Towards the end of spring semester, I was making great strides in my research. My project revolves around designing small molecules for enhanced and synergistic methods of sequencing post-transcriptional modifications in RNA. In other words, I spend my days troubleshooting chemical synthesis, and see if my molecules react selectively with certain non-canonical bases in RNA.
Recently, I had made a big step in my project by successfully making a key molecule through many steps of synthesis. My advisor, Prof. Jen Heemstra, stood in front of my poster at the annual Emory undergraduate research symposium, taking in my carefully placed figures and words. She was beaming, saying how proud and impressed she was with my progress. She then ventured, “have you thought about applying for the Gordon conference? Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Oligonucleotides (NNO) would be a great fit.”
Doing some research—as one does—I figured out that Gordon conferences are mainly targeted for graduate students and post-docs and facilitate niche spaces for discussion of cutting-edge research. Although intimidated by the global scope of the conference description, I trusted Jen’s suggestion and crafted an abstract, with the help of my mentor Steve Knutson, and submitted my application. Surprisingly (to me), I was accepted, and quickly got to work collecting the final pieces of data to spiff up my poster presentation. I tried not to think about how I would be presenting to the influential greats of the RNA and DNA chemistry world.
At the end of June, I stepped off the plane and into Massachusetts for the first time, unwieldy poster tube in hand. Luckily a few other grad students from our lab were attending the conference, so I had a support system to get me through the first few days of acclimation to conference life.
My days were marked with dozens of introductions, several cups of coffee (a habit I only recently took up), and a plethora of research talks crossing the spectrum of chemical and biological applications. One of the especially interesting talks was by Melissa Moore, formerly of UMass Med, but now the chief scientific officer of an up and coming biotech company, Moderna. While I can’t tell you specifics—Gordon conference policy—she described some novel uses of RNA as medicine. Even more interesting was listening to her career experiences afterwards in the social hour.
The poster sessions gave me chance to disseminate my work to those who understand the intricacies the most. Explaining the most minute details for critical examination was both terrifying and exciting; the suggestions I received helped push my project in a forward direction and tested my understanding of its overall goals.
Hanging in social circles with grad students for a week also gave me a chance to probe the grad school application process from those who recently went through it. While I obtained plenty of school-specific advice, the overwhelmingly popular suggestion was to make my final critiques of grad school programs during the visiting weekend. The culture of the school should be readily apparent during these visits and asking grad students alone (not with their mentors) how they like their program is a great way to gauge the culture. Some other great nuggets of grad school knowledge I got were to ask potential mentors how they deal with experimental failure or setbacks. The answer to this question will tell you how well a PI will respond to the inevitable learning process one experiences during their PhD. Another great suggestion was to ask students what they do for fun outside the lab. If they hesitate for a while or don’t have an answer, that’s probably a program to avoid.
While I spent plenty of time listening to engaging talks and presenting my poster, there were also many opportunities to explore Newport with my new friends. During the conference, there was a networking event on a sailboat, where we cruised around the harbor and saw major landmarks from the water.
I also had a chance to eat lobster—one of my favorite foods—twice! After the cruise, a couple of us went for lobster rolls at the Lobster Bar. Just the next day we had whole lobsters for dinner. I felt veryspoiled.
The NNO GRC has been a major highlight of my research experience at Emory thus far. Conversing with established professors and newly minted PhD candidates alike was an invaluable experience for helping me pave my own path in the DNA and RNA chemistry world. The memories I made—both chemistry-related and not—will stay with me for a while.
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