I stepped onto UNC’s campus early this morning, ready for the work experience I had been waiting for, ready to finally begin my time at the Sheikh lab. Contrary to my initial belief, I was actually far from ready to jump into the complex realm of gastrointestinal immunology and genetic research that the lab specializes in. You see, I had spent some time on Day 1 struggling through a scientific review paper that I had been instructed to read, as a means of familiarizing myself with the current research available on the topic of inflammatory bowel disease. However, “struggling through” was not an understatement; the task of reading a scientific paper requires far more than a pen and a comfy place to sit. With my colorful highlighters in one hand, post-it flags in the other, and Dictionary.com at my side, I began to slowly work my way through the extremely technical language and concepts that the paper discussed. As I embarked on my treacherous literary journey, all I could think of was how tiny the font was and how unhelpful the complicated scientific diagrams were. But as I persevered, scary phrases like “nucleotide-binding oligomerization domaincontaining 2” were shortened to simply “NOD2”, and I recognized that with a little patience and courage, I began to actually understand what I was reading, and it turned out to be really interesting!
The paper discussed the pathogenesis, or development in regards to disease, of inflammatory bowel disease, particularly Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Inflammatory bowel disease is particularly elusive in the medical world because the exact cause is still unknown. We know that there are significant genetic linkages, but environmental, microbial and immunological factors still play an important role in patient susceptibility. Upwards of 160 susceptibility genes have already been identified and scientists are working on piecing together the connections between those genes and the responses they cause and the responses in IBD patients.
Throughout the morning I continued my preliminary research by supplementing the initial paper I read with another one that went deeper into researching the cause of IBD in patients. When Shruti, the lab technician and my mentor for the internship, arrived, we had a short conversation about the lab’s current ongoing projects which led to a discussion on PCR techniques. Later this afternoon, Shruti took me down to the Lineberger building, which is equipped with a special machine able to conduct and monitor digital PCR. She walked me through how the machines were used to further explore gene expression of a certain genetic target through testing the fluorescence of individual droplets. If a single droplet contained the target particle, it would glow and the machine would measure it and store it next to the data for the thousands of other droplets tested. The process was complicated and tedious, but being able to visualize the ratio of positive droplets (with the target particle) to negative ones using the computer program assisted with my understanding.
