High Tech High requires all students to complete a one-month academic internship in the Spring of their Junior year. This internship blends traditional college prep curriculum with career technical experience, which prepares students to enter the "real" world.
For my internship I worked in the Ward lab at The Scripps Research Institute. The Ward lab is a division of Scripps' Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, and it utilizes their brand new, 8 million dollar, electron microscope. The Ward lab is currently focused on investigating membrane proteins and viruses using integrative structural biology techniques. These viruses include HIV, Ebola, Corona Virus (MERS/SARS), and many others. Throughout my time at TSRI I worked with a multitude of Dr. Ward's staff, including post docs, lab techs, and PhD students.
During my time at Scripps I was able to gain a lot of experience with laboratory practices. Some include:
- Mammalian Cell Transfection - Luria Broth Plates + Agar Pouring - Immunoaffinity Protein Purification with 2G12 Sepharose - Mini Prep - Maxi Prep - Electron Microscopy - Negative Staining Protein Grids - Cryo-Freezing Grids - Crystallography Analysis - Fab Purification - SOSIP Trimer Purification - Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (FPLC) Using Size Exclusion Columns |