Alexandra Kot, Week 1: Welcome and Immersion Begins

Monday: 2026.06.01 

It's official! With a badge and everything! I have joined Dr. Sandra Demaria's lab in the Department of Radiation Oncology as a summer immersion student. After being taken around a tour of the very well-organized lab and being given my own bench and desk (truly, a gift), I spent most of the rest of my day finishing the CITI and LMS trainings. 

Tuesday: 2026.06.02

Today I attended our first weekly meeting. While mostly used to address any CWID issues this week, it was good to keep learning how to navigate the very big hospital. I was able to catch the end of the Demaria lab meeting, where Dr. Soler Agesta presented her data on the effect of mitochondrial DNA removal on interferon production post-irradiation of 3x8Gy. While I was able to understand the larger scientific conclusions of her work, I did a lot of note-taking. on terms and concepts I do not yet understand well so I can look them up later. 

I was able to meet with Dr. Demaria today, as well. It was great meeting with her in person. She has many plans for me to be able to go to the clinic with her and meet with patients (should they consent) and shared that she would introduce me to Dr. Ashkan Shahbandi, who is a pathology resident, who will be able to bring me around the hospital to see surgical pathology cases in the OR. I am very excited to see as much as I can. I will be introducing myself to the lab members in two weeks, so I can provide them with my scientific background and share how Dr. Demaria's lab could complement my thesis work. 

After meeting Dr. Shahbandi, he allowed me and his research technician to observe him injecting 60 white mice with a TS/A p53 mutant. I have not done mouse work before, but I have been able to observe it in the past. These mice, once the tumors grow, will go through one of four different treatment arms. 

Wednesday: 2026.06.03

First hands-on lab day! I have really missed it. Though it has been about a year since I have had to do cell culture work, I remembered it all like no time had passed at all. Dr. Shahbandi is in the middle of running an experiment with four different immune pathway knockout cell lines that have undergone 3x8Gy radiation. He has been taking daily interferon samples and counting the cells as they grow. Today, though, I was able to take the Day 2 samples. 

Thursday: 2026.06.04

Today Dr. Shahbandi and I discussed a potential project for me during summer immersion. While Dr. Shahbandi has the current knockout experiment underway, he and Dr. Demaria are interested in the effect of a double knockout of P53 and TREX1 (Three Prime Repair Exonuclease 1) on interferon clearance post-irradiation. P53 is a tumor suppressor gene that mediates cell division. Most cancers have a P53 mutation. TREX1, on the other hand, chews up and removes stray DNA located in the cytoplasm. As most combinatorial immunotherapy/radiotherapy treatments rely on interferon production and the activation of the cGAS/STING pathway, which is activated by nucleic acid presence in the cytoplasm (induced by radiotherapy), having the TREX1 gene causes a decrease in those crucial immunostimulatory interferons. Therefore, the hypothesis is that a double knockout of the P53 and TREX1 genes will lead to a stable concentration of interferons post-irradiation. This project will involve a lot of firsts for me. Mostly with this being my first time using CRISPR-Cas9 for gene editing, but I will also get to learn how to run western blots, do cell cloning, and run ELISAs. I am most excited that this work will be helpful to the work being done in the lab. 

Friday: 2026.06.05

I spent most of my day today looking for sgRNAs that have been previously used in literature to knock out the TREX1 gene in mouse cell lines. Learning how to navigate the various research articles that are available and learning how to read them effectively is a skill that I don't think anyone is ever truly done getting better at, so I am grateful for any chance I get. 

Dr. Shahbandi was caught up with clinic work, so he asked me to collect Day 4 interferon samples and change cell media. My days go by the fastest when I am doing lab work. 

Today was also Dr. Prince's imaging lecture. Which I am excited to report upon next week!


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