What kind of research are you doing?

[UJ007]

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I saw lots of threads with questions about research but in none of them do ppl say what they are researching. So I'm curious what kinds of research are you guys doing? are you assisting profs, conducting your own projects? getting any publications, 1st author etc? What field, bio? chem? medical? Give us a little of your abstract, I'm intrested in what fellow pre-dents are working on!

 

[polf]

I rarely hear of students actually publishing. You would ideally start in a research lab freshmen year, and by junior year the prof would let you do an independent study and have your own research. I mainly helped with doing pcrs and some blots, but its still work thats going to be good when applying. I know once you get into dental school, if you already have some research background, you will have opportunity to do real research and get published etc.

 

[slashnroses19]

i anesthesize earthworms, make an incision on the dorsal side to expose the vessel, then i expose it in a chamber of nitrogen gas to create a hypoxic environment. we're using it as a model to compare to humans in higher altitudes and the effect hypoxia has on pulse rate, and vessel diameter. then we video tape it. its pretty cool. it has a lot to do with dentistry i think. the cutting of the worm requires a lot of dexterity because the scissors and tools used to cut them are extremely small fine and you can't make it bleed. and all the chemicals we expose it too is like novacaine and anesthetics. i asked my professor to stress in my LOR how much control it takes to cut the skin properly. 🙂

 

[shane.]

Polf, pcr = polymerase chain reaction? We got to do a lab in first year (i'm in 2nd now) for a Biochemistry course where we used the polymerase chain reaction. It's pretty cool what you can do with only a little bit of DNA. This is what forensic scientists use to amplify a sample of DNA obtained from a crime scene, no?

Slash, I have to admit I feel a little "nerd factor" in admitting this, but that seems like some really interesting work you're doing.

 

[slashnroses19]

thanks shane. have you seen that episode of the simpsons where lisa becomes a vegetarian and disects a worm? and the worm says "lisa what did i ever to do you?" and lisa says "why does it sound like a lamb?" its a redundant ongoing joke in our lab. we have a lot biochem labs at my school that do what you do and i've never wanted to do that stuff cause i was never good at PCR in genetics lab. its hard stuff and its cool you can do that.

 

[ChronarchB]

Im involved in the research of the effects of alcohol (beer) on my liver. For the past few weeks/months I have been drinking a few beers each day to study its effect on my body. So far there has been no conclusion, thus must keep running more trials. will publish a report in a few months.

 

[UJ007]

Im involved in the research of the effects of alcohol (beer) on my liver. For the past few weeks/months I have been drinking a few beers each day to study its effect on my body. So far there has been no conclusion, thus must keep running more trials. will publish a report in a few months.

please keep us abreast of any new developments! 👍

 

[gatormichigan]

I saw lots of threads with questions about research but in none of them do ppl say what they are researching. So I'm curious what kinds of research are you guys doing? are you assisting profs, conducting your own projects? getting any publications, 1st author etc? What field, bio? chem? medical? Give us a little of your abstract, I'm intrested in what fellow pre-dents are working on!

My research in on Pediatric dental sedations. I'm assisting a prof and I'm getting published.

 

[shane.]

Im involved in the research of the effects of alcohol (beer) on my liver. For the past few weeks/months I have been drinking a few beers each day to study its effect on my body. So far there has been no conclusion, thus must keep running more trials. will publish a report in a few months.

I'd be an excellent specimen for a case study!

 

[SugarNaCl]

My research is primarily on Cyp24 (24-hydroxylase), the enzyme that breaks down vitamin D. I am a research technologist and so both assist when needed and plan my own experiments as time allows. It is a job though, not through school. Our focus is on vitamin D as relates to prostate cancer in particular, but we touch into breast, lung and colon cancer as well in clinical trials and in vitro studies (cancer hospital.) Clinical studies are the most interesting IMO. Some secondary authorship on those and a first author on my Masters work in neuroimmunology (autocrine actions of catecholamines produced by macrophages on Interleukin 1 beta.) Fin. 😉

 

[armorshell]

I'm working on developing high-throughput methods for the inhibition of human neural cells by ethyl alcohol and the subsequent parasympathetic ANS mediated purging.

 

[Golddanboy]

I did two projects in the past and am doing one now:

Effects of clenbuterol on spinal chord injury - summer of sophomore yr at NYMC for $100/wk stipend: I took pictures of rat spines and had a computer count blood vessels. I actually made the procedure myself although it was based on other projects 😛.

Analysis of a xanthoparmelia lichen - entire senior year at my college: Most boring project ever, it was about 10 column chromatography's and hundreds of TLC's with a little spectroscopy at the end. I was perpetually light headed and fatigued because i worked with Ethyl acetate, Ether, and methanol; although i did get to 'play' with liquid nitrogen. The research was required for me to get an 'ACS' Chemistry degree which sadly meant no wage.

Right now I'm working (for money) in New York Presbyterian Hospital researching bipolar in the geriatric. Its mostly data entry with a little med coding but i get free access to Cornell's online libraries.

I think my research helped when i interviewed as well. I personally feel uncomfortable bragging to an interviewer on such questions as "describe yourself" or best strength/weakness questions. So I used my research and extracurriculars to guide to interview into something I was comfortable with.

 

[101160]

How do you guys pick what you want to research on?

 

[SugarNaCl]

When you are first starting out, you can't pick generally. You have to find someone to work with and pick something related to what they are doing. Many times you will work on part of their project first. As you become more familiar and experienced, you will be able to choose your own experiments, but they still have to be related closely to the grant you are funded by.

 

[KOM]

For a year I worked on the mitochondrial phylogeny of avian specimens from the Caucasus...sequencing DNA and using PAUP software to examine levels of intra-population genetic diversity and whether or not any of the isolated sub-populations could be classified as a new species.

For the past two years I've been working for a major pharmaceutical company performing all sorts of research. I've worked on researching/ developing a sustained release Ca tablet in the nutritionals division for Caltrate by complexing it with various proteins in addition to carrying out clinical trials. I've also done all sorts of different mineral analyses using ICP-AES on our Centrum and Caltrate product lines. .

Recently, I've been working in the Respiratory division performing hundreds of HPLC analyses on many of our Advil C&S, Robitussin, and Dimetapp brand lines. I've looked at reactions between various antioxidants and Phenylephrine and isolated/characterized degradants in order to reach the overall goal of attaining FDA approval. Obviously there is a big push for the company to switch to the decongestant phenylephrine as opposed to the API Pseudoephedrine in many of our current products (pseudoepehdrine has been much more tightly regulated recently because of its use in the manufacturing of methamphetamines). In order to gain FDA approval every degradant (various aldehydes, etc) has to be characterized and quantified. There's so much chemistry involved and it really is a lot of fun.

I really enjoy it...but bench chemists don't make ****.

 

[pmantz]

Cytoskelton and Slime Molds.

 

[jdmsamurai]

neuroscience on malignant tumor cells dealing with PTEN, PAX6, VEGF, MMP-2 in vivo and in vitro

 

[sarah_bellum]

I'm modeling interactions of a fusion protein associated with a highly agressive cancer and its inhibitory antibody.

 

[PChemGrad]

Negative Ion Photoelectron Imaging Spectroscopy. I study the electron binding energies of various negative ions, by means of Velocity Map Imaging. I utilize Ultra High Vacuum systems, and lasers!

I will have three first author publications by the time i start Dental School.

Its more or less a lot of engineering, and problem solving about 90% of the time, 5% is turning knobs and 1% taking data and 4% analyzing the data.

 

[widsmtooth29]

I do financial research for an east coast investment banking firm.