During the last month of my research, we have been working on finishing data analysis and starting a manuscript to report our findings, and this work will continue through my fall semester. Unfortunately, due to the major changes in scientific research funding in the United States, the lab has not been able to renew their contract with the Oregon Health Authority that made this research possible. The loss of the federal funds that covered the lab’s sequencing work have resulted in the lab's sequencing shutting down. While we can still continue work to write up our findings, it has been eye-opening to see how the value of research and public health interventions is being questioned and to experience the tangible results of this depreciation.
This research opportunity has, and continues to, grant me real experience with bioinformatics work, which will help me in all future research and data analysis. I will also be learning more data analysis and bioinformatics in my Environmental Data Analysis class this coming semester, which I look forward to! I hope to combine the skillset I already have with new data analysis methods, like GIS, and to improve on my current R knowledge.
Working on this epidemiology project has also taught me the importance of interdisciplinary science, as the intersection between public health, genomics, and bioinformatics combines many skillsets and requires an understanding of all fields. Now that I have had more experience in data analysis, I look forward to learning about the more upstream process, specifically in the sequencing step. This next year, I will be continuing to gain experience in public health and disease surveillance with the Miranda Lab. We are tracking disease at Barnard using PCR to identify which viruses are present in the community.
Overall, my summer research has awarded me critical hands-on experience in a field I am learning more about and hope to pursue in the future. I look forward to continuing my work on the manuscript despite the challenges the public health field is facing, and I am extremely grateful to the Barnard Biology Department for supporting my research this summer!