We're working on a long-term project to fight
HIV using a gene therapy approach.
We're specifically using a technique called RNA
interference.
>> What I find interesting is, you can take
a cell that has HIV, and through our process,
the cell will no longer have HIV. If we are
able to take these cells and put them into
the body, or take these constricts that we're working on and put them into the body, it's
essentially allowing us to just silence the
virus and actual human beings who have HIV,
and that's what prolongs life.
>> I feel a major part of what's been my learning
has been through summer research. A lot of
the work that I do here, I haven't actually
ever learned in a classroom, and I might not
ever. A lot of the work we're doing is very
similar to what graduate students are doing.
That gives a very large advantage to be able
to do work so early on. When you're in the
classroom, it's all about just the same stuff
people hundreds of years ago figured it out.
But no one's figured this out, so it's nice
to do something original and you feel very
independent. Up here we have our buffers,
we have our enzymes, our ligase and other
reagents like that. We have all our DNA, antibiotics down here,
aldose and plasmids.
>> I love the interaction with the people,
with the professors. It's all very hands-on.
There's a lot of good advice and there's a
lot of things you learn in a very short time.
It's only 10 weeks, which can sound like either
a lot or a very short amount of time. To a
lot of people, 10 weeks sounds like a long
time, but in the science room, 10 weeks is
very short. To get so much done in 10 weeks,
you have to learn a lot and you have to take
it in as you go and just incorporate it into
your repertoire.
