I'm working in Boston this summer on a large-scale lung cancer modeling project. My internship has been split between modeling and wet-lab work.
At Massachusetts General Hospital (not their main building, but one in the Navy Yard) I work with the modeling group. My project has been to determine the effects of the growth-inhibitory cytokine TGF-beta on the MAPK signaling pathway in Non- small-cell lung cancer. Once I determined a reasonable pathway and found rate constants/initial concentrations from the literature, I wrote rate equations and ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to solve for the concentrations of the proteins of the pathway at different time steps. I wrote a program in C++ that solves the ODEs. This TGF-beta module will be used in a much larger, 3D program that models a lung tumor's proliferation/migration tendencies. Beyond the research, it's been interesting to learn how a research facility runs from the inside out-- and how much pressure people are under to turn out papers!
I also have been lucky enough to borrow some bench space in the clinical lab (which does a lot of genetic testing) at the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. I have been conducting quantitative gene expression analysis on lung cancer cell lines to collect data that will make the existing model for lung cancer more robust.
"Baahhstin" is such an exciting and dynamic city! I love being surrounded by so many universities and research and health institutions; everyone seems so progressive and open-minded. Bostonians are very active and outdoorsy, so it's been very easy to keep training (and it's been so nice not to have 110-degree heat!). There are large number of summer activities to take advantage of-- swimming races, Shakespeare performances in the Commons, and, of course, doing a little sight-seeing. Fourth of July on the bank of the Charles River was an absolute blast!
