Cynthia

Cynthia
Boston Latin Academy
Boston, MA

Mentors: 
Anthony Fazio and Emily Reeve
PRISM
 

In her BSSP application, Cynthia expressed her excitement about the program, noting that the opportunity would allow her to “work with advanced technology and be surrounded by people with such great intelligence is thrilling. I value a collaborative atmosphere and a robust community of peers.” She had the opportunity to experience this firsthand by working with the PRISM lab. The PRISM lab performs rapid viability screening on a wide variety of drugs across more than 900 cancer cell lines to generate sensitivity profiles. This process involves producing drug-containing source plates using drug printer instruments. Cynthia and her partner compared the Tecan D300e and Hamilton Star drug printers, evaluating their performance by measuring cell viability with the Cell Titer Glo assay. Their results indicated some variability in cell viability between the two printers, suggesting that further analysis is needed to determine the source of this variation. Needless to say, Cynthia's goals for the summer were met. Thinking back on her experience, she says, "BSSP not only taught me how to collaborate effectively with peers in the scientific field but also helped me rediscover and embrace my identity as a scientist."