My initial interest in Idiopathic
Pulmonary Fibrosis, an interstitial lung disease, began with my experience with
my daughter’s asthma. Maintaining optimal lung function and receiving a
diagnosis at a young age was a complicated and difficult venture. When the
opportunity arose for me to learn at Dr. Grant’s lab who specialized in IPF, I
was very excited and eager to start my journey into lung research and drug
delivery. This semester I have been working on the creation and optimization of
a liposomal Nano-particle with a specialized cationic tag, which is a molecule
carrying a positive charge. I am testing
the efficiency of the this positively charged molecule and its attraction to
the hyperpolarized negative mitochondria found within a diseased IPF cell. The
goal is to create a more efficient drug delivery system that will improve the
patient’s outcomes and side effects.
Each week I perform tasks according
to the research timeline my mentor, Professor Sarah Bui, set for me at the
beginning of the semester. This has included creating a nanoparticle and
encapsulating drugs, introducing the nanoparticles to tissue cell cultures, and
analyzing the data from the cell cultures. A considerable part of the project
has been spent troubleshooting the Nano-particle drug delivery system. This
includes changing the concentration of drugs encapsulated and the method for Nano-particle
synthesis.
Participating in the OSCAR semester
has been a very challenging and rewarding venture. Understanding how to create
and implement an effective experiment and conduct research is an invaluable
skill. OSCAR gave me the opportunity to conduct research as an undergraduate
which I can then use towards a graduate degree or a job in industry.
