Reaching Common Goals
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A common goal can be reached quicker and more efficiently when diverse talents and minds work towards it
When trying to reach a goal, having diverse talents and minds collaborating is an important factor. When people work together, ideas can be bounced off each other to help build a stronger solution. If an aspect of a problem is missed by one person, another person can aid in catching those missing building blocks.
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I have participated in three different research labs that all revolve around cancer. One day, I was reflecting on my research experience on the phone with a family member. My family member then asked me “so why has cancer not been cured yet if there are so many research labs all over the world that center around finding the cure?”. It was a perplexing question and I found myself having a hard time figuring out how to explain the unimaginable complexity of cancer cells, especially since I myself do not fully understand every aspect to the problem. Cancer has become one of humanity’s greatest enemies and it is baffling to think that hundreds of the world’s smartest minds have yet to tackle the solution to this problem. Due to the complexity of a tumor’s nature, it is of utter importance that everyone striving towards this common goal of defeating cancer put their heads together and covers every aspect of the problem.
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One of the most influential events during my time at USC has been participating in Relay for Life with my community service sorority, Omega Phi Alpha. Watching different organizations across USC, as well as the surrounding Columbia community, come together and fight cancer in their own unique way, is such an emotional and moving experience. Some organizations work to raise money for the fight against cancer by selling food, organizing a tournament, selling drinks, offering professional LinkedIn portraits, selling artwork, and more. Some organizations try to fight cancer by using their social media skills to raise awareness and others fight for the cure by speaking publicly about their own experiences with cancer and motivating others to join the fight. Relay for Life is a mosaic of diverse ideas, organizations, and talents all working together towards the same goal of finding a cure for cancer.
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What is interesting is that although my field of study is highly technical and usually considered a career devoid of emotions, the field strives to accomplish the same goals as Relay for Life. In the past four years, I have sat through many different classes that aimed to teach us a variety of different approaches to tackle cancer. In my Fluid Mechanics (ECHE 320) and Transport (BMEN 354) classes, scientists try to mathematically model the course of circulating tumor cells to predict and prevent metastasis. In my Micro-Electromechanical Systems course (EMCH 567), as shown in Key Artifact 1a, engineers try to create miniature cancer diagnostics tools. In my microfluidics research lab (BMEN 499), mechanical engineers attempt to capture and detect cancer cells in the blood stream. These different areas of science have aimed to tackle the fight against cancer from a different angle, just like Relay for Life does. Without knowing how to advance science in each of these areas: predicting metastasis, using diagnostic tools, learning how to capture cancer cells in the blood stream we cannot aid one another as scientists in reaching our ultimate goal.
Cancer from a Molecular Standpoint
During my summer research internship with Molecular Biologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center, I had another opportunity to learn another approach for fighting cancer. We attempted to directly kill cancer cells by intercepting certain signaling pathways.
Cancer from a Biomedical and Computational Standpoint
While I interned at Johns Hopkins, as shown by the poster in Key Artifact 1b, Biomedical Engineers aimed to deprive tumors of blood supply using a molecular approach and Computer Scientists wrote programs that recognize migration patterns of cancer cells.
It has been an incredible experience throughout college seeing so many people with different talents, and areas of expertise all fighting against cancer from their own angle. When people of different talents and backgrounds all come together to try to achieve a goal it can make it more feasible and our work more efficient. Though I gave an example of the fight against cancer, I believe that this lesson can be applied to many different goals including social justice, education, political movements, etc. As I progress through my future career as a biomedical engineer, my goal will be to keep an open mind and work in a multi-disciplinary team to solve medical challenges in an efficient manner.
Key Artifact 1a
For EMCH 567, I had to write an innovative and original proposal for an aspect of cancer research that lacked sufficient research in it. I wrote a proposal regarding the metastatic properties of a tumor and proposed using a microfluidic platform to model the detachment of a cancer cell from a primary tumor.
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Key Artifact 1b
Research Poster from my internship at Johns Hopkins. My summer research during my time in Baltimore involved understanding how tumors use VEGF gradients to manipulate endothelial cells into providing the tumor an increased blood supply. Computer programs written in MATLAB, Python, and ImageJ were used to evaluate the response and behavior of the endothelial cells.
Unless otherwise noted, all images from Seleste Villalon