Tag: ChloeH- Biology Lab Researcher

I can’t believe my time to FHI 360 has come to an end!  To say these two weeks flew by would be an understatement, and I am so sad to leave.

Our morning began with a monthly CTID team meeting, a meeting where nearly all of the team members attend (whether in person or via the phone).  There was an agenda, and we were able to learn a lot about the diverse projects they were currently working on.  There was a round robin, where every member shared one of their projects as well as an obstacle they were dealing with.  It was neat hearing about the various clinical trials taking place across the globe, in addition to acceptability work and projects being held with women in the field.  Dr. Dorflinger led the meeting, but it was a very laid back environment, where each person got to contribute in some way.  The hour and a half flew by, and I found myself immensely interested throughout the entire duration.

Our day ended with a surprise goodbye party, where all of our mentors attended and brought treats.  Hope, Maddie, Caroline and I were extremely grateful, and it was really nice being able to talk to all of the wonderful people we met for one last time.  Relationships were made that will definitely remain in the future, and I for one can assure our work with them has not ended – we even talked about ways we could remain in touch.

To sum, my two weeks at FHI 360 were indescribable, and truly an experience I will never forget.

Before walking into our one o’clock meeting, I mentally prepared myself for the three and half hours of back-to-back meetings to come.  However, I had been looking forward to this specific conference since Day 1:  it was about the use of drones in public health.  Hope, Maddie, Caroline, and I eagerly entered the room, introducing ourselves and our interests to Marga, a research associate, as well as another member of her team.  It was fascinating learning about the new technology of drones, and we were able to brainstorm ways it could be integrated within international development, specifically in third world countries.  Some of the ideas we came up were contraceptive/medical device delivery, surveying villages, administering vaccines/implants, finding locations of standing water, agriculture applications and more, many of which are currently being developed.

We were shown videos of “swarms” which are essentially groups of drones that communicate with one another – it was practically out of a science fiction movie…Although all of it was extremely interesting, one particular aspect that stood out to me was Zipline, a company that currently delivers blood among other things to various sites in Rwanda.  They receive an order from a doctor at a local clinic or hospital via SMS, and immediately send the product to the location by drone.; they have a capacity to send more than forty out a day!  To me, this invention is revolutionary, and to see how it is already being implemented makes me wonder where this technology will be ten years from now.  It also brings up many interesting points because there are currently few regulations which is really problematic, “and with no regulations there’s chaos” to quote a Ministry of Health in Sub-Saharan Africa.  I had no idea this technology was worked on so much, and was not aware of its potential positive capability until this meeting.

An hour or so later, we met with Heather Vahdat, to learn about the Kenya Ideation event that took place in April.  It was honestly indescribable to see the pictures taken, and read stories of women in the field; I can only imagine what it was like to actually be there.  It was amazing hearing how people from all over the world came to this event, united with a passion to help women.

After having our initial CTI Video pitch meeting with members of the CTID team, Hope, Maddie, Caroline, and I eagerly began moving forward with the project.  In short, we were tasked with coming up with a creative way to display FHI 360’s efforts, based off of Dr. Dorflinger’s speech “I’ve got you under my skin” and a Georgia Tech video regarding microneedle patches.  We decided to create a stop motion whiteboard design, and spent a substantial amount of last week ideating:  thinking of potential graphics that pertained to Dr. Dorflinger’s script (that we typed up word-for-word from the video).

One particular aspect that stuck with the team was when she talked about her partners/collaborators; to illustrate this, we would draw a world map and then people (or the “team”) in the areas in which FHI 360 has a big influence.  While Hope and Caroline were at a meeting, Maddie and I decided to jumpstart this particular part of the project.  Maddie drew the world on a whiteboard, with me drawing the parts that were unreasonably high up, and we proceeded to video, utilizing the app hyperlapse.  It was super fun, and we are really enjoying this project, for it appears they would like to incorporate our ideas and possibly even illustrations into the actual video!

Another part of the video we are continuing to work on is the big finale.  An actual match would be lit, and then a real IUD (that looks like a firework) would move away from it, transitioning to multiple drawings that fanned out.  After this happens, someone would snap their fingers and all of this would be erased.  Then, the FHI 360 logo would be hand-drawn (and sped up), and finally rotate 360 degrees.  All in all, I am really enjoying my time at FHI 360, and am sad its beginning to come to an end.

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I briskly walked to the largest conference room in the building to prepare for our first meeting of the day, a meeting I had been looking forward to upon arrival at FHI 360:  a meeting with Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam, a professor at Duke University who co-developed a POCkeT colposcope.  Luckily, one of our mentors gave us a brief lesson prior to this lecture, so we were able to better understand the implications of the new technology.

We started off by learning how cervical cancer has increased significantly in low resource settings, despite the opposite trend taking place in other countries around the world.  This is partly due to the difficulty presented by continual referrals/visits to secondary and tertiary medical facilities; in other words, the accessibility.   To combat this problem, Dr. Ramanujam and her team worked to find a way to combine all of these “steps” – Screening (VIA/HPV), Diagnosis (Colposcopy – Cryo/LEEP), Treatment(Cancer Treatment) – into one visit, yielding her invention.

The POCKeT or Point of Care Tampon Colposcope is a diagnostic device that is close up to the cervix, contrary to the current colposcopes which are designed to look from the outside.  They went through many types, from the Gen 3 which required an external power unit, to a Gen 4 which was ultra portable and had a reflector cone, the Alpha that was characterized by a slim design and on board controls (and collaborated with international companies) to finally the Beta, that can be plugged into a USB port on a smartphone, computer, and more.  It does not have to use a speculum, in fact, her team has worked to developed a curved inserter that has been proven to cause significantly less pain than the widely-used speculums.  The pocket colposcope has a light and camera button, with a “switch” that slides back and forth to alter the magnification of the picture.  It was incredible learning about this newly developed technology, and the scientific aspect, but also the potential consequences that arise with commercialization.  I never realized the complexity of such an idea, and how by solely wanting to make a difference/impact on the world, you have to take into account a myriad of other things.  This presentation went well over the designated hour, but it was well worth it.  It was incredibly interesting, and I would love to take part in something as amazing as her work.

Following this meeting, we enjoyed a short lunch break, again consisting of a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Later in the day we presented our CTI video pitch to Dr. Dorflinger, among other members of the team.

To begin, here is the quote of the day, the week, and even possibly the entire work experience program:  “I’m still trying to get this lubricant off of my hands.” This was calmly/ordinarily said by our esteemed tour guide, our biology expert, at FHI 360’s product quality and control center, more commonly known as the PQC.  There, people are tasked with testing contraceptives – condoms, IUDs, tablets – as well as other items including bed nets and more in many different ways.

Although most people would find the discussion of condoms and contraceptives uncomfortable, awkward or downright embarrassing, Hope, Caroline, Maddie and I quickly became immune to this type of talk following today’s interesting (to say the least) experience.  Despite being kindly lectured on the difficulty of reaching this destination, Celia, Maddie, and I found the PQC with ease; Hope and Caroline piled into the car with Lauren and followed.

Upon arrival, we were each given a pair of safety glasses, to be worn at all times in the lab, validating the “realness” of the situation.  We were immediately shown the various tests condoms go through, both male and female, with demonstrations.

First, we saw condoms being attached to a device and filled with a certain amount of water, testing whether or not they had holes and were able to hold a certain mass.  If just two of the selected batch failed, the entire group is found to be unacceptable.  In addition to this, the water-filled condoms were tied at the end and rolled onto a board, again testing their structure.

The next part of the tour was probably the coolest:  the Airbust.  We entered a room with a sign outside labeled something along the lines of “DANGER!  Use ear protection.”  Yes, we were going to explode condoms.  This test is particularly important, for each condom must reach a certain volume when filled with air, and pop once it reaches a certain pressure.  It was interesting because female condoms exploded in around thirty seconds, a substantially shorter time frame than that of males.

Once leaving this test, we went to another room, where the odor of condoms was being tested:  someone was tasked with taking observations of the odor 90 days after it was manufactured, 120, 180, etcetera because users sometimes refrain from usage due to their bad smell after a certain period of time.  In this same room, there were also refrigerators that monitored various contraceptives in different temperatures, allowing the scientists to see in what conditions they were still effective in, among other things.

This pretty much concluded our biological tour, and we were then handed over to a chemist to talk about the tests they go through.  Although chemistry isn’t one of my favorite subject matters, I was immensely interested in the tests they use, from chromatography to dissolving tablets in a wide range of solvents.  It was cool to see how the various tests went hand in hand, and how some of them preserved the tablet while others destroyed it.  A rising problem is counterfeit, so one of the main jobs of these people is to ensure the tablet is composed of what the company (or manufacturer) says it is.  They also utilize computer software to assist their data collection; for example, graphs are electronically drawn depicting a “peak” which serves as a means of comparison the standard pill.

All in all, this experience was really cool, and it was quite neat to see the long process each method goes through before it can be sent to the low-resource settings.  I am excited to bring this knowledge to our projects and am sad our week has come to an end!

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One of the highlights of Day 3 at FHI 360 was the CTID Brainstorming Lunch.  By this point in time, we had met with a scientist, technical advisor, and worked on a couple of our many assigned projects. Anyways, Maddie, Hope, Caroline and I promptly headed to Room 3101, a spacious conference room, with our lunches brought from home in hand.  I for one felt like I had returned to my elementary school days, for my lunch box contained a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich with pringles and cashews.  Just like most of the meetings we had attended so far, this one began late, after all of the members of the team congregated into this area.  To begin, I was tasked with calling an associate who was located elsewhere, impressing myself with my ability (and success) to use the unconventional phone residing in front of me.  After everyone began munching, signaling that they were situated, the laid back, informal meeting started.  I was extremely impressed by the diversity within the team, from their background to origin, and admired how everyone shared an incredible passion for global public health, specifically contraception and planned parenting.  The so called “journey” of each member to FHI 360 was fascinating, and I was amazed by the incredible, moving opportunities these people had, especially their stories of work in the field (most commonly in Sub-Saharan Africa).  We not only learned those sorts of identifiers, but also participated in an ice breaker regarding food.  I admired the closeness and community-feel of the group, which allowed me to better see myself working in a similar organization in the future.  For me, this experience was particularly interesting and rewarding because it was an opportunity to really get to know our mentors, uniting the information we’ve previously learned with real people and their goals.  Although only an hour, I felt like I learned a lot, in a way different than that of previous days, and I am excited to see what cool experience tomorrow brings.

 

Similarly to Day 1, Day 2 at FHI 360 was jam-packed with meetings and projects.  Our day started off with a meeting with Dr. Kavita Nanda, the director of medical research, who enlightened us on contraceptive device specifics.  Following this, Hope, Caroline, Maddie and I took advantage of an hour of free time by beginning our first group project.  We were tasked to answer the following question:  how might we use social media based platforms to support feedback from adolescents on contraceptive methods?  In essence, we needed to come up with a survey that is not only fun, but also accessible and create a powerpoint depicting our pitch.  Upon brainstorming, we decided to create a knock of version of Tinder; instead of profiles of people, there are profiles of side effects, and you swipe up or down to chose which side effects are less (or more) bothersome.  To complement this app, decided to institute a Tinder Online that is accessible by desktops, allowing a wider audience to be able to participate.  I’d say we made a big dent in this project, and the hour flew by quickly.

After Maddie and Hope left to meeting with Stevie Daniels to learn more about collecting photos, my day got interesting.  Caroline and I began another project regarding possible private donors, and I was tasked with typing approximately 170 names into an excel spreadsheet so we could begin categorizing and grouping them.  I had already written the first 50 or so names, and was able to finish the rest 25 or so minutes later.  I quickly saved (or so I thought) the document before exiting it, allowing Caroline to simultaneously edit on the online version.  Once I opened the document on excel online, I was horrified to realize all of my work had deleted! 🙁  I Only the 50 names previously saved remained…I took a few deep breathes and then proceeded to retype the rest of the names, being extra careful to ensure my work saved.  Just like the prior project, Caroline and I made a substantial dent into this project; however, we still have ways to go.  When Maddie and Hope’s meeting ended, we enjoyed a nice lunch at Mellow Mushroom before attending two more meetings, yielding two more projects:  one of them being professional stalking.

In short, I had another fantastic day at FHI 360, and I am looking forward to returning tomorrow!!!

Despite my lack of familiarity with the Downtown Durham area, I was able to find the FHI 360 office with ease.  Upon arrival, Hope, Caroline, Maddie and I were greeted by Celia and Lauren, two interns from Duke and UNC respectively, who gave us a thorough tour of the building.  I admired the contemporary style and layout by area of research, but more importantly the plethora of photographs taken from various employees’ travels around the globe.  We were trained on the unofficial “do’s and do not’s” as well as shown the go to hang out spot:  the cafe that overlooks the Durham Bull’s stadium.  Lastly, we were given our very own badges, schedules and pamphlets containing general statistics/facts.

After receiving our very own (temporary) cubicles, we prepared for the first of four hour long meetings.  Our first meeting was with Jill Sergison, an associate scientist and nurse midwife.  We learned a lot of introductory information regarding FHI 360, their mission and current areas of contraceptive research, in addition to Ms. Sergison’s background.  One particularly interesting part of this nonprofit is that the employees come from widely-ranging pasts, revealing the versatility of the team.  Following this initial meeting, we went to lunch with our mentors, providing a relaxing break and opportunity to get to know them better outside of the office.

We then met with Lucy Wilson, a technical advisor, who discussed potential mentee projects:  research on financial and political commitments for family planning, modernizing presentations on contraceptive technology, artistic outreach, and a social media outreach for the contraceptive technology innovation initiative.  We broadened our knowledge on FHI 360, and more specifically some of the current problems they are facing (i.e. a major one being potential funding cuts).  The rest of our afternoon included two more meetings, with Celia Mizelle and Aubrey Weber, who explained our group project that targets social media for contraception.  In short, we were tasked to come up with a means to survey adolescent girls globally to retrieve data, allowing the opportunity for modifications to current technology as well as providing direction for devices made in the future.

5 o’clock came quickly, and we left the office exhausted from a packed first day of work.  However, we are extremely excited to return tomorrow and I am looking forward to many of the activities they have in store for us in the future, including meetings with Dr. Nanda who is a director of medical research, and Marga Eichleay who is an expert on drone use in public health.

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