First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for the generous donation of Mr. Joseph Schull and Ms. Anna Yang.
My name is Pantila (Kelly) Panichnantakul and I am a third year anatomy and cell biology student. I was born in Bangkok, Thailand but moved to Toronto when I was five and spent my entire life there. Moving to Montreal to pursue undergraduate studies at McGill is the furthest I had ever been from home, so naturally I jumped at the chance to do a research project abroad! The idea of flying halfway around the world and moving to a brand new city where I did not know anyone, all while furthering my education, was equal parts terrifying and ridiculously exciting. Writing has never been my forte, but I hope that the next 500-750 words will be able to capture at least a fraction of how much this experience has meant to me.
I spent this summer working in Dr. Ivo Mueller’s lab at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. WEHI was founded in 1915 and is Australia’s oldest medical research institute. Their aim is to be an innovative medical research institute that engages and enriches society and improves health outcomes through discovery, translation and education.
My project was titled “Human genetic polymorphisms that affect anti-malarial treatment”. Essentially, there are various genes that are important for the activity of anti-malarial treatments and deficiency/overactivity of these genes can be dangerous when people are treated with certain drugs. My role was to analyze the proportion of various genetic polymorphisms in different populations with the ultimate goal of rapidly assessing the pharmacogenomic characteristics of populations in order to tailor antimalarial treatment in each community. The bulk of my project consisted of developing the assays to amplify these genes of pharmacological importance from human DNA and multiplexing them to sequence multiple genes from multiple people at the same time. In addition to this, I learned how to culture Plasmodium falciparum (a species of parasites that causes malaria in humans) and performed several assays testing the efficacy of various drugs on the different parasite strains. By being in the lab every day, I was exposed to the ups and downs of working on a research project; with the pain and frustration of failed experiments (and accidentally killing one of my parasite lines) came the joy and satisfaction of successfully troubleshooting them and seeing my results slowly come together. As I reflect on my time here, I feel that I have come a long way from when I first started (I am much less clumsy now) and that it has been an extremely rewarding experience.
Going into this internship, my main learning objectives were simply to further develop my skills as a researcher (i.e. carrying out/troubleshooting experiments, analyzing data, reviewing literature), to bring my theoretical knowledge to life, and to perhaps get a taste of what life is like as a graduate student/scientist. The time I spent here, however, far exceeded my expectations and became so much more than a summer research project. Since being here I have not only gained valuable research experience, but I have also made friends with kangaroos and fairy penguins, been dragon boat paddling in the Docklands, hiked 18km in Healesville, explored the Grampians and the Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, watched the sunset from the iconic Brighton Bathing Boxes, played Australian football, and became a vegemite addict. Additionally, this internship has also given me the chance to attend my very first science conference! I volunteered at the Victorian state government booth at the World Malaria Congress back in July and was able to attend all the talks and poster sessions. Meeting other scientists and hearing from the experts in this field was a surreal experience and was definitely one of the highlights of this summer.
While these experiences are invaluable to me, the most salient aspect of my time here has been all the wonderful connections I’ve made. All the brilliant scientists at my institute and at the congress and all my beautiful division/labmates truly made these past few months come alive. These were the people who took me under their wing and who were patient with me when I made mistakes, who had tea with me in the afternoons and brunch with me on weekends, who brought me pineapple pizza and chocolate muffins, and who, most importantly, were overwhelmingly supportive. I have learned so much from each and every one of them and for that I am endlessly grateful.
Prior to this internship, I never really appreciated how frustratingly beautiful scientific research could be, but this is now a field that I can see myself pursuing and (hopefully) thriving in in the future.
The funding I received from the Schull Yang International Experience Award helped tremendously with covering the costs of travelling and living abroad. This award really made this adventure possible and, honestly, I had the time of my life. Thank you again!
