BioAcademy was a great experience: it was fun, informative, and inspiring. My experience at BioAcademy was overall positive. From the lectures to the tour of the Charles River facility to visiting Incheon University, was extremely unlike anything I’ve done before. 

Starting from the first steps into the lecture hall, I was instantly met with a kit that will analyze my genome. Even though I knew that you could get DNA tests off of websites, it was still magical to know that in 8 days, I would be able to the genetic programming that makes me, me. What was also nice was professors’ lectures. Albeit I already heard Dr. Libermann’s lecture on Youtube, it was nice to hear him talk about his work in detecting biomarkers using Somascan. His talk was informative about proteomics and genomics. As a person who has seen what cancer can do to a human, the fact that early detection technologies are becoming more easily accessible and accurate was inspiring. Dr. M.S. Lee's talk was also great. His talk about genomics as a whole helped me understand the progression of the field and what someone in biotech might pursue. While I learned everything from nitrogenous bases (A,G,C,T) to mitosis, I would've liked to hear some specifics on gene-editing like an explanation of  CRISPR.

After lunch, we were taken downstairs, where we rode on buses to the Charles River facility. Although I wonder what could’ve been if my section was organized to go to a different location, visiting the Charles River lab was exciting. Despite the fact that I’ve seen labs on TV, it was an enriching experience to know what equipment does what, and how each instrument is used. Furthermore, it was nice to know the day-to-day life of what biotech scientists are doing, it was an unique experience that I think will be impactful to my future career decisions. Even though I think a hands-on experience with some of the equipment would’ve been better, I loved that I was able to see an Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) test to detect endotoxins. I’ve only heard of how expensive horseshoe crab blood is, but it was in Charles River that I learned of it’s uses. 

Incheon University was a combination of lectures and hands-ons lab work, which made it my favorite part of the day. We started off with a lecture about viruses, which was interesting. The professor also briefly mentioned bacteriophages, which was something I had an interest in. I’ve read a lab report on using bacteriophages to treat infections, since they don’t harm human cells. I wish the professor talked more about what the recent innovations in virology are, even though his talk was greatly informative about the general virus itself. We were able to detect viruses in the lab later by using crystal light. It was a relatively easy lab, but it was fun to work with petri dishes that we were able to take home. The second professor talked about bees, and their importance. His talk was informative about their “dance” which informed other bees about where food was. While I knew about their dance, I didn’t know about how their dance and tell everything from direction to angle in which other bees would have to travel. The highlight of the trip to Incheon University was the dissection of bee heads. Inspite of the fact that no one was able to successfully dissect the bee-head, it was cool to do what other scientists were doing. It was also an humbling experience, as my hands were shaking. 

Overall, BioAcademy was a great experience for me as a student and a scientist. Even though I felt burnt out at the end of the day, I had fun learning a variety of topics concerning biology. The lectures were a glimpse into highschool and college, which made me mature as a student. BioAcademy provides students with a boost over everyone that doesn’t attend BioAcademy: it’s almost unfair how much there is to gain from attending. As many of the scientist have said to us during the day, “I wish there was something like BioAcademy back when I was a student.” I want to thank all the professors and BioAcademy staff for making this program possible. From professor Libermann, who I wrote a thank you email to, to the chaperons who escorted and helped us all day, thank you for your time, BioAcademy was the best thing that happened to my journey as a young scientist.