Duke University | Howard Hughes Undergraduate Program

Hello everyone! 

I’m Leighanne Oh, a rising junior at Northern High School. For the summer of 2009, I was invited to participate in a very prestigious six-week program called the Howard Hughes Precollege Program in the Biological Sciences, which is held at Duke West Campus. The application process started early in the beginning of the year and in May, I was surprised to open a congratulating letter of my acceptance to the program. Days before the start of Howard Hughes, I found myself constantly asking the same questions: What kind of research will I do? Is this program going to be hard? Am I going to mess up? What will happen if I don’t succeed in a project? I found myself taunted by these questions and the anxiety permitted me to have only a short 5-hour sleep before I had to wake up to go to Duke on the first day. So on the 15th of June, I spent my early morning stumbling around the gigantic Duke Campus; for the hundredth time, scanning the campus map that I had received earlier; power walking from one side of the campus to the other; and finally, with much difficulty due to my disability to comprehend a simple map, I was able to find the Biological Science building. I am so glad that I took part in the HH program. That morning when I entered the meeting room, I knew that I stepped into a different level of Science, which I had never encountered before and I sure was right. The first week of the program was an unbelievable experience and I knew that I have embarked on a journey of excellence.

A little bit about me!

My current address is in Durham and it has been for only about two years. Before that, I lived in Seoul, South Korea. I was born and raised in the Asian city, attending Seoul Foreign British School, so if you’re wondering if my English is all broken up and if it possesses a strong Korean accent, it doesn’t. Living in a metropolitan city has taught me a lot of important skills that I appreciate having now. I can walk and hike forever without getting tired (this is a very crucial skill that has proven itself useful due to fact that I get lost at Duke everyday), sleep in public transportations but never over sleeping to miss the destination stop (I ride the bus to Duke), learn the Korean language, and most importantly, the passion to shop till you drop in the messy clearance sections! Moving from Seoul to Durham was a dramatic change in my life. For me, the most interesting change was that there was SO MUCH GREENERY here in North Carolina! I actually went down on my knees and examined the grass when I first got here to make sure if it was all real. It was just so fascinating. This might sound crazy, but technically speaking, it’s not. In Seoul, you never get to see fields and fields of grass and it’s rare to see even a little patch of grass too! Anyways, I love moving around and hope that my future address will be the WORLD! I want to travel every continent to taste the different cultures and try out the assortment of flavors to knowledge myself. On the trip, I’ll be able to do all the things I love. I’ll have my cello (her name is Baby) to practice, a camera to snapshoot every moment, my swimsuit so I can swim, and most importantly, myself who is very passionate to learn, especially in the field of Science. So reading this, I think you have a basic idea of my personality and character =D 
 

Getting started! 

For the first week, all the Howard Hughes fellows stayed together from 8:30-till noon. Tanya Kossler, Chris Duncan, and Kriti Sharma, who are graduate students at Duke, were our program instructors. They taught us the elementary skills to scientific lab work such has how to pipette, prepare and stain gel for electrophoresis, streak bacteria, and how to conduct a liquid chromatology lab. To learn all these skills was absolutely amazing for me. I had never done biological lab work in my highschool and so, everything we did the first week was new to me. Even though I had learned most of the covered material in my Biology class, I realized my lack of lab experience hurt me. During the time of the course at school, I never fully understood the material. All I would do was memorize facts, learn the big picture, and do well on the tests. Through the HH program, I was enlightened by the extended wealth of knowledge that could be learnt by doing labs! 

 Above: Claire Deahl, one of fifteen Howard Hughes particpant. I got to sit next to her for the whole week during our meetings. Meeting new students in the Triangle Area who have the same interests as me was a renewing experience. 

Topic of Research: Nanosilver products

After lunch each day, I would say my farewells to the other 14 HH students and would go to my research lab, which was in Hudson Hall Engineering Building. I had been assigned to the Civil and Environmental Engineering department to work under Dr. Claudia Gunsch. Did you go ‘yikes’ at that Engineering?

Trust me, I did the same. When I first learned of the department I was assigned to, all that went through my head was math, math formulas, and more maths. However, it was not like that at all when I went. On the first day, I was introduced to Christina Arnaout, a graduate student working with Dr. Gunsch. She was to be my advisor who was going to teach and help me conduct my research. Well it is more like Christina’s research project for her PhD. My research is just a tiny segment of hers. As we walked from the Biological Science building to the Hudson Building on the first day, she gave me a white binder with articles, journals, procedure, and most importantly, a weekly agenda. I was so grateful of her preparation since I knew that this was not a typical procedure that most graduate students did for their high school interns. So the first thing we did when the two of us reached Hudson Hall was to meet with Dr.Gunsch, my head professor. Dr.Gunsch and Christina explained to me in detail what my project was. For the next six weeks, I would be researching about nanosilver products and their negative effects to the ecosystem, in particular, the water system. (I’m so glad that I took AP Environmental Science. Water pollution was my teacher’s favorite and most passion subject. He would talk about it ALL THE TIME! Thank you so much Mr. Joshua Roberts!)

Top left: Hudson Hall Engineering Building   Right: Dr. Claudia Gunsch, the assistant scientist in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. Bottom left: This is Christina Arnaout, a graduate student working on her PhD under Dr.Claudia Gunsch. I'll be tailing her for the next six weeks. She'll be teaching me everything to comple this project and most importantly, showing me what the life of a scientist is! 

Dr. Gunsch continued to explain to me how in recent years, the use of nanomatierals in the industry has greatly increased. One of their most common uses incorporates antimicrobial silver nanoparticles into several different consumer products, including wound dressings, air filters, washing machines, textiles, and may other products. The use of nanosilver is still developing in the U.S but in many parts of Asia such as in Japan, Taiwan, China, and Korea (woot woot!), nanosilver products are very popular. Despite many of the beneficial aspects of nanosilver products, it is possible that their release into the environment could negatively impact the microbial communities in a variety of ecosystems. Regarding the water system, these nanosilver particles wash off into our water supply and kill both the good and bad bacteria. Killing bacteria can be good, however, what is the impact to our Earth if all the bacteria went extinct? 

So basically, the positive aspect of nanosilver has been published, but the negative long-term effects have not yet been thoroughly studied. Therefore, it is important to determine if these materials have detrimental effects on microbial communities in both natural and engineered systems. With the funding of EPA, the Gunsch lab is conducting research to investigate the long-term effects of nanosilver products to our fragile Earth and if there is clear evidence that nanosilver material is harmful to our environment, the research will help compose a policy for the EPA to order. 

Right: This is the lab I will be working in for the next six weeks. 

After the professional explanation both Dr. Gunsch and Christina gave me, I had a semi-clear understanding of my project. The objectives of this study are to characterize if nanosilver consumer products are truly antimicrobial. Later on, Christina further explained to me that in order to characterize the antibacterial properties of nanosilver consumer products, I will complete a zone of growth inhibition tests on pure culture plates. Zone of growth inhibition test… long and weird word write? I don’t clearly understand it myself yet, however, when the time comes to do the lab, I will! That is the best part of the HH program. I am constantly learning new things! Anyways, characterizing the effects of nanosilver on microbial communities will clarify the need for additional treatment of wastewater polluted with nanosilver.

Left: The ten nanosilver products I will be working with. I will be leachating them by cutting off a little sample of each product. By measuring the amount of nanosilver particles that come out from each product, I will be able to study the effects of the particles. 

By the way, this is Lindsey Dublissa on the left, a senior at Clarkson University. Attending school in NY, she is here at Duke just for the summer as an intern. So the lab is just us three girls... GIRL POWER!

Wasn’t all that just overwhelming and interesting? To your fascination, this was just DAY 1. For the rest of the week, Christina and I followed the agenda and did the following: 

• Learn how to make agar

Agar, a gel substance that helps bacteria grow, was one of the coolest things I have ever made. It was almost like baking a cake, except all the measurements had to be very precise. Precision is the key to success! For the week, I made a total of 75 agar plates, but this was only practice. Christina has told me that by next week, I’ll be making agar plates all the time.

Left: Once all the material is mixed, it is autoclaved. The beaker is then taken out and cooled before it can be poured into plates. 

• Learn to streak bacteria

With a frozen sample of E.Coli K12, I learned how to streak the bacteria on an agar plate. Streaking is difficult in ways that only single colonies with the right small shape and define edges can be used. If E.Coli K12 is streaked too close or far apart from each other, the colonies will not form individually but clump, making them bigger than normal and have blurry edges. These multiple colonies cannot be used since they react differently to single colonies of E.Coli. Once you are done streaking the bacteria, the plate must be parataped (which I’m terrible at!) and incubated. Attention to all! The incubator for E.Coli stinks! What an experience was when I first opened it. The warm air with a very indescribable scent slapped me the moment I opened the incubator. I have to say, I sort of fainted the first few seconds. It just smells terrible and the heat makes it even worse! However, after opening the incubator several times a day, I realized I would just have to get over it. So from now on, whenever I open the door of the incubator, I hold my breath.

Right: The evil incubator! It may just look like the inside of a fridge, but do not be fooled! 

• Learn how to autoclave

With high temperature and pressure, an autoclave sterilizes any item that is put into it. Autoclaving is fun but I think it takes way too long! For a 20 minute autoclave procedure, you need to wait at least another 10 minutes for it to cool and reach 0 pressure before you can open the autoclave machine.

• Learn how to pour plates with aseptic technique

As I realized the first week, lab work is all about being aseptic. You need to wear latex gloves, clean all working areas with ethanol, be careful that all items being used are not contaminated, especially the sterile ones. And this is all for good reason! Pouring plate is all done under a biological hood, which protects the scientist and ventilates the air so that the bacteria in the air do not contaminate the sample being dealt with. Being a clean freak, being aseptic was one of the easiest procedures I had to learn.

Right: All the bacteria that needs to be cooled but not frozen are put into this fridge that is the lab I am working in. The 75 agar plates are in here too! Labeled and dated, the two bags on the top shelf are mine! 

• Read review papers on silver contamination and disk diffusion method

Science really is all about reading, reading, and reading. Everyday during my two-hour commute to Duke, I kill time by reading review papers, journals, or anything I can about nanosilver. I’ve gotten better comprehending these scientific writings, however, the very first journal I read had to be studied for at least 30 minutes before I fully understood it.

• Learn to Inoculate broth media for E.Coli K12

Inoculating means to put something in a media so it can grow, in this case, E.Coli K12. I took out my plate of E.Coli K12 from the incubator (ew…) that I had streaked the day before. After picking out the perfect single colony I could find, I put the bacteria into a LB broth. Then this beaker went into the fridge. By the way, this procedure was done under a hood. So far, all activity with bacteria I did were conducted under the Biological hood. Sometimes, I have difficulties working efficiently under the hood. Why? Because I have short arms! Oh how I wish I could be a little longer!

Right: Me working under a hood. Don't I look like a real scientist? 

• Plan leachate nanosilver process

This is the last thing I did for the week. Leachating is literally leaching out the target particles from a sample. In my case, I want to get the nanosilver out of the 10 products I am to experiment with. I wasn’t able to complete this process, however, I spent my whole time pipetting 100ml of autoclaved nanowater into 10 beakers—one beaker for each sample.

Left: Ten bottles of 100ml autocalved nanowater. 

Out of the ten nanosilver products, I have two that I just think are amazing.

The first item is Colloidal Silver. A nutritious drink, it is recommended to be consumed one table spoon per day. Who thought of drinking nanosilver? Next is a nanosilver sprayed teddy bear. Coated with nanosilver particles, the doll is anibacterial. Being commercialized mainly to babies and young children, the doll allows parents to escape their worries from their children chewing dirty and bacteria covered soft toys. 

 Left: Colloidal silver. Right: Nanosilver Teddy Bear

 Well that was Week one. I don’t think I have ever digested so much biology in a week as I have. The other 14 HH students, advisors, professors, and graduate students have been an amazing part of the start of my 2009 summer and I just can’t wait until next week for another five days of adventure!

-- Leighanne Oh