Katie Harrington , College of Biological Sciences 08'
RT-qPCR of Potentially Overexpressed Ovarian Cancer Tissue and Cell Line mRNA
Major
Biology
Mentor
Amy Skubitz
Brief Bio
I am originally from Madison, WI but am enjoying all that the Twin Cities offers. When I am not too busy with school or working, I enjoy watching movies, playing tennis and cooking.
Future Plans
I am graduating in the spring and hope to obtain a PhD in the biomedical sciences. Before attending a post-baccalaureate program, I would first like to spend a few months traveling outside of the U.S. to enjoy food, music and culture.
Why Research?
I originally became interested in doing research because I thought it would be a good experience to have since I was planning on applying to graduate school. I wanted to have research experience as an undergraduate to determine if graduate school would be a good fit for me.
What Did I Get from Research?
In addition to learning hands-on laboratory skills, I developed a better understanding of the scientific process by carrying out this research project. I learned how to plan and develop an experiment, carry it out, interpret and analyze the data I generated, and how to troubleshoot when things did not go as I expected.
How Did I Start?
I had been working in the Skubitz lab as a laboratory attendant prior to applying for this UROP project. My supervisor, John Andersen approached me with the idea for possibly doing a project.
My Advice for Another Student:
I would advise them to get involved in any aspect of research that you can as early as possible. Just by being in a lab environment causes you to learn a lot by listening to other people discuss their research. Although the research might not make sense to you initially, as you learn more, you will begin to develop a better understanding.
Research Summary
Our laboratory is interested in finding novel biomarkers for early detection and/or better therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a widely used technique to quantify the amount of mRNA present in a biological sample, which is related to the gene expression level. I am currently using RT-qPCR to determine if certain genes are differentially expressed in ovarian cancer cell lines and tissues compared to normal ovarian cell lines and tissues. This is important because genes that are shown to be overexpressed and specific to ovarian cancer cell lines and tissues will be pursued as potential ovarian cancer biomarkers by others in the laboratory.