Jake K. - Exploring the Field of Biotechnology

My senior project involves the field of Biotechnology. My general goal is to get a good feel for what it is like to work and study in this important field, and to have an authentic experience in a Biotechnology company actually doing work in the laboratory. I was able to make contacts and arrange to work at a company called MacroGenics Inc. in South San Francisco where my mentor, Dr. Jennie Mather, is a senior vice president of stem cell research.

The general theme of my project is researching how a complete tumor develops from cancer stem cells by learning about the cell biology of cancer stem cell differentiation.

Briefly my work involves:
• Examining purified cultured cancer stem cells
• Making tumors in animals
• Analyzing using histochemistry (special markers) to compare animal tumors to human tumors.

I am presently in the process of preparing cells grown in the lab and cells taken from a rat tumor. I have been somewhat surprised by the complex and involved process of preparing these cells. It is nonetheless interesting, and I am excited about the process of staining these cells and making the comparisons.

It is interesting to see how science and business can be combined to do such meaningful work as discovering treatments for cancer. I have been able to participate in a very small yet enlightening slice of this type of work.

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