Massachusetts General Hospital, SYNAPSE Program, Charlestown, MA
My summer internship was at the SYNAPSE program at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The program aimed to solve clinical and scientific puzzles by connecting innovation with technology; physiology with pathology, gene and environment; health with disease; and Eastern medicine with Western medicine. The current focus of the program is on how microbiome composition can be correlated to severity or diagnosis of numerous diseases, and especially on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
During my internship, I participated in data analysis, literature search, and manuscript writing for a few clinical trials. The first project involved investigation of altered levels of immunological biomarkers and gut microbiota composition in autism spectrum disorder. With my previous knowledge on data analysis from research at Williams, I was able to learn the necessary skills quickly in the first two weeks and get on track with the other fellow researchers in the lab.
My second project analyzed data from a recently concluded clinical trial on Sjogren’s Syndrome in Taiwan. I was then deeply involved in the manuscript writing process for the article. We expect this article to be one of the first research papers on oral microbiome and its association with Sjogren Syndrome on human participants in Taiwan. I was selected as the project leader to coordinate the communication between American scientists in the SYNAPSE program and the Taiwanese researchers who had collected the data and collaborated with us. After analyzing the correlation between oral microbiome, cellular metabolic profile, and Sjogren’s syndrome diagnostic markers, I started to work on writing the manuscript for publication and I will be listed as a co-author.
This summer internship was immensely important to me. It helped me to see the future of science: the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration. As a chemistry and psychology double major, I once thought there was very little overlap between the two subjects, except perhaps tangentially in some areas of neuroscience. My knowledge of chemistry and psychology proved to be great background material for me to get into biostatistics. I also learned about the significance of collaboration. Through collaboration, we were able to have access to a patient population across the globe who we have previously lacked information about since most of the western clinical studies are done on Caucasian subjects. It has also provided me with the opportunity to work closely with researchers throughout the research process, from data analysis, to result interpretation, to manuscript drafting.
I really appreciate this opportunity and I have gained so much experience that will be helpful in my future scientific career. I would like to thank the ’68 Center for Career Exploration, and express my gratitude to the Kraft Family for their support.