First Impressions

First Impressions

So today has been my fourth day in San Diego. When I boarded the Grand Junction airplane 90 hours ago, I did not know what the next seven weeks would entail. I did not even know the topic I would be studying, only that it would have something to do with microbiology. Nor did I know who I would be staying with, or where I would be staying, or what living in California would be like. Walking on to that plane was taking the first steps of an adventure as much as for an internship; I was stepping into the unknown. But I was excited. As I have already ventured a year alone in France, I was used to the butterflies and the flushing adrenaline that accompanied the feeling of adventure. I was ready to see what the world entailed.

So far, my hopes have been candidly met. David’s house sprawls elegantly on a canyon cliff side, complete with a massive TV, super plush bed, and sleek modern furniture. My host’s house compares almost to David himself– he is awesomely easy going, getting me information on some pick up soccer games that I could play, and volunteering to take me paddle boarding this weekend. He is, in one word, great.

But the reason why I am in San Diego is for the internship. My mentor Yan Wei sent me some information on cystic fibrosis that I read up on the night I got in, and that is how I figured out what I would be doing. Thinking, “well, ok, this seems cool,” before I set out from the house Tuesday morning, I was unprepared for the enormity of cool research I was about to walk into at the Rohwer lab. The lab is divided into two parts, one on Cystic Fibrosis and one on Marine Biology, specifically the microbes that effect coral. The first two days, before I even met Yan, was filled with overwhelming facts about coral, nudibranchs, microbes, lungs, evolution, and a whole bunch of things in-between. It turns out the microbes and bacteria that effect cystic fibrosis patients are very similar to the ones surrounding coral, and that these microbes, and other microbes in the human body such as gut microbes, can be traced back to when humans diverged from coral in evolution almost half a billion years ago. The research and research techniques are shared between both types of microbes. Amazing.

The people here are really awesome to. A lot of them are at the forefront of their fields, doing work at amazingly fast speeds. I was told it is possible to do research at a snails pace and indeed many labs take that approach. But the interesting stuff, the big discoveries, are done by people racing to be the first. The Rohwer lab is infamous for the hard work the people put in and the lighting fast research done to advance science. I am extremely humbled to have the opportunity to partake.