Higher Education at the University Admission Essay

Nonspecific staining in both the control and experimental groups rendered any possible findings virtually invisible, but ultimately the opportunity to participate in the research process from hypothesis through to data presentation was a tremendous opportunity for me, and I highly value the experience.

My taste for research had only just been awoken by my experiences in my third year as an undergraduate, and after completing my degree I signed on with the lab as a full-time research technician rather than immediately moving on to graduate school. Over the course of my employment, I became involved in the study of modifier genes related to coagulation factors, primarily using zebra fish and occasionally mice as animal models for similar (often identical) human processes. This is the research that ultimately led to my creation of a scientific abstract and a presentation made to a pediatrics symposium, providing enormous learning opportunities and research leadership experience along the way. My presentation consisted of my results in attempting to fully characterize the coagulation factors that had long been observed as conserved in zebrafish, but that remained relatively unstudied save for such surface observation. Using RNA in situ hybridization techniques on 24-, 72-, and 120-hour post-fertilization wild type (ABxTL) zebrafish and using PCR amplification with a T7, T3, or SP6 promoter site flanking the antisense primer to create DIG-labeled riboprobes 400-600 base pairs in length, then sectioning and recording images, my research showed was able to characterize almost the entire coagulation cascade, and also demonstrated that most coagulation factors (with the surprising exception of factor IX) were expressed in the same tissues as their human orthologs.Though this research ultimately imply confirmed that zebrafish were an excellent subject for studying coagulation processes that occur in human, it also opens new research possibilities at the genetic level.

My lab experience has encompassed many techniques in addition to in situ RNA hybridization, including extensive cloning work and transgenic line creation for downstream experiments. As my ultimate goal is to run a research lab of my own, I count all of this experience as invaluable. My ongoing learning in the lab has also introduced me to the vast quantities of knowledge I have yet to attain, and I am sure that entrance into the PIBS to earn my doctorate in biomedical research will help to chip away still further at the wall of ignorance surrounding the….....