Phi Delta Epsilon Newsletter

March | 2014 _FELLOW CHAPTERS_

+
CALIFORNIA THETA CHAPTER

-MISSON STATEMENTPhi Delta Epsilon International Medical Fraternity creates physicians of integrity with a lifelong commitment to our guiding principles of philanthropy, deity, and education through fellowship, service, mentoring, and formal training in leadership, science, and ethics.

UC BERKELEY UCD UCI UCLA UCR CONCORDIA U

Philanthropy

Childrens Miracle Network Childrens Hospital Los Angeles ~Sponors~ Kaplan T-Mobile Geico

Greetings Brothers and Sisters, Thank you for showing interest in our Phi Delta Epsilon CA Theta newsletter! This newsletter (and future editions) will provide a range of information such as interesting health topics, research opportunities, our philanthropic events, and much more. We hope it helps remind members why we are here, why we work hard, and that the information serves as an inspiration that soon we will be physicians of integrity who serve our community. We hope to keep making this chapter more diverse and well rounded, not only with our members but also with our knowledge. Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this newsletter possible and we hope you enjoy it.
Best Regards, Executive Board. Samantha Cappuccino ,Amanda Rosales , Devon

Terraciano, Gabriela Rubin De Celis & Dennis Villa.

more on

PHI DELTA EPSILON

+ Interested in research but dont know where to begin? How to apply to research . ->

MARCH|2014 Research is stimulating because it allows students to get hands on and

apply their knowledge gained from

courses to actual lab work, instead of learning their major through their professors lecture slides and online homework. Students interested in joining a research lab often dont know where to start or ask. The way to research is actually quite simple. On occasion, students who do exceptionally well in a professors lecture are usually asked to join the lab and its as simple

as that. And for those who are looking

for a lab outside of the courses currently enrolled in, it requires more work than doing well in a class. Joining a research lab almost always starts off with doing actual research online. Its always best to look up what kind of research a professor does in his/her lab. You want to make sure that you will enjoy being in that lab as much as you do your major. Being in a lab youre not interested i n can be really tedious and extremely excruciating because research can take up an average of 4 hours a day. Depending on what your professor is researching and the protocols for the different

days, hours will vary.

From there, you want to build your curriculum vitae. A curriculum vitae is basically an academic resume. Its all your academic accomplishments and qualifications in one paper. Not all professors will request to see one, but professors who have competitive research labs will most likely ask to see a

curriculum vitae. Base your curriculum vitae on the lab youre interested in. Writing irrelevant
qualifications is seemingly useless and will probably not increase your chances of getting in. After youre done polishing your academic resume, start emailing professors about your interest in their research lab. From there, you will just have to wait for their response. And if at the end of all your hard work, you didnt get into your desired research lab, there are always plenty of other labs worth looking into. When one door closes, another one opens.

- Hafridha Hadi

FACTA NON VERBA, DEEDS NOT WORDS

PHI DELTA EPSILON

MARCH|2014

+ Cameron Geller
Hello my fellow Phide members, I am here today to provide you with my own personal experience and what I have personally gained from working in Dr. Mary Pat Steins research lab here at CSUN. By reading my statements below about what I have personally had the opportunity to learn and gain from

undergoing a research position, I hope that I can inspire all of you to follow in my footsteps and
take up the same opportunity. By doing research in a laboratory, I have learned how much it is that I truly enjoy the world of science and how much I have learned from my undergraduate courses. But more importantly, this opportunity has provided me with not only amazing mentors but also the self-confidence and experience that will allow me to successfully thrive and matriculate into medical school after I complete my undergraduate degree. When I first began doing research in Dr. Steins lab in spring 2013, I was extremely int imidated from the very first time that I stepped foot into her lab. Although I had done pretty well in my classes from the previous few semesters, that did not help to eradicate the feelings of butterflies from escaping from within my stomach. If I were to make a mistake on an exam, that would only hurt my confidence and grade. But if I was to make a mistake in this lab, it could cause potentially serious harm to not only me but to others that I was working with in the lab. This put a lot of pressure upon me to make sure that I paid close attention to the other students when they were instructing me on how to carry out the protocol while maintaining important lab

safety techniques.

FACTA NON VERBA, DEEDS NOT WORDS

PHI DELTA EPSILON The central focus of the research within Dr. Steins lab is on a gram-negative opportunistic pathogen called Legionella pneumophila (you always italicize organisms when you publish a scientific paper). This organism is responsible for causing a disease known as Legionnaires disease which is characterized by sever pneumonia or less acute Pontiac fever. When L. pneumophila (you may also categorize organisms like this with the first letter of the genus and a period

MARCH|2014 else. Within most research labs, there is a lab meeting that will be held once a week by the principle investigator (PI) of the lab. The PI is usually the professor who started up the research lab and is responsible for writing up the grant proposal/s that provide the labs with sufficient funds to allow for them to conduct their research. In these lab meetings, our team gets together to discuss

followed by the species) is phagocytized by a

macrophage cell, L. pneumophila will become enclosed within a membrane-bound vacuole, called a Legionellacontaining vesicle (LCV). This vesicle possesses the ability to evade the endocytic pathway and thusly is able to avoid becoming fused with a lysosome, thereby avoiding degradation. By avoiding degradation, L.

a scientific publication that dolor falls sit within Lorem ipsum amet, our
adipiscing elit. field of research consectetuer that we are conducting.

One student will Quisque be selected by the PI to venenatis vehicula

lobortis that everybody can getvehicula. a more in depth

Vivamus semper sodales lorem.

present a paper lectus. to theDonec research a odio group eu eros so background about the similar research that other labs are also conducting.
- sodales.

pneumophila is able to grow and proliferate within cells,

depending upon the Dot/Icm type IV secretion system that is possessed by the bacteria. Do not be intimidated or scared if you do not understand the above paragraph. The important mindset that you need to develop within yourself when you first begin doing research in a lab is that there are

After I presented my first research paper to the group, I gained not only a greater understanding of the scientific material but I also developed a great instilment of confidence within myself when others were telling me what I great job I had done presenting the paper. Ever since that time, I have learned so much from so many people in our lab and doing research has been one of the greatest

probably going to be a lot of concepts, lab procedures,

and terminology that you will not be familiar with. This is exactly how I felt when I first began my research. But with time, patience, confidence, and great support from those around me who were willing to be patient with me and teach me everything about the material and lab I was able to successfully matriculate onto the research team and become just as knowledgeable as everybody

experiences for me during my time here at

CSUN.

(continued)
FACTA NON VERBA, DEEDS NOT WORDS 4

PHI DELTA EPSILON I am very grateful to have had such an amazing mentor as Dr. Stein and I hope that all of you

MARCH|2014

will take the opportunity to do research as well

before you graduate. I will stop here so that I do not end up writing

+ Hafridha
Hadi

too much about my experience as this is only

meant to be a brief introduction into the life of being a lab researcher here on campus. Over winter break, I had the opportunity to start my research experience in Dr. Aida Metzenbergs lab. Coming into this lab, I had very little knowledge in lab work aside from diluting stock solutions and recognizing whether or not a

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my brief

statement about what it is like doing research here on campus. If any of you ever have any questions for me at all about how to get into a

research lab, please feel free to get in contact

with me and I would be more than happy to give you advice on how to approach and ask professors about doing research within their lab. In addition to the information that I have just provided to you about my general experience with working in a lab, I have also provided one of the publications that I presented during a lab meeting as well as the PowerPoint presentation that I created to present the paper. Thank you everybody for taking the time to read this and I look forward to spending my last semester in Phide with all of you.

plant was a gametophyte or a sporophyte. And so,

I was really excited to learn actual lab techniques and to get hands on work done. A couple of the things that I learned in this lab were to do DNA transformations, which is to genetically alter the cells. With this process, I also learned what food is optimal for growth of the cells, what kind of environment is appropriate to sustain a cells life, and how to make LB medium (a food source for bacteria because of its rich nutrients) and LB Agar plates. While I was learning how to do

transformations, I also learned how to do the

minuscule yet important things like pipette and autoclave (a method used in laboratories to clean and sterilize materials). In this lab opportunity, I

Facta non verba

- Cameron Geller

developed a lot of new skills that I know are going to benefit me and also be of use to my other courses. - Hafridha Hadi

FACTA NON VERBA, DEEDS NOT WORDS

PHI DELTA EPSILON

MARCH|2014

+ Jane Odango
I am currently working in Dr. Fischhaber's research lab which has a particular focus on Biochemistry. I joined her lab early in the summer of 2013 and I have certainly learned a lot from working there. Even though I had merely finished my first year in college, she was more than willing to take me under her wing and accept me as a member of her lab. My Chem 101 lab instructor, Jesse Brister, recommended me and I spoke to Dr. Fischhaber shortly thereafter. She gave me a brief overview of what subject areas her lab encompassed and what kind of work they did. I told her that I

was interested in participating but that I feared I was not far enough in my academic status to be able
to contribute accordingly (after all, I was only a freshman at the time and I had not taken too many STEM classes yet). She said that it was not an issue and that I would learn along the way in her laboratory and that it would even be more beneficial for me because it would eventually help me with my classes. From that point, we had more meetings and arranged an appropriate project for me to begin. -Jane Odango Organovo, a 3D human tissue company. Organovo has developed the first human liver tissue model using an advanced bioprinting platform. This advanced technology has the ability to

The First 3D Human Liver Tissue Model .

be tailored to produce tissue in varies formats by building it layer

by layer. As of now, the 3D livers are used for research, drug discovery and development. However, one day Organovo hopes to utilize these 3D prints for therapeutic applications. If you would like to learn more click on the link provided: http://www.organovo.com/3d-human-tissues/3d-humantherapeutic-tissues -Courtney Lao

FACTA NON VERBA, DEEDS NOT WORDS

PHI DELTA EPSILON

MARCH|2014

Interesting Fact

The sweet scent that lingers after a rainfall is called petrichor. Petrichor comes about from plants that secrete oils during the dry spells, and when the rain comes, these oils are released into the air. The scent also comes from another reaction that sees chemicals produced by bacteria that reside in soil (actinomycetes) released. It is these aromatic compounds that blend to emit that pleasant odor when rain hits the ground.

Thank you for taking your time to read our first newsletter. Have a wonderful day! (: FACTA NON VERBA, DEEDS NOT WORDS 7