Farewell to our Summer Students

UT Health San Antonio offers various outreach programs designed to give students interested in a medical or health related career an in-depth research experience. The Frost Lab welcomed four students from San Antonio, Austin, and Washington, D.C. over the summer to work side-by-side with Ph.D students on their projects. Read on to see what they have to say!

Meghan Lim is a Senior at Health Careers High School here in San Antonio.

"During my senior year of high school, I designed a research project that studied genes in the brains of tau transgenic flies to better understand tauopathies. I used RNA-sequencing differential expression and found that the genes that corresponded to cell death and inflammation pathways were dysregulated. This summer I gained wet lab experience and learned how to work with Drosophila melanogaster, extract RNA from fly brains, and perform a western blot. I would like to acknowledge my PI, Dr. Bess Frost, and my mentor, Paulino Ramirez, for their tremendous assistance and

support throughout my project and this past summer!"

Annie Flores is a student at UT Austin.

"I most enjoyed learning experimental techniques from other STEM women and applying what I have been learning as a pre-med student in a laboratory setting. I’m eager to apply these newly developed skills into other areas of my life and am certain I will carry the lessons from this experience with me throughout my academic career."

Cydney Dean is a student at Howard University.

"This summer in the Frost Lab I learned to section tissue and perform immunohistochemical analyses as a part of Elizabeth’s project on Alzheimer's disease, transposable elements, and neuroinflammation. I really enjoyed learning how to stain slides in order to image them."

Benewaa Akosua is a student at Howard University.

"My time at the Barshop Institute was very fruitful. I learned how to western blot, take luminescence measurements on plate reader, section on a microtome, stain using immunofluorescence, use an epifluorescence microscope, and dissect fly brains. I most enjoyed learning how to western blot and getting to know everyone in the lab. Everyone I met was so nice, helpful, and patient, and I hope to work again in a fly lab one day."