Beyond the Classroom: Jodie Chan ’28 and Kaitlyn Chen ’26 pursue summer research opportunities

As Carleton students are planning, applying, and preparing for summer break — whether they will be studying abroad, doing an internship, or more — many get involved in research labs, like Jodie Chan ’28 and Kaitlyn Chen ’26 participated in last year.

Over the summer, Chan participated in the medical research of the Batsuli Laboratory, which studies pediatric hematology (the study of blood and bleeding disorders), under Dr. Glaivy Batsuli at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics. Chen similarly worked in a research lab, except with a twist: it was in France! In the Centre de Recherche sur L’inflammation (CRI), a cancer lab in Paris, Chen studied possible therapies for colon cancer.

“As a biology major, the class labs have always been pretty interesting to me, and I never really had hands-on experience until now,” Chen said. “I [enjoyed my experience] a lot [because] I like doing hands-on work and combining that with my understanding of the science [behind it].”

To receive her research opportunity last summer, Chan started cold emailing labs near her home city that interested her around January and February.

“I already knew [that] I am interested in immunology work for cancer and pediatric work, so I emailed [the Batsuli lab],” Chan said. “I am so grateful for the opportunity.”

Chan’s internship in the Batsuli Lab was focused on resistance to a treatment method of hemophilia A, an inherited bleeding disorder where patients have low levels of a protein in their body that helps their blood clot. This treatment infuses Factor VIII, a clotting protein, into the person’s body so that the clotting factors will stop any bleeding, but inhibitors in the bodies of those with resistance stop this treatment from working.

“Our lab’s goal is to look out for autoimmune [resistance],” Chan said. “[Our question is], ‘What goes on in the immune system for this to happen, and how could we stop it?’”

When Chan first got to the lab, her main tasks were to gather information and read papers about various topics while learning research techniques by shadowing her mentor. After the first few weeks, she was able to help with her mentor’s research, doing cell culture and flow cytometry, and eventually, conducting her own independent experiment.

“While so many things were interesting in the lab, I especially enjoyed learning flow cytometry, a common biophysics technology used to quantify cells,” Chan said. “I find the process of flow cytometry and the data I can analyze with it fascinating. After a long learning process, I was able to run flow cytometry by myself at the end of the internship.”

In the lab, starter immune cells were taken from mice, grown into dendritic cells in the lab, exposed to Factor VIII, and then flow cytometry was used to see which cells took up Factor VIII. By comparing normal mice to mice missing specific immune cell types, they identified which cells were responsible. They also tested whether an immune “alarm signal” changed how active the cells became, and finally, they checked whether these differences affected antibody production in the mice.

Chan not only took away scientific and lab skills from her summer experience, she also learned to be flexible in the process of researching and the types of communication that happen within science.

“Being in a smaller lab environment allowed me to see how science is very collaborative and how people would present their [progress] in lab meetings and then ask for suggestions,” Chan said. “I think that was really cool for me to experience — that science mindset of always asking questions.”

Through her summer internship, Chan discovered interests in the area of hematology as she shadowed her Principal Investigator (PI) in the clinic, who sees pediatric patients with bleeding disorders.

“I don’t know for sure that I want to go into [hematology] specifically, but it was a very good experience and it’s something I would definitely consider in the future,” Chan said.

Chan also credits her success in the process of finding a summer research internship to good advising as well as funding from Carleton’s Kolenkow-Reitz Fellowship.

Meanwhile, Chen’s lab experience occurred during a post-study abroad internship through Carleton’s Career Center following her participation in the Paris OCS study abroad program, where she got practice speaking and taking classes in French.

“We were matched to this program through a representative who serves as a liaison between Carleton and organizations in Paris,” Chen said. “After talking with him and evaluating what would best fit my interests, I was accepted to work in a cancer lab, which also allowed me to extend my study abroad experience in a way, this time being immersed in a French-speaking environment that was not a classroom.”

In the cancer lab, Chen studied a molecule called orexin, which induces cell death in pancreatic cancer cells. It turns on two different pathways in cells: one that causes calcium signaling and side effects, and another that triggers programmed cell death. The lab’s goal was to find a new antibody that could bind to the orexin receptor on cancer cells and only turn on the cell-death pathway without activating the harmful one. 

“[The lab found] an antibody that was able to activate apoptosis in the cancer cells expressing this orexin receptor, but not induce calcium signaling. I treated the cells with the antibody and orexin to evaluate the effects on cell survival,” Chen said. “I also conducted a fluorescence protein interaction assay to investigate the dissociation of the subunits of the orexin receptor following treatment with orexin or the specific antibody.”

Through the process, Chen was exposed to scientific research as a career, and the mentorship of her lab supervisors helped inform her future ventures.

“I think it definitely helped me understand what working in research would look like,” Chen said. “After graduation, I want to do more biomedical research. Getting the experience and being able to talk with people obtaining their master’s, plus researchers who have worked in the field for a long time, has been extremely helpful.”

Chen felt supported by Carleton during her research experience as well, hearing advice from previous students and participating in an easily accessible program.

“[Carleton] really set us up to be able to participate in this experience and feel supported,” Chen said. “They have informational sessions to introduce you to what [the program] is, including bringing in previous [participants] to share their experience. They also provide the funding needed for the visa application process and the internship period.”

Through this program, she gained exposure and knowledge in the field of research itself, while observing its differences and similarities in another country, eventually taking charge of her own project. 

“Working in a cancer research lab over the summer enhanced my understanding of how science is conducted in real-world settings,” Chen said. “Through working there in a full-time, hands-on position, I learned practical laboratory skills while also gaining behind-the-scenes insight into how scientists collaborate, sharing knowledge to advance research, and navigate the ethical responsibilities of research when working with animal models. I especially enjoyed being able to lead my own independent project, where I was responsible for maintaining cell cultures to then use in assays. Because the lab was based in Paris, I also thought it was interesting to observe differences in research approaches and workplace culture and how it operated within the global scientific community, conducting research locally while writing and publishing in English.” 

Likewise, Chan felt grateful for the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in biomedical research, working alongside faculty and lab mentors to learn the day-to-day skills of scientific investigation and a deeper understanding of research as a whole.

“I really enjoyed and learned a lot from my summer research internship,” Chan said. “My PI and lab mentors were very welcoming and eager to teach me the skills I needed, not just for the short term but also the research skills that would help me grow as a scientist, such as how to conduct literature reviews and revise experimental protocols. I’ve been interested in biomedical research since high school, and this experience helped me confirm that interest through my hands-on work in the lab, weekly lab meetings, and just my heavy involvement in the research project in general.”