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Hi guys!
I hope all is well, i need a favor if you don't mind. I am applying for a fellowhip and they asked me to write an essay describing my research experience. Please help me by offering suggestions and comments on what you thought please.
Thanks for all the help!
"To whom it May Concern:
I am currently at senior standing in the Neuroscience Undergraduate discipline at the University of California Riverside Campus. I currently hold 2 research positions, both of which I devote my time equally to. Both these research positions differ from one another. One focuses on the hypokinesia and lethargy of venom induced cockroaches which is in assimilation to Parkinsons disease, and the other focuses on the further advancement of prosthetic devises for hip replacement/joint replacement surgeries in humans. My research goals and methodologies for the lethargy project are guided by Dr.Michael E. at UCR, and the advancement of prosthetic devises are guided by Dr. Ian. at Loma Linda Medical Center.
My research, volunteer and scholastic activities have made me more determined and have reassured me that I have chosen the right path in traveling to the field of medicine. First starting in Dr. Adams lab, the first task that was presented to me was to carry out assays with dopamine injections into cockroaches in order to observe the reactivity and time the grooming response elicited by the cockroach. Since the threshold of the dopamine dose had not been established yet, I conducted several experiments with differing dopamine doses starting from a 5picoMol concentration going all the way up to 5nanoMols. This gave us a pretty bell shaped curve in which we were able to determine the maximum dopamine induced grooming times. Following this experiment, we introduced Peptide 2847 to the cockroach, which had not been experimented with in any of the other labs carrying out this project. Peptide 2847 was mimicked from the composition of the wasp venom, and was hypothesized to suppress all grooming elicited by the cockroach; weather it be dopamine induced or the wasp venom itself. Once again going back to the drawing board, I started assays with differing doses of the Peptide in order to test if our hypothesis was correct. Starting the peptide injections from 5pMol and going to a maximum of 1nMol, the maximum dopamine grooming suppression was established. All these experiments that were being carried out interested the History Channel in which they came and included our laboratory in their Venomous species series special. In addition, I was awarded the Neil Campbell CEPCEB Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award that honors me a UCR undergraduate in CEPCEB for my creativity, diligence, focus, enthusiasm and tangible research accomplishments followed by the Deans Summer Research Fellowship over Summer 2008.Most everybody I know are disgusted by cockroaches, however they have done great things for me and I have the greatest appreciation for them.
To broaden my spectrum and gain some experience in medical research, I emailed some professors at Loma Linda Medical School to seek for a volunteer research position. I got an email back from the Tribology department at Loma Linda Medical School with expressions of interest in my services. I was given background information and a 1-hour training session on what I was supposed to do and was left alone. All they told me was I had to be careful because the machine that I was using was expensive. I was given cobalt chrome prosthetic balls that was used in a human, and was instructed to make a circle followed by eight concentric circles, and then divide the circles into four quadrants. This made 3mm squares in which I was supposed to take measurements from in order to analyze the surface roughness of the ball. This Zygo machine that I was using measures surface roughness by directing a beam into that 3mm square and will pick up an image, direct it to a software on the computer, and the software will give us measurement readings given by that shot of laser beam. The trick was that the prosthetic ball needed to be dead center of the laser in order to get an accurate measurement. I started getting frustrated because it took me 1 hour per square and having approximately 200 squares to do, it would take a very long time. As I kept familiarizing myself with the machine, I found the importance of the tilt on the platform, which nobody had told me about! Having found the tilt made my measurements speedier which lead me to finish most of my measurements. I am in the process in writing an abstract for this project."
I hope all is well, i need a favor if you don't mind. I am applying for a fellowhip and they asked me to write an essay describing my research experience. Please help me by offering suggestions and comments on what you thought please.
Thanks for all the help!
"To whom it May Concern:
I am currently at senior standing in the Neuroscience Undergraduate discipline at the University of California Riverside Campus. I currently hold 2 research positions, both of which I devote my time equally to. Both these research positions differ from one another. One focuses on the hypokinesia and lethargy of venom induced cockroaches which is in assimilation to Parkinsons disease, and the other focuses on the further advancement of prosthetic devises for hip replacement/joint replacement surgeries in humans. My research goals and methodologies for the lethargy project are guided by Dr.Michael E. at UCR, and the advancement of prosthetic devises are guided by Dr. Ian. at Loma Linda Medical Center.
My research, volunteer and scholastic activities have made me more determined and have reassured me that I have chosen the right path in traveling to the field of medicine. First starting in Dr. Adams lab, the first task that was presented to me was to carry out assays with dopamine injections into cockroaches in order to observe the reactivity and time the grooming response elicited by the cockroach. Since the threshold of the dopamine dose had not been established yet, I conducted several experiments with differing dopamine doses starting from a 5picoMol concentration going all the way up to 5nanoMols. This gave us a pretty bell shaped curve in which we were able to determine the maximum dopamine induced grooming times. Following this experiment, we introduced Peptide 2847 to the cockroach, which had not been experimented with in any of the other labs carrying out this project. Peptide 2847 was mimicked from the composition of the wasp venom, and was hypothesized to suppress all grooming elicited by the cockroach; weather it be dopamine induced or the wasp venom itself. Once again going back to the drawing board, I started assays with differing doses of the Peptide in order to test if our hypothesis was correct. Starting the peptide injections from 5pMol and going to a maximum of 1nMol, the maximum dopamine grooming suppression was established. All these experiments that were being carried out interested the History Channel in which they came and included our laboratory in their Venomous species series special. In addition, I was awarded the Neil Campbell CEPCEB Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award that honors me a UCR undergraduate in CEPCEB for my creativity, diligence, focus, enthusiasm and tangible research accomplishments followed by the Deans Summer Research Fellowship over Summer 2008.Most everybody I know are disgusted by cockroaches, however they have done great things for me and I have the greatest appreciation for them.
To broaden my spectrum and gain some experience in medical research, I emailed some professors at Loma Linda Medical School to seek for a volunteer research position. I got an email back from the Tribology department at Loma Linda Medical School with expressions of interest in my services. I was given background information and a 1-hour training session on what I was supposed to do and was left alone. All they told me was I had to be careful because the machine that I was using was expensive. I was given cobalt chrome prosthetic balls that was used in a human, and was instructed to make a circle followed by eight concentric circles, and then divide the circles into four quadrants. This made 3mm squares in which I was supposed to take measurements from in order to analyze the surface roughness of the ball. This Zygo machine that I was using measures surface roughness by directing a beam into that 3mm square and will pick up an image, direct it to a software on the computer, and the software will give us measurement readings given by that shot of laser beam. The trick was that the prosthetic ball needed to be dead center of the laser in order to get an accurate measurement. I started getting frustrated because it took me 1 hour per square and having approximately 200 squares to do, it would take a very long time. As I kept familiarizing myself with the machine, I found the importance of the tilt on the platform, which nobody had told me about! Having found the tilt made my measurements speedier which lead me to finish most of my measurements. I am in the process in writing an abstract for this project."
