Hi, I am a high school senior. I had a year-long internship experience at NIH before I applied to SEAP, and I have strong interest in STEM that I was accepted into MIT. Unfortunately... I was rejected by SEAP. I thought I would share my essays here, and see if you guys could help me realize what I did wrong? I'll be applying for other internships so I wouldn't want to repeat that mistake. My guess is that the "research interests" I wrote about didn't match SEAP's research focus?
Anyways, here goes.
Describe any technical skills you may have, related to the science and engineering disciplines (5000 characters max)
From Advanced Placement Chemistry, Biology, and Physics courses, I learned basic laboratory techniques such as cell cultivation, streak plate method, gel electrophoresis, gram staining, and titration. Having participated in the Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation summer program, I also learned various engineering disciplines such as building a bridge model and calculating tension, buckling forces, as well as electronic engineering concepts such as building a circuit board and using binary and chemical engineering methods such as chromatography.
As an intern at the National Cancer Institute, I also learned to apply bioinformatic / computational biology methods and tools such as homology modeling (using experimentally determined protein structures to predict unknown structures of homologous proteins), write code and run calculations using Tcl (Tool Command Language) scripts, analyze three-dimensional biomolecular structures using computer programs such as the Virtual Molecular Dynamics (VMD), and search published research literature and online databases for data, methods, and tools to use in my own research and experiment.
From the internship, I also gained time management and communication skills. I presented my project and research results at group meetings in my laboratory and at the National Institute of Health’s Poster Day, which hosted hundreds of presenters and viewers. I have also written a scientific report to communicate my research for the Intel Science Talent Search. I hope to apply and further cultivate my laboratory, computational, and communication skills at the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program.
Describe any research experience you may have in relation to this program (5000 max)
I currently participate in a year-long internship in a computational biology group at the National Cancer Institute. Guided by my mentor, I use bioinformatic approaches to investigate molecular dynamics and protein-protein interactions of biological drugs, with focus on the design of antibody drugs.
The research question that my project attempts to answer is the effect of antibody humanization (which is a process of editing animal genes to produce antibody drugs that function in the human body) on antibody-protein interactions. Following published datasets of human, murine, FDA-approved antibodies, and nanobodies (nanobodies are single-chained antibodies which are being studied to reduce the size of antibody drugs), I curated the computational structures of antibody-protein interfaces from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), a online database. I then used tools such as the Virtual Molecular Dynamics (VMD), a molecular visualization program, to display and analyze biomolecular systems, mostly antibody-protein interface complexes. Then, I wrote Tcl scripts to calculate the amino-acid type preferences on the antibody paratopes in each of the aforesaid antibody categories. Finally, my mentor and I compared and analyzed my data to find some interesting similarities and differences: the calculated results between murine and FDA-approved therapeutic antibodies were very similar, while those of human antibodies were significantly different. This finding suggests that past antibody-humanization procedures rarely optimized the antibody recognition interface.
I believe the scientific method, inquisitive habit, and computational biology skills I gained from this research experience will help me enjoy and further challenge myself with learning opportunities at SEAP, where I could extend my research experiences and work more closely with research on diseases, treatments, and drugs, in a dry or wet lab. I am also excited to see the interdisciplinary connections in different research settings, between my experience in computational drug design and that in a different research area.
Describe any special interest you have that would make you a valuable participant. You can also describe any awards or honors you have received (2000 max)
I have broad interests in mathematics, the natural sciences, and computer science, for which I have taken almost all Calculus and Science courses available at my school, as well as online programming courses. My interests for these subjects will allow me to appreciate and take full advantage of the opportunities at SEAP to explore, learn, and perform research, as I will pursue a career in the STEM field. I am also excited to apply the scientific knowledge and skills I gained because of my interests in a practical, challenging setting.
Describe your career goals and in which way this program would help you fulfill them (5000 characters max)
I am a math-science girl. While only 18.2% of Computer Science bachelors are women, I want to be one of them. Though my school did not offer CS courses, I took a Computer Security and C++ course at Towson University. I am also interning in a computational laboratory at the National Cancer Institute, where I learnt to apply programming knowledge to run calculations and analysis on biomolecular systems, namely antibody-antigen complexes.
The Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program would help me fulfill my career goals by providing an enriching, peerless experience in the STEM fields. At SEAP, I can cultivate my abilities by applying classroom computational and scientific skills in a practical setting of cutting-edge research. Furthermore, seeing and taking part in the challenging work and the myriad research focuses at SEAP would further open my eyes, which will continue to motivate me in my studies throughout my time at college, beginning next fall.
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