20.109(S18) Class blog

I was initially worried after reading the introduction of Mod 3. I didn't necessarily understand what was going on at first and I did not want to work with batteries as I thought this was not what I signed up for. However, as time went on and we continued to learn what was going on, this was a really fun module. I genuinely enjoyed working on the lab, seeing the TEM results, and constructing our batteries. To think we can use our skills as biological engineers to make batteries is quite interesting. Also, the fact that the paper is roughly 3 papers makes it so much easier to do. Our presentations were also really interesting and I really like all of the ideas that I've heard from my peers. It really taught me that we're not that far away from writing our own papers in the future and coming up with ideas for research projects. Overall, 20.109 has equipped me with the essentials to be a biological engineer but most importantly, how to communicate with others in our field.

The research proposal assignment start out as fairly intimidating.  Since 20.109 is my first introduction to biological engineering, I've appreciated being told exactly what to do.  To be tasked with crafting a research project that solves a biological problem, is original, and creative sounded like a lofty goal.  However, the more papers I read, the more I realized the real challenge was not having to come up with one idea, is was having too many ideas/options.  Even after Masrur and I had decided upon a pathway to target, there are so many diseases that the pathway is involved in that we then had to choose the most compelling disease to focus on.  Since we spent so much time deciding upon what exactly we were studying, we left little time for ourselves to define the research aim and detail the methods.  Overall, though, the project was really interesting and engaging.  I even found myself disappointed that the proposal wasn't real and that I wouldn't actually be able to o

Different from Module 1 and Module 2, Module 3 is less molecular biology focused and not directly related to medicine. At the beginning of Module 3, I thought that I would enjoy this module less as it seemed less relevant to my primary interest in medicine and cancer research. However, I was wrong. I truly enjoyed this module, from TEM to making batteries, from brainstorming research ideas to presenting our research proposal. It was my second time seeing TEM samples, but it was just as fascinating as the first time. The phage nanowires were intertwined with evenly distributed gold nanoparticles, and the gold atomic planes were so regular and amazingly beautiful. On the last day of Module 3, it was so exciting to see batteries being made, and to light up LEDs using batteries with the cathodes we made! The unimaginable beauty in the order, simplicity, and complexity of nature, from atoms to nanoparticles, from proteins to cells to organisms, is what drew me to biology in the

As I started writing this blog post I realized it is my last assignment for this class which made me really happy. 20.109 has been quite the journey. It is perhaps the most difficult class I've taken at MIT, but it is also perhaps the most rewarding. It takes up a lot of time and dedication. However, you become very invested in the work as a result. For example, this research proposal actually turned out to be quite a bit of fun. After the journal club presentation, I was feeling a little less confident in my presentation skills. My feelings could accurately be described by the following meme, However, getting to design a research idea with a partner was a lot of fun. We got to be very creative in our design and idea, and cycled through a bunch of other less feasible ideas before we came to the one that we ended up doing. Brainstorming was perhaps the best part. Another great aspect about it was that, by the time we finished 20.109, it actually feels like we have the skills t

Although there were some engineering aspects to Module 1 (identifying novel ligands with SMM) and Module 2, I didn't really feel like the things I was doing in our biological engineering lab was very different from what I usually do in a pure biology lab. However, in this module, I finally felt like I was doing what a bioengineer would do. We got to build a battery out of phage and we came up with a novel research proposal of our own. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw that the battery we made was able to power a small light bulb. I never imagined that phages can be used to create something as useful as a battery. Because of the novelty and uniqueness of this module, I really enjoyed all the experiments we did in lab and I felt that I have learned so much in lectures. On top of that, all the demonstrations that Professor Belcher did in class made this module even more interesting and fun.  As for the research proposal, at first I couldn't understand why people would

The presentation went well. I think it was super helpful to fake present to classmates and instructors. Getting feedback from people who didn't know very much about our topic was really important for overcoming the bias of information. That’s when you know more than your audience and because of this assume a certain level of literacy with your topic that your audience doesn’t necessarily have. We practiced a lot to different people and I think that paid off and turned a presentation that was initially inscrutable and complex to something that was logical and understandable.