First-year medic Raina Xing worked in the Kozik Lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology under the mentorship of Patrycja Krawczyk. Raina’s project looked at cross-presentation in dendritic cells - the ability of certain professional antigen-presenting cells to take up, process, and present extracellular antigens with toxic T cells that work within the immune system.
The goal of the research team Raina worked with is to understand how intracellular membrane trafficking and signaling pathways are modulated by danger signals associated with viral infection or tumor environment. These signals regulate the efficiency of antigen processing as well as the expression of co-stimulatory molecules and, ultimately, determine whether the DC-T cell interaction results in an immunogenic response or, conversely, promotes tolerance.
During her summer placement, Raina learned how to extract DNA, design primers, culture bacteria and extract their plasmids, conduct PCRs, thaw cells, split cells, conduct bleomycin assays utilising Incucyte software, and eventually produce repetitive successful western blots.
Raina really appreciated the support she received from her supervisor:
Although I learned so many wet lab skills from Patrycja, I believe the most important skills I acquired from her were soft skills. I made mistakes daily but she would always remain calm, and try her best to cheer me up and to help me find solutions. She was incredibly optimistic and patient and was extraordinary at multitasking. I plan to bring her mindset to my studies and future career. Discussions about her research project have already taught me so much about mechanisms of cell communication and allowed me to apply my degree knowledge such as understanding of cell signalling - I hope to continue to make those links between my degree and real-life applications.
