Next in our interview series, we chatted with Amelie Davies – a current Cambridge undergraduate.
Hello! Can you introduce yourself?
Sure! I’m Amelie Davies, an intern with the Larrieu Group. I’m supervised by George Han and Denny Yang. I’m near the end of my summer internship.
What project are you working on?
With George, I’m looking at the role of the nuclear envelope in tauopathies. We’re particularly interested in the role of the Nucleoporin 98 protein, as we hypothesised that tau proteins may aggregate at the c-terminal of NUP98. This is pretty important in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.
With Denny, I’m looking at the Cockayne Syndrome Group B protein. This protein is involved in regulating transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair alongside the Cockayne Syndrome Group A protein. CSA is implicated in Cockayne syndrome that affects 1/250,000 births, when the ERCC 6 gene is mutated. This is usually marked by growth disorders, intellectual deficit, microcephaly, neuromotor difficulties, photosensitivity, and impaired vision and hearing. Denny and other members of the lab also observed nuclear envelope deformation in these cells, but when the ERCC 8 gene encoding the CSB protein is mutated, there wasn’t much deformation seen in the nuclear envelope – we want to investigate that. This might be because CSB mutations don’t seem to disrupt nuclear envelope structure compared to CSA mutations.
What techniques were you using so far?
I’ve done a lot of tissue culture, cell passaging, immunofluorescence and Western Blotting experiments. There’s been a lot of cell freezing and running immune and western blot procedures from start to end. I’ve also gained a lot of experience with data processing and statistical analysis software.
How’s your experience working in the lab been?
It’s been a really nice experience to work in such a collaborative environment. I take part in lab meetings and discussions. I’m able to help troubleshoot issues, give ideas for new experiments.
We also have lunch together, which is great! It’s lovely learning more about each other.
It sounds like you have a good relationship with the lab
I do! Its really helpful, especially since I can watch how they work on projects and ask for advice. It’s great for helping me shape my future career path.
I see, so what do you plan on doing in the future?
I’m not 100% sure yet, but I would like to do a PhD. This internship has been very useful for planning my future!
That’s great. Thank you for speaking with me!
My pleasure!