Students eagerly shared their research discoveries in the Lida Orzeck ‘68 Poster Session, while curious attendees marveled at the kaleidoscope of scientific research displayed before them. The Lida Orzeck ‘68 Poster Session highlights research projects conducted during the Summer Research Institute (SRI), a ten-week program supporting undergraduate students conducting research in New York City. Funded by Barnard College, the program offers a plethora of resources, including training sessions, faculty lectures, alumnae panels, and social events. Student researchers like Nya Hitchman and Arooj Sohail showcase their research through individually published posters, sharing the passion driving their research projects and the knowledge they possess.
Nya Hitchman, a sophomore majoring in Cellular & Molecular Biology, conducted research at the NYU Center for Neural Science in the Aoki Lab. Arooj Sohail, a sophomore majoring in Computational Biology, worked under the supervision of Professor Lisa Miorin at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Here, they reflect on their first SRI experience and poster session.
Briefly describe your research project.
Nya Hitchman: This summer, our research project in the lab was to look into anorexia recovery. Previously, the Aoki Lab learned that the Ketogenic diet helps lessen symptoms of Anorexia. This summer, we wanted to see if the benefits [of the Ketogenic diet] would be sustained through relapse because Anorexia currently has the highest relapse rate.
Arooj Sohail: My lab focuses on the p53 pathway, a tumor suppressor pathway. More than 50% of human cancers have a mutated p53 pathway. We want to [determine] whether a COVID diagnosis affects how p53 is expressed and if p53 is downregulated in COVID patients. Right now, we’re testing on mice with lung cancer cells but eventually, we hope to move into human patients.
Describe how you felt the day of the Lida Orzeck '68 Poster Session.
Nya Hitchman: I felt really excited to see what research projects everyone else was working on. I felt a bit nervous beforehand but when walking into the [Glicker Milstein Theatre], I felt more at ease. It was really fun going back and forth with other students, being able to go to other people's posters and learn from them, and having them come to my poster and hear what I worked on.
Arooj Sohail: Initially, I was very nervous. Once I got there, it was really chill. People were conversing normally and nothing was crazy. I appreciated the professors there [as they were] very friendly and I was able to talk to them about my research. One of the PhD students from my lab did come, which was nice. Something funny did happen to me though. Towards the end [of the poster session], I was giving my spiel about my poster and there was this guy, I was like “Hey, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the p53 pathway.” He points at his shirt and it says “The p53 Project.” I was kind of caught off guard; I was like, “Oh, so you probably know a lot about this.” It was kind of intimidating but at that point, a lab member was able to take [the] complicated questions. He ended up wanting to collaborate with the lab; it was unexpected but something good came out of this poster session.
In what ways did your PI and Lab Members support your SRI experience?
Nya Hitchman: My PI was the best support system I could’ve hoped for because she genuinely wanted to help students. She would be [in the lab] whenever she could be. When she [conducted] bigger experiments, she would take time out of her day to teach the undergraduates lessons. One day she did a one-hour lecture about immunochemistry and I learned a lot from her lecture.
[My PI] works closely with her graduate students. I was also working closely with the graduate students. Everyone in [the lab] felt like we didn’t know who was a graduate student and who was an undergraduate student because everyone had the same level of respect for everyone. Sometimes during the summer, I was surprised by the [experiments my PI] would let undergraduate students do, like the amount of trust she had for [us].
Arooj Sohail: My PI was great, but someone who made my time at the lab worthwhile was actually a Barnard graduate. She did SRI in the lab where she is now getting her PhD. Her name was Anastasija Cupic. We would talk about life at Barnard and what she studied here. We found out we had a lot in common. She was just really helpful and I felt comfortable talking to her.
If you were to participate in SRI again, what is one thing you would do differently?
Nya Hitchman: Since my research wasn’t at Barnard, I was the only SRI student in my lab. Being the only Barnard student in my lab can feel isolating, but the experience allowed me to interact with professors and students from a completely different university. I know that a lot of people who did research at Barnard were with several other SRI students. I could’ve reached out to other people in SRI so I didn’t feel as isolated, reaching out to discuss how their posters or research was going.
Arooj Sohail: I came into SRI thinking it was a bigger time commitment than it was. It’s 35 hours a week, but time went by so fast in the lab. Once [I was] back [on campus], there’d be nothing else to do during the day. I wish I had picked up a passion project, a course, or something productive to do.
This is true for a lot of my peers. PIs are very understanding and they don't expect you to be crazy mad scientists dedicating a ton of time during the week to their lab. As long as you show genuine interest and are willing to do the work, they’re very flexible.
How do you foresee your summer research experience supporting your future career goals?
Nya Hitchman: I want to go to medical school in the future and for medical school, I’m definitely going to need research positions. I didn’t know if I wanted to do an MD/PhD or go to graduate school before medical school so this helped me discover if I liked research. This summer helped me realize that I don’t think I want an MD/PhD, at least for now.
Arooj Sohail: I was considering whether I wanted to go the research route or be pre-med. I’m a Computational Biology major, so I was also considering the CS path. After doing research, I realized that although it was a good time, I preferred interacting with people more than just being in a lab and [conducting] experiments. Research is great for learning but personally, [SRI] helped me realize that pre-med might be better suited.
- INNELOY POLANCO '27
