. My mentor also gave me weekly scientific journal articles to read. I would read each article 2-3 times and still have no idea what it was talking about. I also had to get over my fear of failure; I didn't want to disappoint, but I soon learned it was better to ask or tell someone when I made a mistake then brush it under the rug and hope it would go away on its own. Luckily, the Moore lab created a safe environment for me to question freely and grow greatly.
In September I began working on my own project with the guidance of my post doctoral mentor. The problem we are addressing goes as follows: In biology, there is this issue called "The Great Plate Count Anomaly" which describes how only 1% of bacterial species in a sample can be cultured in the lab. Because some species are currently unculturable, we are not able to study the metabolic products and other compounds they produce. The project I am working on addresses this issue as it relates to marine bacteria. While some bacteria require special nutrients to grow, it is hypothesized that some marine bacterial species require three-dimensional spaces to grow (instead of the flat agar plates we usually spread them on). My project entails developing an encapsulation technique that would allow previously uncultured bacteria to grow in three-dimensional, micro-orbs. I am hoping that these capsules will mimic the natural environments of marine bacteria so that new bacteria can be cultured and new natural products can be discovered.
Currently, I have succeeded in making this technique sterile and effective for terrestrial bacteria, but because of the osmotic imbalances that affect marine bacteria, I am still working on adjusting this technique. Next quarter, I might be able to move my experimentation to the ocean with the help of the Scripps Pier, and this summer, I plan on getting my scientific diver's certification so I can experiment with sponge bacteria in the open ocean. In the long-run, my post-doctoral advisor and I have ideas to create educational curriculum utilizing this technique to inspire high school students to pursue careers in STEM. I am extremely excited for what is to come, and will post more updates along my research journey!
Emily