{"id":3854,"date":"2021-08-12T11:16:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T15:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/?p=3854"},"modified":"2021-08-18T12:53:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T16:53:50","slug":"a-not-so-typical-year-of-an-undergraduate-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/?p=3854","title":{"rendered":"A (Not so Typical) Year of an Undergraduate Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Bonnie Lin<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

March 11 th , 2020: NYU announced that all classes and non-essential research will be conducted
\nremotely as a precautionary measure for the COVID-19 issue that is getting worse. The sudden
\ntransition into remote instruction was and still is, met with several challenges. However, classes
\nstill managed to move forward with a combination of Zoom and online exams.
\nResearch on the other hand is even more difficult, or even impossible, to fully transition to
\nremote operation. Ongoing efforts of research through remote settings increased to avoid
\ndelay in research. Despite increased focus on literature research and computational
\nsimulations, findings ultimately required experimental confirmation traditionally conducted
\nthrough wet bench research in a laboratory setting.<\/p>\n

June 1 st , 2020: Remote research in computational design starts. As a Thompson Bartlett Fellow,
\nI worked on computationally designing phosphotriesterase (PTE) variants through incorporation
\nof non-canonical amino acid, p-fluorophenylalanine, to detoxify organophosphates. For ten
\nweeks, I was able to familiarize with the computational modeling software, Rosetta, and was
\nable to identify PTE candidates with increased catalytic efficiency and binding affinity with the
\nhelp of my mentor Farbod Mahmoudinobar and Dr. Montclare.<\/p>\n

The idea of approaching protein engineering from a different perspective was full of challenge
\nand excitement. Both computational design through remote operation and wet bench research
\nare similar in two ways: that lasting feeling of accomplishment to participate and contribute to
\nthe world of scientific discoveries and findings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Covid\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ehstoday.com\/covid19\/article\/21150185\/cdc-cuts-covid19-quarantine-time-for-exposure-to-others<\/a><\/p>\n

Fall 2020: Classes are being held through a wide range of flexibility to accommodate students in
\nthe midst of a pandemic. Undergraduates are offered a choice of taking in-person classes, fully
\nremote or blended (hybrid version). Laboratory courses are offered in-person only and for
\nthose that cannot attend in-person have the option of taking these courses the following
\nsemester. Research can now be conducted in-person but under certain restrictions and safety
\nprecautions.<\/p>\n

Although I enjoyed research from a different approach (computational design), I was ready and
\neager to go back on campus. I was always a hands-on type of learner. I missed pipetting. I
\nmissed protein expression and purification and struggling with making a dialysis bag. I missed
\nperforming protein characterization studies. I missed being able to conduct an experiment with
\nmy own hands and seeing results with my own eyes. However, what I missed the most is that
\nfeeling, that feeling of anticipation while waiting for your analysis results, that feeling of
\nexcitement to see results that agree with your previous studies, that feeling of observing
\nsomething different that might open the doors to unexpected discoveries fueled by our very
\nown curiosity. Despite the restrictions and precautions that needed to be taken, I was very
\neager to go back to lab.<\/p>\n

September 2 nd , 2020- My alarm rang earlier than usual as now I need to take commute into
\naccount. After getting ready and completing the daily screener, I headed off to Tandon at
\n7:30AM. Due to safety concerns, instead of taking the subway (my usual form of commute
\nbefore the pandemic), I decided to drive to school which usually takes 1 hour with the traffic in
\nthe morning. At around 8:30AM, I arrived at Tandon, tapped my ID and showed my completed
\ndaily screener to the security officer.<\/p>\n

11:00AM: After attending my first class, I made my way up to my research lab on the 8 th floor.
\nAlthough some remained the same, many changes have been made: 6 feet social distancing
\nwhere each research personnel are located at every other bench, laboratory shifts being
\nimplemented to avoid everyone coming in all at once, limited capacity in the office space,
\ncontact tracing and etc. Despite the changes being made, as soon as I held my first pipette of
\nthe day to conduct my experiment, that feeling soon surged back into me. With added safety
\nprecaution, I submerged myself into that feeling I missed for six months and got right to work.<\/p>\n

Even with the midst of the pandemic, research is still ongoing. Even with the added boundaries
\ncreated by the pandemic, scientific discoveries are still being made every second every minute
\nevery day. Why? Because science has no boundaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Bonnie Lin   March 11 th , 2020: NYU announced that all classes and non-essential research will be conducted remotely as a precautionary measure for the COVID-19 issue that is getting worse. The sudden transition into remote instruction was and still is, met with several challenges. However, classes still managed to move forward with… Continue reading A (Not so Typical) Year of an Undergraduate Student<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3854"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3860,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854\/revisions\/3860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}