It was another busy day at RTI!
I spent the entire first half of the day sitting in on an important conference about the federally funded project to prevent HIV for South African women. Some background: a small implant is being developed to be inserted somewhere discreet (perhaps upper arm or thigh) and consistently release the right amount HIV preventing drugs over a period of about 3 months. As Dr. Rothrock described, this meeting was essentially the “annual check-in” to report on the progress made on the project. This meeting was especially important, as they plan to move into a human trial in 2018. We dialed into the conference, which was being held in Washington DC, and watched the presentations as researchers from RTI and their many partners presented to various important people, such as representatives from the USAID.
For being dialed in to such a high-stakes meeting, I was surprised by how relaxed the environment was in our conference room. Of course, our mentors from RTI were listening, but they joked about difficulties they encountered and told us fun anecdotes about their colleagues. I remember when something called HiP (HIV implants for prevention) was being presented about, and they joked “we have HiP now, get ready for HoP!”
In fact, how I would describe the whole day is “surprisingly chill.” We spent the second half of the day observing in lab, as important data was being taken for the HIV prevention project. It was obviously nothing to be taken lightly – all equipment was sterilized extensively before use and all work was done inside a sterile hood – yet the scientists we observed were extremely friendly and willing to answer questions. I learned so much from talking to them: from the different types of capsules and the differences in how they release the drug, to the proper procedure to sterilize equipment, to the difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer, to why not to take power walking as a PE class in college.
Everyone at RTI has been so friendly, even offering to connect us to people in the field we might want to work in. One of the scientists I talked to, Phil, gave me career advice, saying “if you’re curious about something, you’re probably a nerd… if you like problem solving, I’d recommend science as a career.” He also told us that we would get a chance to get our hands dirty and do some real lab work soon!
New vocab for today: excipients are essentially the “non-active” ingredients in any drug, that are put there to serve a purpose other than treating the disease. The purpose could be to take up space (because the required dosage of the actual drug can be extremely small), to make the drug more visually appealing, to provide an easier method of delivery, etc.
