Week 2: MJ

I started this week by attending lab meeting for the Donlin lab at HSS, where various lab members gave small research updates on their work. The research spanned from nuclei isolation troubleshooting to using machine learning algorithms to predict protein structure. I also attended a research in progress talk at HSS for a visiting scientist in the Rodeo lab, who presented on his work trying to characterize the biomarkers for predicting outcomes after meniscus tear and subsequent surgical repair. I similarly attended the rheumatology department's journal club at HSS, where two papers were presented on the association of treating kawasaki disease with various doses of asprin and coronary heart aneurisms, as well as the efficacy of using AI for identifying Raynaud's disease. This week, I also shadowed Dr. Fernandez in his clinic, where he treated many patients with various forms of myositis, such as dermatomyositis, which is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the skin and skeletal muscle and presents with various symptoms. Dr. Fernandez is working with Donlin lab and other institutions to build a myositis registry from patient samples, so I also saw what those patients look like and shadowed a member of the Donlin lab as the blood sample was processed to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells.