Johns Hopkins for the Summer!

Hi everyone!

My name is Bianca Pier... and I am now a SENIOR at Siena! I still can't believe that three whole years have already gone by. I am definitely going to try to make this last year go as slowly as possible. I don't think I ever want to leave!

I am a Biology major at Siena, and I aspire to become a college professor. So far, Siena has given me so many wonderful opportunities to foster my love for science and discovery. During my junior year I was lucky enough to work with Dr. Helm, who is one of my favorite professors at Siena, on research in Plant Biology. So, this summer I wanted to put the research skills that I learned in his lab to the test, and I applied to several undergraduate research programs. And guess what!! I got into a spectacular program at Johns Hopkins University!

So, at this very moment, I am typing up this blog from my dorm on JHU campus in Baltimore after getting back from a long and exciting day in the lab. Here at Hopkins I am working in the Department of Cell Biology in a huge laboratory under Dr. Peter Devreotes. His lab is full of so many researchers, top-of-the-line equipment, and fascinating projects. AND the lab of two Nobel Prize winners is right across the hall from where I do research every day! This place is just full of positive energy and brilliant minds... I'm almost overwhelmed by it.

Dr. Devreotes' lab focuses on a phenomenon called chemotaxis. Chemotaxis is basically the movement of cells in a chemical gradient. This phenomenon occurs in several well-known physiological situations. One such example is the metastasis of tumor cells (when a tumor cell decides to just up and leave the tumor and travel elsewhere in the body, causing lots of problems). However, chemotaxis does not always produce negative results for health. In fact, neutrophils (friendly white blood cells) move by chemotaxis when they chase harmful bacteria. This process works when a cell, whether a human neutrophil or a single-celled amoeba, senses a change in the concentration of a particular chemical in its surroundings, and then moves according to where the source of that chemical is. It's a pretty cool process... and the researchers in Dr. Devreotes' lab are trying to figure out exactly what happens in a cell when it undergoes chemotaxis.

Right now I'm working with an amoeba model... The species name is Dictyostelium Discoidium, but we call it "Dicty!" Basically, I'm looking at one little protein (that the grad student I am working with discovered!) that is involved in chemotaxis and I'm getting rid of it in Dicty through cloning mechanisms to try to figure out what happens when it's gone. It's really interesting, but it's A LOT of hard work!

Here's a link to the lab if you're interested: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/cellbio/devreotes/

So I am definitely beat from the long day. I have to say that I feel "all grown up" here because I get up early and go to work, come back late, cook my own dinner, and then I am so exhausted that I go to bed way earlier than I do at school. It's a weird feeling.

I'll definitely be back on soon to tell you guys some more about the research, but also some cool stuff about Baltimore, Maryland!

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer! :-)

~Bianca

P.S. Rest in peace, Michael Jackson!