Lab Experience Personal reflection – Linda Gregorio

I got the opportunity to do my 1st lab rotation at the Laboratory of Molecular Onco-hematology
PI of the laboratory: Carlo Gambacorti – Passerini
Tutor: Matteo Villa

The lab focuses on malignant hematological disorders (such as Atypical CML, Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, or Anaplastic Large Cells Lymphoma); particularly, the research group I was part of works on ALK, a tyrosine-kinase involved in both hematological and non-hematological tumoral diseases, such as ALK + ALCL (Anaplastic Large Cells Lymphoma) and NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer). The lab carries on several research lines, using both cell lines and patients’ samples.

My experience & learnings:
I participated in all lab activities, from procedures to be carry on manually, to data analysis and interpretation of results. I learnt how to carry on a cell culture and perform several procedures, such us RT-PCR and Western Blot. However precise and complex manual activities could be, acquiring a new mental attitude has been the hardest and more challenging part of the work. Clinical reality (the only one I knew before this experience) is very different from one of the lab, and that require a mindset shift. The activities I enjoyed more were the ones based on information from patients’ samples, since this shows how concrete research activity can be. Often we walked from the lab to the hospital, to collect blood samples from patients with particular characteristics (such as loss of response to drug treatment), requiring further studies. I really enjoyed being able to know both the clinical component (Why we choose this sample? What’s the patient’s story?) and the research one (What are we going to do with this samples? What are we looking for?). It has been a great opportunity to understand what translational medicine really is.
I’d really like to thank my Tutor, Matteo, and all the other lab researchers, who gave me this opportunity!